What is a Drop-In?
Honestly, it is one of the most awesome things ever! Technically, a drop-in (aka a stork drop) situation occurs when a baby is born, but the birth parents do not yet have an adoption plan, but they wish to place their child for adoption.
At the hospital, the birth parents will contact an agency or attorney seeking assistance. Then, their chosen adoption entity will act quickly, contacting their sources expressing the desires and preferences of the birth parents. When a birth mother reads profiles, it seems that sometimes she just knows as soon as she sees the family and other times, time is required. This is certainly understandable. However, when a baby is already here and the birth mom is determined to place the child, they often want a family selected quickly so that the baby can be with his or her forever family and bonding can begin.
Situations such as this happen more than you probably think and it is very exciting, yet stressful time for consultants and families hoping to adopt the new arrival. We often receive an email marked ‘urgent’ typically accompanied by a phone call and/or text. The situation is explained, birth family preferences are outlined, and time is of the essence.
Recently, we had the privilege of helping one of our family’s match with a drop-in situation. It was a Saturday morning when we received an email and text about a new baby born the day before (this seems like a good time to again emphasize that we do not have business hours.). The birth parents chose adoption, however they did not want to choose the adoptive family. Instead, they entrusted the attorney for this task. We immediately contacted one of our clients- this couple had meet the criteria of what the birth parents were looking for in an adoptive family and they were also waiting the longest time to complete their family. They were of course on board (no convincing necessary!) and excited about the idea of getting a new baby, being able to complete their family and the best part, to me anyway, it could very easily happen that very day!
At this point, it became a race against time to complete all paperwork that the attorney required as well as send necessary documents – home study, profile, etc. It is important to understand that everyone else that the attorney had contacted were doing the very same thing that we were so words like fast, quick, efficient are all important here! Once all requirements were submitted, we could then do nothing but wait. This waiting was more intense than usual, but the positive is that we knew the decision would be announced that day. The best thing to do was to keep busy and stay by the phone! It is always moments like this that I find that my house is the cleanest and my to-do-list shortens quickly. Apparently, ridiculous anxiety equals amazing efficiency!
Hours later, finally, at the end of the day, our clients were officially notified that they were now the parents of a beautiful baby GIRL. What an amazing feeling- you wake up on a “normal” Saturday morning and by the end of a routine Saturday, stuff is complete – clean house, groceries, laundry, etc. -and surprise, your family instantly grew by 2 feet and just like that, your family is now complete.
And that is a drop-in situation 😊