About Crossroads

Crossroads employs a client-centered, educative approach to adoption, based on the concept that adoption should be a growth-oriented, healthy, fun, and creative process. It assumes a solid marriage and/or good personal adjustment, a readiness to parent, and adequate resources and love to meet the needs of a specific child or children. The primary objective of the Adoption Counselor is to help clients develop an adoption plan which is a mutually agreed upon, realistic description of their personalities, resources and hopes in adoption. Crossroads has no specific requirements such as religion, marital status, length of marriage, number of children, age, or physical status. Adoption planning focuses on the future rather than the past. Our goal is planning with clients, rather than making decisions for them. The role of the Adoption Counselor is to support clients, raise appropriate questions for them to consider, share information and perceptions, to serve as custodian of data supplied by the client, and to complete the writing of the adoption plan--all in an atmosphere of openness and equality.

Crossroads works with families in completing an adoption plan, seeking and identifying a child, placement of the child, providing assistance and support in the adjustment process, and assisting with legal finalization of the adoption. In addition to contact with their Adoption Counselor, families are encouraged to make use of Crossroads educational opportunities. Families will be linked with support groups and may request to be linked with a support family.

Crossroads' Families

The adoption agency Crossroads Adoption Services is directly accredited and/or recognized by the governments of China, Colombia, India, Nepal, Philippines, Ukraine and Vietnam.

What does this mean to you? An agency directly accredited by the country you wish to adopt your child from means that it saves the cost and time in working with another international agency. For instance, when Crossroads assists a family living in another state with an adoption from one of our sources, we charge that family a fee. When Crossroads families utilize the international program of another agency, they would pay a similar fee. These fees are in addition to the fees charged by the agency preparing the home study.

The above countries have agreed that we can work with any of the child agencies in their country without using another U.S. agency. Countries which have an accreditation process usually have a central government authority which approves each child to be placed and the agency with whom the child is placed. In this case, Crossroads would be an agency which is recognized as a valid agency with whom to work. Crossroads can, as can other accredited agencies, sponsor families from other agencies in the US and sometimes the world, thereby allowing those families to be a resource for children. One of the reasons countries are accrediting agencies with whom they work is to assure themselves that the children will have an immediate and future resource for assistance. Most governments require post-placement reports and the accredited agency is responsible for this in order to maintain their accredited status. Also, governments realize that not all placements go smoothly and they want to be assured that the children they have placed are supervised according to their wishes.

THE CHILDREN
Listings of children in need of families within the United States are found by accessing that states web site of waiting children. In some states, families can be registered with state exchanges in order to be considered for a specific type of child. In general, U.S. children placed through Crossroads are primarily minority race African-American and biracial infants. Internationally, Crossroads places children of all ages from many different countries. Requirements, costs, procedures and the type of child available vary from country to country. Children of all ages, without special needs, are available through some resources. Only children with some special needs are available through others. Matching your family's interests and resources with available children in the United States or another country is an integral part of adoption planning with your Adoption Counselor.

Since our inception, Crossroads has served more than 2900 families and has placed more than 3400 children. Approximately 25% are U.S. children and the rest are from other countries. Nearly 20% of all the children placed were identified as being older, part of a sibling group, or having special needs. Approximately 15% of all our clients have been single.

The Board and staff at Crossroads believe wholeheartedly that adoption is a valid method of family building. Crossroads continues to work with each parent and child as an individual with unique potential and needs and to accord each of them dignified caring assistance.