Barker Foundation - Getting Ready to Adopt A Child

In this section:

HEADQUARTERS

The Barker Foundation
7979 Old Georgetown Road
First Floor
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-664-9664

1-800-673-8489

__________

SATELLITE OFFICES

2957 Monticello Drive
Falls Church, VA 22042
703-536-1827

1066 - 30th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20007
202-298-7724

Getting Ready

A successful adoption begins with thorough preparation. Through our pre-adoption groups and through the home study we equip you to make informed decisions about your options and to anticipate issues that regularly come up for adoptive parents and children.

Information Meetings

We encourage you to attend our Information Meetings. Each session provides an overview of the adoption experience. While descriptions of Barker programs are a regular feature, those who attend these meetings most enjoy hearing from new parents and seeing the children who have joined their families. These new parents share the personal stories of their journey, including their anxieties about the adoption process. Families who traveled overseas to meet their child describe the trip. Please see the events calendar for the date and location of the next information meeting or contact us.

Pre-Adoption Discussion Groups

These small discussion groups introduce prospective adoptive parents both to the immediate questions and to the lifelong issues that are part of adoption for children, adoptive parents and birth parents. Should I consider an international or a domestic adoption? What are the risks we should be aware of? How do children feel about being adopted?

Group discussions, tapes and readings can help you expand your understanding of adoption in a setting that encourages reflection. Here's a sampling of what past participants say about the discussion groups:

	"The group was a sounding board for me to think through my hopes and fears about parenting and adoption."
	"We were so focused on having a family that we really hadn't thought about the issues that adoption would pose for a child. The group was helpful for that."
	"I really had to think through what adopting a child of a different race might mean for me and for the child."
	"Our group developed into an informal support network- which was important for us as we went through the process, and now that we're parents."
	"By the end of the groups we decided that adoption was not for us. It was sad, but it was good to have it clear."
	"It was helpful for us to talk with other people who know the pain of infertility, and who are facing similar decisions."
	"I liked taking the first step without having to make a commitment."

Please contact us for more information about the pre-adoption groups.

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Do you live outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area?

See our Program Overview and guidelines for those prospective adoptive parents who live outside of our traditional service area.