Adoption: The official transfer through the court system of all of the parental rights that a biological parent has to a child, along with an assumption by the adopting parent of all of the parental rights of the biological parents that are being terminated and are assumed in their entirety by the adoptive parents, including the responsibility for the care and supervision of the child, its nurturing and training, it physical and emotional health, and its financial support.

Abandonment: When used in the context of adoption, this term refers to the most common involuntary reason that the parental rights of an absent parent can be terminated by a court. Although the laws of each state will define this term differently for residents of that state, these definitions almost unanimously include some combination of an unjustified failure to provide adequately for the financial support for the child and an unjustified failure to maintain, or attempt to maintain, contact or a parental relationship with the child for a certain period of time. The required time period and the precise definition of this term can vary significantly from state to state, but generally, the continuous period that is required for a legal abandonment is somewhere between 6 months and one year.

Adoptee: Although this term refers to a person who has been adopted, there are many adopted individuals who do not like to be referred to in this way, because they consider themselves to be every bit as much a full member of their adopted family as any other natural child would be, and therefore consider themselves to be just a regular "child," rather than an "adoptee" or an "adopted child."

Adoption Agencies: An organization that is licensed in the state or states where it transacts its business, which is to assist in placing children needing parents with adoptive parents that are looking for children. Agencies exist in a wide variety of organizational forms, including non-profit, not-for-profit, for-profit, and governmental agency. Although the legal impact of the organizational or business structure of an adoption agency may be different, the services that they are licensed to provide are generally very similar.

Adoption Certificate: This is sometimes referred to as a Certificate of Adoption, and is the official document that is signed by the Judge at the time of the finalization of the adoption, which triggers a new birth certificate to be issued for the adopted child by the Department of Vital Records, showing the adoptive parents as though they were the original biological parents of the child, so that this new birth certificate can be inserted in the public records in place of original birth certificate.

Decree of Adoption: The document that a judge signs to finalize an adoption. It formally creates the parent-child relationship between the adoptive parents and the adopted child, as though the child were born as the biological child of its new parents. It places full responsibility for the child on its new parents and changes the name of the child to the name selected by its new parents, and orders a new birth certificate to be prepared and issued for the child. If the parental rights of the biological parents of the child are being terminated by way of their voluntary consents as part of the adoption action, the Decree will also formally terminate those parental rights.

Disruption: This term generally refers to an adoption that for some reason has not become final, even though the adoptive parents were identified as the parents to adopt the child and the child may have even been placed in their home for a period of time. This term is also used on occasion to refer to any failed adoption attempt.

Dissolution: A reversal or voiding of an adoption after its legal finalization. This can occur for a variety of reasons, the most common of which are: 1) That there was not a good match of the needs of the child with the talents and capabilities of the adoptive family, and 2) That the circumstances of the child or the adoptive family have changed substantially since the finalization, which would make a continuation of the relationship impractical or impossible.

Petition to Adopt: This is the document that is filed with the court on your behalf to commence you adoption action. It states the legal basis on which you think you should be able to adopt this child, why the court has jurisdiction to grant the adoption, your qualifications to adopt this child and the name that you want to be given to your child when the requested adoption becomes final.

Adoption Plan: A formal Plan (usually in writing) that is created by one or both of the biological parents of a child who it is planned will be placed for adoption. The plan can be simple, or detailed and comprehensive.

Adoption Placement: This term is used to describe the point in time when your child comes to live with you in your home.

Adoption Triangle or Adoption Triad: A term used to describe the three-sided relationship that exists in an adoption between birth parents, adoptive parents and the adoptee, each of which is interrelated and inter-dependent on the others.

Adoptive Parents: Although this term is often used to refer to both parents that are seeking to adopt, and parents that already have adopted, it is probably more commonly used to describe parents that are seeking to adopt, although since many parents will adopt on more than one occasion, they could be both an adoptive parent who has already adopted, and an adoptive parent who is seeking to adopt.

