|
Can Your Family be a Resource for a Special Baby?
Please complete our Client Pre-Application and
forward your Home Study to ASAP.
Fax number 212.360.0282
Or mail to:
ASAP
Spence-Chapin
410 East 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
The Adoption Resource Library contains recomended books and articles by adoption professionals, birth parents, adoptive parents
and adopted children, who share their unique insights.
|
|
Special Needs Adoption
It is a special kind of adoptive parent who embraces the unique
challenges of parenting a special
needs child.
Spence-Chapin seeks families who are interested in raising a baby with
special needs, and who have the desire and talent to help that child
flourish.
Since 1995, ASAP, Spence-Chapin’s domestic special needs program
has placed more than 300 infants in loving homes. These babies come
from diverse backgrounds and have a variety of issues ranging from
risk of developmental delays to serious medical conditions.
Spence-Chapin also places toddlers
and older children waiting for adoption through our international
programs.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently acknowledged this program's
efforts by honoring it with a 2011 Congressional Coalition on Adoption
Institute Angel
in Adoption™ Award.
|
Our Families
In Their Own Words
|
|
Meet Our Staff
|
|
|
As the day we were to meet our future daughter approached, we were admittedly nervous. What would it be like? What would we say? How should we act? Should we take the lead or just follow along? There is so much that races through your mind. So many emotions and so many thoughts. In the end, we decided to let the day “fall as it may.” Our birth mother… held the baby for a while as we talked. Our emotions were mixed. We were so very excited to meet our new daughter, yet we couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be the birth mother in this situation. As a couple, we had agreed before the meeting to let the birth mother make the offer for us to hold our future daughter. It was hard to be patient, and hard for us to know what to talk about. As two mothers, we hugged and cried. We each said “Thank you” to the other. What else can you say? We promised her that this would not be the end, but the beginning. We committed to spending time together, having visits, and even emailing. After that, we drove home. It was a very quiet car ride, and there was so much to think about and so much to process in our emotions and mind. The day of placement can look different for every family. We decided to make it a big celebration, so we invited all the caseworkers, the interim caregivers, the birthmother, any friends or relatives that the birth mother wanted to bring, and we brought our whole family. It was like a huge family reunion. We met cousins on the birth family side, we heard stories from everyone, and we took lots of pictures. As we got in our van to drive home, now plus one more, it was oddly over. There we drove with our new daughter. It was exciting and strange, but most of all it was peaceful. Peaceful to know that it was the right thing, a perfect day, and our family was building up one child at a time – perfectly.
As the day we were to meet our future daughter approached, we were admittedly nervous. What would it be like? What would we say? How should we act? Should we take the lead or just follow along? There is so much that races through your mind. So many emotions and so many thoughts. In the end, we decided to let the day “fall as it may.” Our birth mother… held the baby for a while as we talked. Our emotions were mixed. We were so very excited to meet our new daughter, yet we couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be the birth mother in this situation. As a couple, we had agreed before the meeting to let the birth mother make the offer for us to hold our future daughter. It was hard to be patient, and hard for us to know what to talk about. As two mothers, we hugged and cried. We each said “Thank you” to the other. What else can you say? We promised her that this would not be the end, but the beginning. We committed to spending time together, having visits, and even emailing. After that, we drove home. It was a very quiet car ride, and there was so much to think about and so much to process in our emotions and mind. The day of placement can look different for every family. We decided to make it a big celebration, so we invited all the caseworkers, the interim caregivers, the birthmother, any friends or relatives that the birth mother wanted to bring, and we brought our whole family. It was like a huge family reunion. We met cousins on the birth family side, we heard stories from everyone, and we took lots of pictures. As we got in our van to drive home, now plus one more, it was oddly over. There we drove with our new daughter. It was exciting and strange, but most of all it was peaceful. Peaceful to know that it was the right thing, a perfect day, and our family was building up one child at a time – perfectly. |
|
Merryl Klein
Adoption
Specialist
“Spence-Chapin is one of the few agencies in the country
placing significant numbers of domestic infants with special needs.
Families who come to our program wish to parent infants because the
early months can often be critical to a child’s development.
They are people who are child-oriented, who feel they can use their
creative energy to nurture and help a child with a disability become
all that he or she can be, and to ensure that their child knows they
are loved unconditionally.” |
|
|
|