If you are thinking about building your family through adoption, we hope you will consider the Adoption Center for Family Building. We are a licensed agency with a progressive, enlightened outlook on adoption. Our primary goal is to facilitate compassionate adoptions, making the process as comfortable and worry-free as possible.

We have been helping prospective parents to adopt for over 20 years. In 2005, we facilitated 64 adoptions. We facilitated another 47 adoptions in 2006 and another 39 adoptions in 2007.  We have an impressive record of success. In 2006, the average wait to adopt a baby was just under one year.  In 2007, the average wait to adopt was 8.2 months, with 80% of our adoptions occurring within one year.

About Homestudy Services: 

To learn more about the Center, click on any of the commonly asked questions.

Next Steps....

Download the application and mail it to our Illinois office along with a $375 application fee. (The application triggers the homestudy process.) You may also contact us to schedule an initial consultation. This meeting takes 2-3 hours and the fee is $350. You may prefer to attend one of our free monthly "open houses" first.  Call to schedule an initial consultation or to sign up for an open house.  Please contact us by email:: info@centerforfamily.com or call our Illinois or Indiana office: (847) 674-3231 or (219) 795-9900.

1. What is the Adoption Center for Family Building?

The Center is an outgrowth of Adoption Resources--the first adoption consulting practice in the Chicago area-- founded in l987 by Tobi Ehrenpreis.  In l996, the Center became licensed as an Illinois Child Welfare Agency and began offering a full range of adoption services. Two years later, the Center was approved for licensing in the state of Indiana.

The Adoption Center is small and non-traditional in its approach to service delivery. We give the decision-making role to the individuals involved in each placement, empowering birth and adoptive families to make choices for themselves. We offer a wide range of services, including homestudies, infant placements, a minority program, adoption education, counseling and support for birthparents.

We are different from other agencies in that we encourage prospective parents to take a proactive role in the adoption process. For the past 19 years, we have used specially tailored advertising and networking techniques to enable our clients to "connect" with expectant mothers. When a "connection" occurs, we are able to offer a full range of services to the birthparents. We take pride in the fact that most of our staff have had personal experience with adoption.

2. What types of children are available?

Mostly newborns of many different races and ethnic backgrounds, The majority of the children we place are  Caucasian, others are biracial, African American, Asian and Latino.

3. Do you have babies now?

We have an active list of families waiting to adopt. When birth mothers come to us, we share the profiles of our  clients, enabling the birth mother to choose the parents. If she is interested in you, we will call you with her available background information. If you want to proceed, you would speak with her, meet her and we would move the adoption forward.

4. How long is the wait?

The waiting time varies but the typical wait in 2007 was 6-10 months. In 2006, the average time to adopt was just under one year. The prior year (2005) the average wait to adopt was 10 months.

5. How do most of your clients locate the birth mother?

Many of our clients locate birth mothers using the techniques and methods we supply. We provide help with writing an ad and a Dear Birth Mother letter, newspaper advertising and screening incoming calls. In 2007, 50% of the adoptions facilitated were traditional placements.  (In a traditional placement, the birthmother comes directly to the agency and chooses adoptive parents among our waiting families.)

6. How many children have you placed?

Over the years, we have been involved in many hundreds of adoptions.  In 2006, we were involved in the placement of 47 newborns, and we placed an additional 39 babies in 2007.

7. What does this type of adoption cost?

In 2007, the median cost of an adoption was $23,800  including legal fees and court costs, This figure also includes agency fees, medical expenses, birth mother expenses, and advertising costs.

8. In which states do most of the birth mothers reside?

In 2007, most of the birth mothers (86%) resided in Illinois or Indiana, and the remaining 14% resided in other states including Michigan, Texas and New York.

9. Who is eligible to adopt?

The minimum age to adopt is 25 years old. Adoptive families must be emotionally and financially stable, and able to meet all homestudy and licensing criteria.   Our agency has fewer restrictions than the more traditional agencies. In 2007, we worked with married couples and singles, ranging in age from 28 to over 50, of many different religious backgrounds including Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical Christian and Jewish. Over a third of our clients already had at least one other child.

10. Do you work with potential adoptive couples who are out-of-state?

Yes, every year we work with some families who are not residents of Illinois or Indiana. For the family's convenience, we handle these situations by scheduling the first and second consultation on two consecutive days. Also, families residing outside of Illinois and Indiana must have a valid homestudy completed in their home state.

