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Adoption is when "birth parents" give up a child for another family to raise--whether through an agency or simply to someone they know.
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About one out of 10 Americans is an adoptee, adoptive parent or birth parent.
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Most adoptions today are "open" or "semi-open," which means that birth parents and adoptive parents share personal information with each other, either directly or through an agency. Anonymous or "closed" adoptions have become increasingly rare.
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Some women find themselves thinking about giving up a child for adoption when they get pregnant and don't feel prepared to raise one themselves.
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The first step for someone in that position--if she doesn't already know someone who wants to adopt the child--is to contact a state agency and talk to a lawyer about filing the necessary papers. And the baby's biological father has to sign consent forms.
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Sometimes it's not until adoptees hit their teen years that they "find out." Learning that your parents aren't your birth parents after all can be confusing and even upsetting.
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Adoption has been around for a long time. It's mentioned in the Bible, and was not uncommon among the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Babylonians.
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