Affidavit: A formal legal document containing written statements of legal significance that are being sworn to under oath by the author of the document, who is known as the "Affiant." The act of signing the Affidavit, and of swearing under oath that the statements it contains are true and correct to the best of the knowledge of the Affiant, is done in the presence of a Notary Public.

Agency Adoptions: Adoption placements that are made by state licensed adoption agencies that screen prospective adoptive parents and supervise the placement of children in adoptive homes until the adoption is finalized. Most agency adoptions will also include some form of counseling and/or support services for the adoptive parents and the birth parents that are involved in the placement. Many states mandate that the placement (adoption) of the child occur with a state-licensed adoption agency. A few states allow independent adoptions (those facilitated one hundred percent by the adoptive parents).

Amended Birth Certificate: A term used to refer to the new birth certificate that is issued for an adopted child after an adoption becomes final, which shows the new name of the adopted child and the adoptive parents as the parents of the child, as though they are its biological parents. This new birth certificate is placed in the public records in place of the child's original birth certificate. The original birth certificate is then stored in a separate secure location that is not accessible to the public, and may be viewed only by court order.

Apostille: A simplified and standardized form that is used for the purpose of providing a certification of certain public documents relating to adoption, including notarized documents, that is used in countries that are in compliance with the provisions of the Hague Convention. This simplified form contains standardized numbered fields of certain common and essential types of information, which allows the data to be understood by all participating countries regardless of the official language of the issuing country. The completed apostille form certifies the authenticity of the signature on the documents, the capacity in which the person signing the documents has acted, and identifies the seal and/or stamp that the document bears. Documents needed for inter-country adoptions require the attachment of an apostille, rather than authentication forms, if the foreign country is a participant in the Hague Convention.

Attachment: The formation by a child of significant and stable emotional connections with the significant people in its life. This process begins in early infancy as the child bonds with one or more primary caregivers. A failure by a child to establish these types of important connections before the age of about five years may result in the child experiencing difficulties with a wide variety of social relationships for significant periods of time in its life. Severe cases can fit within the definition of a more permanent condition known as "reactive attachment disorder."

Biracial Adoptions: A term used to refer to the adoption of children who have biological parents that are of different races.

Birth Father: The biological father of a child.

Birth Mother: The biological mother of a child.

Birth Parent: This is another term used to refer to the "biological parents" of a child, whether male or female, and regardless of whether the parents of the child are married to each other, or are shown as the parents of the child on its birth certificate.

Black Market Adoptions: This term refers to adoptions that do not conform to the established state and federal laws that regulate adoption, and which usually involve the payment of large sums of money to an adopted child's birth parents, an adoption attorney, an adoption facilitator, an adoption agency, or another intermediary, in order to avoid provisions of the law. In many cases, all participants in a black market adoption may be subject to criminal prosecution, as well as there being a possibility that the child will be taken away from the involved adoptive parents and placed for adoption with another set of adoptive parents.

Bonding: The process that a child goes through in developing lasting emotional ties with it's immediate caregivers, which is seen as the first and most significant developmental task of a human being, and is central to that person's ability to relate properly to others throughout its life.

Caseworker: Also sometimes referred to as "Adoption Worker" or "Adoption Caseworker" or "Social Worker." These are the individuals that prepare adoption home studies for prospective adoptive parents, assist prospective adoptive parents in obtaining their pre-adoption certification (where required), assist in provide post-placement supervision of adoptive families once they have received their child, and counsel with adoptive families to help them adapt the changes that they undergo in their lives as the result of adoption. Some state require caseworkers to be certified, and may require certain educational credentials. The wide variety of services that are provided by adoption caseworkers are essential elements in every successful adoption. State regulations of caseworkers vary.

Closed Adoptions: This is the most traditional type of adoption that is still used today, but is declining in popularity as the focus in the relationships between adoptive parents and birth parents is shifting from the lack of information and total confidentiality, to shared information and privacy. In these adoptions, the birth family and the adoptive family do not share any identifying information about themselves, and do not communicate with each other, either before or after the placement of the child. The adoptive family will, however, receive non-identifying health and other background information about the child and the birth family before the placement takes place. The birth parents may also receive non-identifying information about the adoptive parents. The adoption files will be sealed after the adoption, and typically are never made available to the adopted child. Now more commonly referred to as Confidential Adoptions.

