Free and Confidential Options Counseling

Adoption means wanting the best possible family for your baby to grow up with.  You choose the parents that you feel would be the best fit for you and your child.

No. Through adoption, you offer the baby not only life, but the chance for a better future. You also have to decide what is best for you. Your goals, such as school or career pursuits, are important ways of taking care of yourself.  You are not being selfish, but rather ensuring that you can make it financially and emotionally on your own.  You are taking responsibility for your own future.

Looking at two things realistically will help you make your decision:

• Do you have the financial resources to care for a child at this time in your life?
• Is a baby in your future but not in your present due to your goals?

Yes, once you have made the decision to place your baby for adoption and you have signed the Permanent and Irrevocable Surrender forms giving legal custody to Hopeful Beginnings, it is a final decision that cannot be changed. It is extremely important that you consider all of your options before making the decision to place your child for adoption.

No. However, if you are under the age of 18, we strongly encourage you to talk with your parents about your decision. Facing unplanned pregnancy is difficult and we want you to have all the support you need during this time.

Hopeful Beginnings will assist you with reasonable pregnancy-related expenses, including medical care, should you need help.

By law, biological fathers have the same rights as birth mothers. When possible, it is important that the birth father be involved in making an adoption plan for the child. Hopeful Beginnings encourages both parties to receive the adoption counseling needed to make the right decision for your child.

Yes. At Hopeful Beginnings you can choose to have an “open” adoption, meaning that you and the adoptive family have ongoing contact after the baby is born. The level of openness is up to you and with what you are most comfortable. Hopeful Beginnings believes that “adoption is a relationship,” and we are advocates not only of ongoing contact, but also the perspective that a birth mother never relinquishes her position or connection to her child. Some of our adoptive families permanently welcome their child’s birth mother into their own extended families.

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