Matching and Placement

Once you are an approved applicant, we ask you to submit a "birth parent letter" and a cheque to cover the costs of birth parent counselling provided by ABC and additional preadoption counseling and support for you while you wait.

Every approved applicant at ABC supports all birth parent counselling at the agency.  We are a counselling agency and want to provide counselling services to all who come to us in order to assist them in making plans for their unintended pregnancy.

Preadoption counseling and support for you takes a wide range of forms and can include phone calls, office visits, evening workshops and get togethers, our lending library, newsletters and support groups.
We ask that you let us know if you are pregnant or if you have been placed with a child through other means, as you will be required to withdraw from ABC.  As well if you move from the Province of Alberta while you are on the active list then you must also withdraw as you must be a resident of Alberta to remain approved and active with Adoption By Choice.  If you withdraw or transfer from Adoption By Choice, there will be no refund of money to you.

While on our active list your file becomes available for birth parents to consider in making an adoption plan.  Letters and photographs are shown to birth parents, and it is usually from these that the birth parents go on to receive more non-identifying information to help them decide.  You will be notified when your file has been selected and you can make a choice regarding the placement.  Most times you will have the opportunity to meet the birth parents or perhaps correspond with them.   Again, the degree of direct contact depends on you and the birth parents.

We ask families to wait 8 months after an initial placement with Adoption By Choice before applying for a subsequent placement.  The regulations prevent us from placing another child in your care in less than 12 months from an initial placement - unless the children are related.