What To Expect During an Interview with the Adoptive Parents

Matching the child is just one service an adoption agency offers. During the matching process, if you wish, you are able to identify the adoptive family for your child. This can cause much anxiety not only for the birth mother or birth parent, but for the potential adoptive families as well. Adoptive Parents want you to like them just as much as you want them to like your family.

There are two types of Birth Parent interviews, one being phone and the other being face-to-face with the potential adoptive parents. While the interview is in process, the counselor from our adoption agency will direct the questioning. The same questions are asked to every adoptive family that is being interviewed. As the birth parents, you should have a good idea of who each of the families are based on the adoption profiles that you received and the letter that they wrote to you. The interview is a chance for the individual personalities of each member of the adoptive family to shine. Interviews that are conducted on the phone can last from ten to twenty minutes depending the course of the conversation. The potential adoptive families will not be asking you many questions other than ones that are considered “get to know you” questions.

In person adoption interviews have a totaly different feel than the phone interviews. Most often the interviews between the adoptive parents,birth parents and adoption agency happen in a neutral location, such as a restaurant. The adoptive family is expected to pay for any food eaten during the interview for themselves, the counselor and birth mother or birth parents. As in a phone interview, our adoption agency counselor will direct the questioning to both parties. A Child's Waiting counselor will ask questions on your behalf or you can ask them yourself. The interview will last anywhere from twenty minutes to forty-five minutes depending on conversation flow.

After an interview, some birth parents or the birth mother may know right away which adoptive family they feel is best for placement. Sometimes an additional meeting will be needed in order to make a decision. Matching is the most important aspect of a successful baby/child adoption and it may take time to find the right adoptive family for your child.