Adoption information meeting Jan. 8 at Saint Anthony Medical Center

Online Staff Report

Children’s Home + Aid Society of Illinois will hold an adoption information meeting from 1 to 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 8, at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center, 5666 E. State St., Rockford.

Reservations can be made by calling (815) 962-1043 or 1-888-248-4335. Walk-ins are also welcome. Refreshments will be served.

Children’s Home + Aid Society of Illinois provides adoption home study services and post placement supervision and counseling as required by the Illinois Adoption Act for all types of adoption, including private/identified, agency domestic infant, international, and older child adoption.

Children’s Home + Aid assists with an average of 35 to 45 adoptive placements each year. Over the past 13 years, the agency has placed over 500 children, including over 100 international children, more than 200 infants, and close to 200 waiting children from the foster care system.

The process usually begins with becoming a licensed foster parent, although to do a private adoption, licensure comes after the child is in the adoptive family’s home. Other steps include background checks, physical exams, adoption parent training sessions, and interviews with an adoption worker. The adoption worker completes a written home study, similar to a written social history, approving the parents for adoption.

The agency also offers from 16 to 27 hours of very informative training regarding adoption issues, hearing professionals discuss sensory integration, attachment, legal and medical issues, and adoptive families telling their success stories of their adoptions. During the training classes, the adoptive parents become acquainted with other adoptive families in the same process, and often share in their adoption journey together.