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Adoptee: An individual who is adopted.
Adoption Triad: Refers to those parties directly involved in an adoption plan. The triad includes: birth parents, adoptive parents, and the adoptee. Adoption Worker:Your assigned counselor who will complete your homestudy and facilitate your adoption. Attachment/Bonding: Attachment is the connection between children and their primary caregiver. Bonding is the connection a child has with his/her biological mother, which is present at birth. Birth family: Biological family of the adoptee. Birth parent: Refers to a biological parent, either mother or father. Entitlement: The process whereby adoptive parents give themselves permission to parent their adopted son or daughter. Entitlement is not always automatic, and may not occur for days or weeks after placement. Finalization: The legal process which transfers custody of the child from the agency to the adoptive parents. This process is facilitated by an attorney and cannot occur until the adoptive parents have had the child in their home for at least six months. Grief and Loss: The act of losing a valued relationship. Grief is the emotional process involved in loss or the realization of the loss. Homestudy: A process in which your adoption worker will visit your family. A number of visits are completed, which vary from agency to agency, which covers your family background, marriage, values, traditions, parenting philosophy, and understanding of the adoption process. Natural/Real Parent: A term commonly used to refer to a child’s biological parents, generally used by those not familiar with positive adoption language. Openness: The lifelong relationship between the adoptive family and birth family that involves trust, honesty, and open communication. Placement: Also known as entrustment, placement is the transfer of physical custody of the child from the birth parents to the adoptive family. Adoptive placement generally occurs after relinquishments have been signed. Relinquishment: The process in which biological parents sign the legal documents terminating their parental rights to their child. Reunion: The facilitation of contact between an adoptee and his/her biological family through the search process. Search: The process of seeking out a relationship with a person whose identity and or whereabouts is unknown to you, but to whom you are related through birth or adoption. Give up: A term commonly used in society when referring to the action of a person who placed a child for adoption. Adoption professionals and birthparents prefer the following: Made an adoption plan, placed a child for adoption,or released a child for adoption. |