Confidential Adoptions: A more modern and more positive term that is used to describe what has been traditionally called "closed adoptions."

Decree of Adoption: The document that a judge signs to finalize an adoption. It formally creates the parent-child relationship between the adoptive parents and the adopted child, as though the child were born as the biological child of its new parents. It places full responsibility for the child on its new parents and changes the name of the child to the name selected by its new parents, and orders a new birth certificate to be prepared and issued for the child. If the parental rights of the biological parents of the child are being terminated by way of their voluntary consents as part of the adoption action, the Decree will also formally terminate those parental rights.

Department of Vital Records: The government department in each state that issues and maintains the official birth certificates and death certificates of individuals that were born or died in that state. In some states this department also administers a putative father registry. This department will bear a different name in different state, but it can be easily located in the government section of your local phone books.

Disclosure: The release or transmittal of previously hidden, confidential or unknown information.

Disruption: This term generally refers to an adoption that for some reason has not become final, even though the adoptive parents were identified as the parents to adopt the child and the child may have even been placed in their home for a period of time. This term is also used on occasion to refer to any failed adoption attempt.

Domestic Adoption: An adoption that involves adoptive parents and a child that are citizens and residents of the United States.

Dossier: When used in the context of adoption, this term refers to a set of appropriately authenticated and translated legal documents which are used in international adoption cases to process the adoption of a child in its own country by the adoptive parents, or for the adoptive parents to obtain the legal custody or guardianship of the child in the foreign court, so the child can be brought by the adoptive parents to the United States for adoption.

Finalization: The point in time when the court grants the Petition to Adopt of the adoptive parents and takes the necessary action to formally make the child a legal member of their family.

Form I-600 and Form I-600A Visa Petitions: A set of forms used to officially request permission from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to classify a child in a foreign country, who fits the definition of an "orphan," as an immediate relative of its intended adoptive parents, so that there can be an expedited processing and issuance of a visa to that child, allowing it to be brought into the United States, either after having been adopted abroad, or in order for it to be adopted in the United States.

Foster/Adoption Placements: A child is placed with the foster/adopt family before the parental rights of the birth parents have been legally terminated, so there is still a possibility that the child may eventually be reunited with his or her birth family. If the parental rights of the child's birth parents are terminated, the foster/adopt family will be given preference to adopt the child.

Home Study: A home study is sometimes called an "adoption study," and is a written report containing the findings of the social worker who has met on several occasions with the prospective adoptive parents, has visited their home, and who has investigated the health, medical, criminal, family and home background of the adoptive parents. If there are other individuals that are also living in the home of the adoptive parents, they will be interviewed and investigated, if necessary, by the social worker and included as part of the home study. The purpose of the home study is to help the court determine whether the adoptive parents are qualified to adopt a child, based on the criteria that have been established by state law.

Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS): This Federal agency is now referred to as United States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS). USCIS is operated under the United States Department of Homeland Security, and has the responsibility of overseeing the immigration of all foreign-born individuals into the United States, whether they are adults or children. Before a foreign adoption can take place, permission must first be obtained from USCIS for the foreign child to be able to lawfully enter the United States for the purpose of being adopted. After this approval has been given and the child has been adopted and brought to the United States under a visa and/or a green card issued by the INS, the adoptive parents can then apply to the USCIS for the child to become a United States Citizen, just as if the child had been born to the adoptive parents as their biological child.

Independent Adoptions: These adoptions are arranged by an intermediary other than an adoption agency, such as a lawyer or a physician. The intermediary may find the birth mother for the adoptive parents, or may help the birth mother locate adoptive parents that would be interested in adopting her child. Independent adoptions are not legally permitted in all states, including Colorado.

