LDSFS and Adoption

"I think the hardest part for me was just giving up control and deciding that I was going to be okay even if I didn't get what I wanted."

I loved reading and studying the chapter in our book about LDS Family Services and Adoption. I've always been really interested in LDSFS and am hoping to get an internship with them next year!

The video above really highlights the blessings that can come from adoption. It focuses on the adoptive family aspect of adoption, but I think it's incredibly important to remember that when a couple adopts, there is a woman who so graciously and selflessly chose to give up her child.

Regarding adoption, LDS church leaders have said, "When a man and woman conceive a child outside of marriage, every effort should be made to encourage them to marry. When the probability of a successful marriage is unlikely due to age or other circumstances, the unmarried parents should be counseled to work with LDS Family Services to place the child for adoption, providing an opportunity for the baby to be sealed to temple-worthy parents. Adoption is an unselfish, loving decision that blesses both the birth parents and the child in this life and in eternity." (p.163)

Birth Parents

The decision to give up a child is most certainly not an easy one. This video shows just a few of the emotions that a birth mother or birth parent might go through while struggling with and deciding to go forward with adoption. When a birth mother decides to give her child up for adoption, that does not automatically free them from feeling and dealing with hard emotions. Kenneth Matheson, the author of chapter fifteen in Successful Marriages and Families says, "LDSFS has the philosophy that, although the lives of both the birth parents and the child may ultimately be better because of adoption, the birth parents' mixed emotions are natural and need to be expressed and understood rather than dismissed." (p.164) Earlier, Brother Matheson suggests that birth mothers still feel a natural anxiousness about doing the best thing for their child. Worrying about the adoptive family and the life that the child may have is a common part of the process of adoption.

Adoptive Parents

"One study reported that there are about two million couples in the United States waiting to adopt a child." (p.165)

The choice to adopt is one that should be made between the couple and the Lord. Adopting is an incredible blessing to couples who are unable to naturally conceive, or who feel a prompting or desire to add to their family through adoption. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. Now, love them, take care of them... Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones... Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts."

Adding to this, Brother Matheson said, "We are asked by Heavenly Father to be stewards over the children who come to us. In this light and by the power of temple ordinances, adopted children sealed to their parents in the temple are their children as much as if they had conceived them." (p. 165)

I strongly believe that adoption is another means through which our Father in Heaven may want some children to become a part of a family. As couples prayerfully consider adoption for their families, LDSFS can be an incredibly valuable source of support and information.

For additional reading and information on LDSFS, go here.