11. Do you work with birth mothers who are not in Illinois or Indiana?

Yes.  When a birthmother does not reside in Illinois or Indiana, we help her to locate an agency and/or attorney to represent her interests.

12. What about the baby's health?

Our agency gets health information from the birth mothers and the birth fathers whenever possible. Pre-natal records are typically requested from the physician or clinic and shared with the adoptive parents. The hospital records are usually available upon discharge. The Center requires that  HIV testing has been confirmed on either the birth mother or baby before taking a final surrender.

13. Do we need a homestudy?

Yes, either from our agency or from another licensed agency located in your home state.

14. What is your philosophy toward openness?

Our agency philosophy is to support openness, but we do not dictate the degree of openness in each adoption. Those decisions are made by birth parents and adoptive parents.

15. How old is the baby when you take him/her home?

The baby typically goes home from the hospital with the adoptive parents on the second or third day after birth. Final surrenders in Illinois are taken no sooner than 72 hours after birth. An Illinois placement prior to that time is  a legal risk. Although it is common practice, adoptive parents are not required to take the baby home prior to final surrenders. In Indiana, consents are typically signed when the birthmother is ready to be discharged from the hospital.

16. What about the birth father?

When the birth father is named, we attempt to meet with him and obtain medical and social history. In Illinois, a birthfather may sign an unborn surrender of his parental rights prior to the birth. Last year about half of all birth fathers signed consents. If a birth father does not want to participate in the adoption, the attorney for the adopting parents arranges to have him served papers by a sheriff or a process server. If the birth father is not named, the attorney is required to publish on an unnamed father for thirty days after the birth. The Putative Father Registry is also consulted for any registration by the birth father. Following these steps, the birth father's rights will be terminated in court.

In Indiana, a birth father may be served with a pre-birth notice, but he may not sign a consent to the adoption until after the birth. He has thirty days from the date of receipt of notice to file a paternity action. Once served, the birth father is not entitled to any further notification of the adoption. An unnamed birth father has thirty days to file with the Putative Father Registry. There is also a requirement in Indiana to publish on an unnamed father.

17. What happens after the placement?

You will go to court with your adoption attorney and receive an interim order giving you temporary legal custody. The adoption will be finalized six months after the placement. The Center will provide post-placement services during the six months prior to finalization. We will meet once in your home, and you would also participate in any two of our regularly scheduled group meetings over the six-month period.

18. What about confidentiality?

The Center staff will give birth parents your first names and other non-identifying information. It is your choice whether you wish to disclose last names and other identifying information. In 2007, most of our clients chose to participate in a fully disclosed adoption.  If the adoption is not fully disclosed, the Center may act as the intermediary for the exchange of information, letters and pictures.

19. What happens during the initial consultation?

You will meet with Tobi or Maggie (our Directors) to discuss your options and learn about the process so that you are able to determine the right path for yourself. We would also discuss your options, program choices, your role in the process, the pluses, minuses and pitfalls, and the breakdown of costs. The initial consultation typically takes between two and three hours and the fee is $350. After the initial consultation, you would submit an application to begin the homestudy, and start down the path to adopting a child.

20. What does it cost to adopt through your agency?

Agency fees vary depending on services rendered. Fees for a traditional agency placement typically range from $7200 (minority program) to about $16,500 (not including the homestudy fee).  The total fee for an agency assisted adoption ranges from $4500 to $8,500.  Additional adoption costs vary but may include birthmother and agency expenses, the homestudy fee, legal and court costs and advertising.

21. What is the cost of a homestudy?

An Illinois domestic homestudy costs $2,350 including all post placement services. There is also an application fee of $375, for a total cost of $2,725.  The cost of an international homestudy is $2,975, including the application fee, two post placement meetings and reports.

In Indiana, a domestic homestudy costs $1,875 (including the $375 application fee) and post placement visits are billed at $250 each.  An international homestudy for Indiana residents costs $2075 including the application fee. This fee does not include post placement services.

22. How do we begin the process?

If you would like to schedule an initial consultation or attend a free meeting with one of our Directors, please  call between the hours of 9:00am and 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.  If you need homestudy services only, please download our application and send it to our Illinois address along with the $375 application fee. If you have already connected with a birthmother, please call us to discuss our birthparent counseling services. To reach us call: (847) 674-3231 or (219) 795-9900 (Indiana) or send an email: info@centerforfamily.com.