Independent Contractors: This term is probably more commonly used in the areas of business and construction. However, when used in the context of adoption, it refers to an individual or entity that is employed on a contract basis to perform specific services or to complete a specific task. In order to handle the additional services that are necessary to promptly and properly handle a large influx of work during peak times, adoption agencies will often contract with either licensed or unlicensed social workers that are not formally their employees to perform home studies and post-placement supervision on a case-by-case basis for their adoptive families. Although these individuals are not legally the employees of the agency, their work will be supervised, monitored and reviewed by a qualified person within the adoption agency.

Institutionalization: The short-term or long-term placement of children in institutions, such as hospitals, group homes or orphanages. Placement in institutions during early critical developmental periods, and for lengthy periods of time, is often associated with developmental delays due to environmental deprivation, poor staff to child ratios, or lack of early childhood stimulation.

International Adoptions: These adoptions involve children who were born in a country other than where the adoptive parents reside or are citizens, or who are citizens of a country other than where they live. These adoptions not only involve the normal state and federal laws that apply to all domestic adoptions, but they also are impacted by the laws of foreign countries and international treaties, but also require immigration approvals from the USCIS.

Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC): An interstate compact, or agreement, that has been enacted into law by all 50 states in the United States, and the District of Columbia, which controls the lawful movement of children from one state to another for the purposes of adoption. The originating state, where the child is born, and the receiving state, where the adoptive parents live and where the adoption of the child will take place, must approve the child's movement in writing before the child can legally leave the originating state. This Compact regulates the interstate movement of both foster children and adoptive children.

Irrevocable Consent: A term used to describe a Consent to Adoption that has been signed by the biological parent of a child that is being placed for adoption, which under state law cannot be revoked after it is signed, unless the court specifically finds that the Consent to Adoption was obtained by fraud or misrepresentation, or by the use force or undue duress on the birth parent.

Legal Risk Adoptions: This term refers to an adoption program that is only available in some states, where prospective adoptive parents are allowed to become foster parents to children before they become legally available for adoption. If the parental rights of the biological parents of these foster children are able to be terminated, then the foster parents are allowed to adopt the children. If the parental rights of the biological parents of the child are not terminated, then the foster parents are not allowed to adopt the child. This is the "legal risk" that the foster parents know about in advance, and which they are willing to assume in exchange for the possibility that they may ultimately be able to adopt the child. In some cases, a termination of parental rights will be intentionally delayed until a specific adoptive family has been identified that can meet the specialized needs of the child.

Life Book: A pictorial and written representation of the life of a child, which is designed to help the child better understand make sense of its unique background and history. Although there is no required content for a life book, some information that it might include would be information about birthparents, other members of the extended birth family, birthplace and date. The life book might be put together by a social worker, foster and/or adoptive parents or even the birthparents or members of the birthparents' extended family.

Open Adoption: Every adoption of this type will be different, based on the type of relationship that the birth parents and the adoptive parents have agreed to. Both identifying and non-identifying information about the adoptive parents and the birth parents is shared with each other, which can include last names, addresses, and telephone numbers. In some open adoptions, the birth parent and the adoptive family know each other and have ongoing communication about the child. If the parents on both sides agree, the adoptive parents may even be allowed to be present for the delivery of the child, thus allowing them to vicariously share in the birthing process. Neither the birth parents nor the adoptive parents are forced to participate in an open adoption if that is not what they are comfortable with. Although there is some disagreement on the subject, it is suggested that the child, and thus the adoptive parents that will be raising the child, are the primary beneficiaries of some of the most significant benefits that can result from an open adoption.

Orphan: Although this term has essentially been eliminated from normal use in our modern society, with reference to adoptions, it is still used with a very specific definition in the regulations of the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, with reference to the legal status of foreign children that adoptive parents who are U.S. citizens are seeking to adopt and bring into the United States to live. In that context, this term refers to a child in a foreign country who has no living parents, or whose parents have disappeared or have abandoned the child, or a child who has only one living parent who is not able to adequately provide for the proper care and support of the child. In order for a child to be able to be brought into the United States for the purpose of adoption, it must fit this definition of being an "orphan."

Orphanage: Institution that houses children who are orphaned, abandoned, or whose parents are unable to care for them. Orphanages are rarely used in the United States, although they are more frequently used abroad.

