Prospective adoptive parents

MCFD adoption social workers explain the ABCs of matching families and children.

One of the most fascinating and enlightening aspects of international adoption is the chance to see and experience the world where your child was born, and to show them a new world. In this story of international adoption, a family brings a new child and a new culture to their family and to Canada.

The men in these three families know first-hand the joy and sorrow of infertility and adoption.

All too often, when faced with infertility, the focus is placed on the woman or the couple. Seldom is the man’s individual perspective taken into account, but in one family, where three couples in two generations have faced infertility, there are three male points of view.

Many children in foster care exhibit parentified behaviours, making it difficult for them and their new parents to negotiate healthy parent-child relationships. We spoke with Anne Melcombe, BSW, an adoption social worker and child specific recruiter here at AFABC, about parenting the parentified child. Anne was a Level 2 foster parent for more than two decades and is a single adoptive mom of three. She is passionate about the need for children and youth to have permanent family connections.

A BC film explores the bravery, determination, and humour it takes to rise above the legal systems, societal prejudices, and personal fears inherent in starting a family through adoption.

Nelson, BC-based filmmaker Amy Bohigian’s documentary film, Conceiving Family, follows her and partner Jane Byers’ journey to becoming a family, and combines personal interviews, intimate footage and family photos of four other same-sex couples to tell the collective story of what it takes build a family through adoption and through love.

MarieChan opened her heart in Kazakhstan and the result is a story of longing, love, and family. Here, a husband and wife decide that it's not too late to build their family and begin a journey that takes them half way around the world to meet their children.

I am 41 and my husband Rod is 55. We were unable to naturally conceive a child and had finally accepted that reality. We were preparing to simply enjoy our independence as a couple and travel to exotic places. We comforted ourselves that our two dogs and a cat were our surrogate children. Life was good, right?

Cathy Gilbert has been through the MCFD proposal process dozens of times (she’s adopted 11 children). Here, she shares what she’s learned.

Accepting a proposal is one of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make—it needs to an informed one.

Once parents, or a social worker have seen a potential child and parent match, information is given to the prospective parents in order for them to decide whether to move ahead. At this stage, basic, non-identifying information is given which may include:

BC’s CHOICES Adoption Agency and the Victoria Fertility Centre have teamed up to provide an embryo donation service.

What this means is that people who have gone through infertility treatment and have spare embryos they don’t intend to use, and don’t want destroyed, can donate an embryo to another person. The embryos are frozen, which can affect the success rates of such procedures.

Social worker Anne Melcombe is a big believer in teen adoption. Why? Because she knows that teens want families and that there are families who want to adopt teens. In this article, we meet some of those parents and the kids they will adopt.

Anne Melcombe once asked a group of former foster kids if they would have liked to have been adopted. One man, 23 years old, 280 lbs, and covered in tattoos, held up his hand and said, “You bet your ass I would have liked a family. I still would!”