UK Adoption

Adopting a Child in Britain

What do these people all have in common?

Journalists: Kate Adie and Helen Rollason
Sports champions: Jamie Baulch, Ashia Hansen, Greg Louganis, Kriss Akabusi, John and Justin Fashanu, and Fatima Whitbread
Actors: Melissa Gilbert, Ray Liotta, Marilyn Monroe, and John Nettles
TV personalities: Jim Bowen and Larry Grayson
Authors: Edward Albee, Jeanette Winterson, James Michener, and Edgar Allan Poe
Politicians: Bill Clinton, Li Peng and Phillip Whitehead MEP
Singers: Debbie Harry, Liz Phair, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Kiri Te Kanawa
Businessmen: Steven Jobs and Ivan Massow

Yes, they were all either adopted or fostered as children. Just a few of the literally millions of people, some famous, some just your next-door neighbours, who didn't grow up in the families they were born into.

There is hardly anyone in the country who hasn't been touched by adoption in one way or another: if not one of the 10% directly affected — as an adoptee, adopter, birth relative, partner or child of an adoptee — then as classmate, friend or work mate.

You are reading this guide because you're interested in adopting a child. This is a guide to how to adopt in Britain, written by an experienced adopter, from the adopter's point of view. Adoption is, even more than raising your biological children, an adventure. And like any adventure you need to read the guidebooks and prepare carefully beforehand. There are some badly marked crossroads; there are dangerous rapids in the river and hidden reefs waiting to shipwreck the unwary. But when you reach the end of the journey there is a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction (maybe relief, too, at having got there in one piece), which in some ways makes the view from the mountaintop even more beautiful than if you had travelled the more conventional route. This guide aims to help signpost the way and chart the waters, to give you some idea of the rewards of adoption and its pitfalls.

~ Roger Ridley Fenton

Continue: Adopting a Child in in Britain: Advice for Potential Adopters

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Adoption Information in the UK
Legal considerations, waiting children, agencies, aid societies and support in the UK.

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