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Home > Intercountry Adoption > Intercountry Adoption-STEP 8 Begin Your Life as a New Family
Intercountry Adoption : Where Do I Start?
STEP 8: Begin Your Life as a New Family What You Should Know Adjusting to a new family and culture may be challenging for your child. Children who have spent most of their early lives in an institution must adjust to living in a family. Receiving one-on-one attention, sleeping alone, and owning things may be completely new experiences. Children often have trouble with new eating and sleeping schedules. Older children also may struggle with language and school issues and may need more time to adjust. Soon after your child arrives in the United States, take him or her for a thorough checkup with a doctor who has experience in intercountry adoption. The University of Minnesota International Adoption Clinic provides a list of recommended screening tests. Your family also must adjust to your new status as a transcultural and possibly transracial family. Parents who have not joined an adoptive parent support group may wish to do so to share the joys of parenting, learn from each other's experiences, and help each other through challenges. Adoptive parents also need to be aware of the impact that the adoption of a child from a different country may have on other children in the family. During this transition and throughout your lives as an adoptive family, adoption agency staff can be a valuable source of support. Some adoption agencies provide services for adoptive families, from about 6 months to several years after placement, to make sure your child is adjusting well. During this time, adoptive parents can also locate resources and referrals for additional services they need. It is normal for adopted individuals and their families to need support beyond this initial transition period. See Information Gateway's factsheet on postadoption services for more information about adoption services and their benefits. Some Places to Go The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide information on follow-up medical exams for children adopted internationally. Adoptive Families magazine provides additional information on postadoption checkups (PDF - 72 KB). There are many resources to help parents strengthen a transracial or transcultural family. See the Information for Transracial/Transcultural Families section of the Information Gateway website. Rainbowkids.com: The International Adoption Publication is an online resource designed to educate and support families built through intercountry adoption.
This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway. |
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