Not every expected placement turns into an adoption. Expecting mothers choose to parent. Countries shut down their adoption programs. Foster children are returned to their birth families for one more chance. If your expected placement falls through, how will you handle the loss?

Failed adoptions happen more frequently than you might expect. I know numerous people who have had to grieve the loss of a failed adoption from all types of adoption situations.

Most of the people I know who... more

A sad reality of adoption is that some hopeful adoptive parents experience failed adoptions. Failed adoptions can happen in a number of ways, including —

Child’s country halts international adoptions Legal red tape halts a foster adoption Placing mother chooses to parent her baby

Failed adoptions can be devastating to a hopeful adoptive couple. Even though the hopeful adoptive parents know that they have no legal right to parent the child, the child has grown in... more