Our Open Adoption Program facilitates child-centered open adoptions, in which the child’s important connection with his/her birth family is acknowledged and honored. Open Arms offers a personal approach, as we believe the adoption journey should be one filled with education, choices, compassion and integrity. We offer guidance, and most importantly, personalized attention, to support you through this incredible experience. We understand the complex issues surrounding adoption and are dedicated to providing exemplary, compassionate, lifelong services to adoptive and birth families and most importantly, to your children.

Open Arms Adoption Network thrives on client interaction and participation. We offer pre-adoption counseling, information meetings, as well as adoption education workshops, support groups, mentor programs and fun-filled picnics. Once you decide to work with our agency, an Open Arms adoption coordinator will be assigned specifically to your family. Your adoption coordinator will answer all of your questions and guide you through the application and home study process. Our staff will welcome you into our adoption community, and will ensure that you are not only receiving our formal adoption education, but the informal real-life education that can only be gleaned from meeting other families who have walked where you walk now.

Every family seeking to adopt must have a homestudy completed in compliance with state regulations. Your adoption coordinator will complete in-home interviews with your family, as well as prepare all necessary paperwork to complete the homestudy process. You will be guided through the creation of your family profile, which is a booklet that shares information about your family with expectant parents considering adoption for their baby. After you adopt, Open Arms will guide you through the legal process to finalize your adoption. We will provide post-placement services to your family as well, where we will assist you with helpful resources or referrals and support you in your ongoing connection with your child’s birth family.

A homestudy is the legal report written by a licensed social worker that compiles information from your application, background checks, and three in-home interviews. The homestudy serves as the agency’s evaluation and recommendation for your family to adopt. Open Arms is an adoption agency licensed to facilitate homestudies in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware.

An Open Arms adoption counselor begins meeting with an expectant parent considering adoption when they contact our agency. We offer free, compassionate, non-biased counseling and assistance for those considering their pregnancy/parenting options. If adoption is the path chosen, our counselors offer comprehensive educational and emotional support. Open Arms counselors support birth parents through the hospital and relinquishment processes, as well as offer counseling for as long as the birth parent desires.

Open Arms is committed to facilitating child-centered open adoption, in which lifelong connections are maintained between birth and adoptive families. For some birth family and adoptive family matches, a true connection begins the moment they meet. Birth families and adoptive families enjoy a wide range of openness, including visits and an ongoing exchange of letters and photos. Open Arms will be pleased to support you in maintaining a healthy connection to your child’s birth family over the years through personal consultation and the offering of educational workshops and fun events where all are invited. This allows your child an opportunity to be enriched by this most important connection.

Expectant parents may find out about Open Arms through their own research or they may be referred to our program by health and social service professionals in the community in which they live. Open Arms has a vital outreach and education training program where professionals are educated about the option of adoption so that they are prepared to speak with their patients or clients who are exploring their pregnancy or parenting options. We often become the trusted referral source for these professionals.

Open Arms’ fees are based on a sliding scale determined by your family’s income. Fees cover services rendered, and are thus due as you move forward through the different stages of your adoption process.

As soon as your homestudy report and Adoptive Family Profile are completed your family will be shown to potential birthparents. The exact timeline of when you will become a parent is not known.  A birthparent looking for a family just like yours, may seek the services of Open Arms shortly after you join our program or it may take longer.  However, we do expect that most families will adopt within 2 years after completing the Adoptive Family Profile and home study.

Please contact Open Arms to attend an information meeting where you will learn more about our philosophy, the typical process and have the opportunity to ask any questions that you may have. We greatly look forward to welcoming you into our Open Arms Community.