A changing landscape for infant adoption
Pausing new infant adoption applications
In response to the declining number of infants available for adoption, many Bethany locations have temporarily paused intake of new applications. Across the country, for each of the roughly 18,000 infants placed for adoption each year, there are dozens of individuals and couples already waiting. On average, adoptive families will wait more than two years to adopt a baby.
In nearly every case, expectant parents who choose adoption select the family they want to parent their child. This means wait times will vary greatly with no guarantee of an approved adoptive family being selected.
Pausing new applications will allow Bethany adoption specialists to assist some of our longest-waiting families while ensuring expectant parents have many options to consider when making this life-changing decision.
What this means for expectant parents
As a family-centered organization, Bethany is committed to investing in services that safely keep families together.
Women have more options
For more than 75 years, Bethany’s infant adoption services have been a life-affirming option for women who weren’t in a position to parent their children. Women today have more options when they face an unexpected pregnancy, including more resources and services to help them parent their children if that’s their desire.
Bethany launched ReNew
Many vulnerable women who love their children lack resources, skills, and support to parent on their own. We believe every mother deserves the opportunity to parent her child. That’s why Bethany has launched ReNew, a program designed to help expectant mothers in recovery become the healthy, stable parents they want to be for their children.
Every child deserves a family
Often just a little extra help can lead to stability, making the difference between an expectant mom choosing to parent or making an adoption plan. When children stay with their families, even imperfect families, they experience less trauma and disruption. And every child deserves that.
You can still adopt
Across the U.S., many children still need an adoptive family. Right now, more than 122,000 children are waiting for an adoptive family like yours. These children are in foster care, unable to safely return home to their biological families.
Most are between the ages of 8-18 and may be part of a sibling group that needs to stay together. Many of these children have been waiting three years or more for a family of their own.
Adoption through foster care may not be the path to parenthood you imagined, but family changes everything for a child when they can stop moving between temporary homes and have a permanent home where they belong.
More ways you can help a child
There are many ways you can open your home to love and support a child today
Safe Families for Children
When parents are going through a crisis, you can support that family and sometimes even temporarily host their children in your home, allowing the parents to take essential steps toward stability.
Foster care
When you become a foster parent, you give a child and their family the stability and support they need as parents work toward reunification.
Long-term refugee and immigrant foster care
Refugees resettling in the U.S. have experienced a difficult journey. When you become a foster parent, you'll help a refugee child feel safe, loved, and connected as they navigate life in a new place.
Short-term immigrant foster care
Thousands of unaccompanied migrant children need a safe, loving home until they can be reunited with family. We urgently need foster parents to help.
Volunteer
It’s not about how much time you put in, but the impact you can make with your skills and passions. Explore our volunteer opportunities and contact your local branch to find the best fit for you.
Your giving changes lives
Your gift will strengthen and unite families, so children can thrive. No matter the amount, your gift makes an ongoing, long-term impact.
