Adopting
The path to adopting a foster child or youth starts with becoming an approved resource family. Adoptive parents follow the same steps as adults who choose to offer temporary care for foster children, then follow some additional steps:
- When the child or youth is ready, the adoption specialist guides the resource family through the process of an adoptive placement.
- Our team of adoption experts will provide supervision, services and support to help the family and child adjust to the new living situation.
- Final legal adoption is completed through court proceedings, which are also a time of celebration for the newly formed family.
Resources
Adoption Support Services
Once you’ve adopted, you become part of TLC’s forever family too. TLC has a clubhouse for you and your kids to come and take classes, learn about training and support services, get referrals and have experts and friends to talk with — to help you get through rough patches and celebrate the good times!
Family Support Services
Our Parent Support & Education Group meets every 3rd Thursday of the month, from 6:30 – 8:00pm. If you’re looking for a place to share, learn and come together with other adoptive parents, please join other Sonoma County adoptive families for this supportive and informative group.
A concurrent Children’s Social Group is also offered during the parent support group. Children come together to play and share and experience the opportunity to be with other adopted children. This group is currently on hold due to the Covid restrictions.
Whether you come to listen, talk, ask questions, reflect or connect, this is a time for you. We welcome you to attend one, several, or all of the groups. This group is meeting via Zoom during the current shelter in place.
TLC Family Nights are held on the fourth Friday of each month. All TLC families are invited to dinner and are then welcome to take part in either a support group or an educational workshop. Play care is available for the children. Support Groups and Trainings are being held via Zoom during the current shelter in place.
Trainings for Parents and Professionals
Our trainings are led by highly skilled professionals who are experts in loss and attachment issues in adoption, the impacts of early trauma, child development, neuropsychology and more. Currently, we are connecting clients with a variety of online trainings and webinars while sheltering in place.
Information and referrals to community resources, therapists and educational consultants
Navigating the appropriate, available support services can be a difficult and overwhelming experience. We help families formed by adoption find, explore and choose information and services to address their needs. Furthermore, TLC maintains an ongoing, vetted list of adoption competent therapists, evaluators and educational consultants.
Parent consultations and advocacy
Parent Consultations include individual parent sessions with a Social Worker in a variety of settings: telephone calls, Zoom meetings and in office meetings when deemed safe. These sessions provide adoptive parents with hands-on, practical tools for parenting challenges; alternative perspectives around family situations and dynamics and/or helping parents achieve specific parenting goals. Parent Consultations can also include advocacy in the area of education such as supporting a child’s IEP (Individualized Education Program) and/or ensuring that a child receives specific services.
Adoption Lifebook Group
An adoption Lifebook is a handmade or digital scrapbook that narrates and illustrates a child’s unique life story from birth through adoption. Lifebooks can be a powerful tool for adoptive families to foster healing, acceptance and attachment. They serve to help children maintain connections with their past and promote a positive sense of personal identity and history. We offer 10-session Lifebook workshops facilitated by an adoptive parent trained in this creative process.
Community events and outings
Events and outings such as picnics and bowling parties provide popular and appreciated opportunities for families formed by adoption to get to know one another in casual, interactive and non-therapeutic settings. It’s our goal to help build and support community between adoptive families.
For information or to register for Adoption Support Services programs, please contact Robin Ratner at (707) 634-9064 or rratner@tlc4kids.org
Join Us
Once you’ve adopted, you become part of TLC’s forever family too. TLC is proud to offer support groups, meetings and trainings designed specifically to support our adoptive parents and their families.
Reach out and drop by! We are here to help you and your adopted family thrive.