Post-Institutionalized Child: Children adopted from institutional, hospital, or orphanage settings. The term is used to describe an array of emotional and psychological disturbances, developmental delays, learning disabilities, and/or medical problems resulting, in part, from their stay in institutions.

Post-Adoption Period: This is a period of time of an unspecified length after an adoption is finalized during which the members of this new group of legally related individuals learn together to become a real family unit, with all the joys, challenges, accommodations and wonderful experiences that go with it.

Post-Placement Report: A written report that is prepared for the court in an adoption case by an adoption caseworker that makes a series of personal visits to the home of the adoptive parents. The purpose of these post-placement visits is to observe how well the child and the prospective adoptive parents are bonding to each other and how the child is fitting into the family. This report will also contain a recommendation by the caseworker, based on the caseworker's personal observations and interactions with the child and the members of the adoptive family, concerning whether or not the caseworker thinks it would be in the "best interests of the child" for the proposed adoption of this child by these adoptive parents to take place. In almost all cases, the court will follow the recommendation that the caseworker makes in the Post Placement Report, and in almost all cases, this recommendation will be that the adoption be allowed to take place.

Reactive Attachment Disorder (or RAD): This term is used to describe a condition that generally appears in children before age five, and is thought to result from a lack of consistent care and nurturing in early years. The disorder is characterized by the inability of a child or infant to establish age- appropriate social contact and relationships with others. Symptoms of the disorder may include a failure to thrive, developmental delays, a refusal to make eye contact, feeding difficulties, hyper-sensitivity to sound and/or touch, failure to initiate or respond to social interactions with others, self-stimulation, indiscriminate sociability and a an unusually high susceptibility to infections.

Re-Adoption or Validation of foreign adoption: A term that is used to describe the practice of adopting a foreign child in the United States after it has already been adopted by its adoptive parents in the foreign country of its origin. The most common reason for a re-adoption is to allow the child to obtain a United States birth certificate, written in English, showing the adoptive parents as though they were the biological parents of the child. This new birth certificate that is obtained in the re-adoption would be essentially identical to the birth certificates that are issued to all other children in that same geographic location. This procedure enables the adopted foreign child to have a local birth certificate in English that does not identify or set the child apart from other children as being a child that is as somehow "different" from other children. Each state has its own regulations regarding this post-adoption process.

Relinquishment: In the context of adoption, this term generally refers to a birthparent voluntarily giving up his or her parental rights to a child, so that someone else can adopt it. In practice it generally refers to these parental rights being transferred to an agency, rather than directly to the new adoptive parents, so that the agency can maintain the level of confidentiality or privacy that the parties desire and have agreed to in the adoption. The agency then passes the parental rights on to the adoptive parents who adopt the child. The term "Relinquishment" is also very commonly used to refer to the actual relinquishment documents that are signed by the birth parents as part of the relinquishment process.

Trans-Racial Adoptions: An adoption in which a family of one race adopts a child of another race.

Waiting Children: This term generally refers to non-infant, school age children, who have become legally available for adoption. They will generally be under the legal jurisdiction and care of public foster care agencies, and will have come into the foster care system for a variety of reasons, which could include neglect, abandonment, abuse and/or some other dysfunction within their family environment.

Waiting children may or may not have developed emotional and/or behavioral reactions to these experiences, and may or may not be physically or developmentally challenges or delayed as a natural result of what they have been through. How severe and treatable these conditions will be will depend entirely on the individual circumstances of each child. By the same token, a significant percentage of waiting children will be healthy and well cared for, but will have become victims of some type of family tragedy that has put them in a position where they need responsible parenting.

Many waiting children will have siblings who are also available for adoption, and who would prefer to stay together as a family unit. In most geographic locations, more than half of the waiting children will be ethnically diverse or will be children of color. Two things that all "Waiting Children" will have in common are: 1) their need to become a permanent part of a responsible and nurturing family, where they will be loved and encouraged to achieve their full potential, and 2) although imperfect and most often challenging, they can bring tremendous joy and satisfaction for their new families.