Your company may be among the many that extend adoption benefits to their employees. Just as it does when an employee becomes a parent in the traditional manner, your firm may offer paid time off when an employee adopts a child. That is wonderful, in terms of work/life balance. After all, no matter how a child arrives, families need time to bond and form close relationships, making the transition from a group of individuals into a family unit.
But when a child comes to a family through adoption, especially when the child is older and adopted from foster care, the needs of the family (and, of course, the child) may be greater. In its efforts to support adoptions, The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (www.davethomasfoundation.org) provides a variety of materials, often without charge, that companies can supply to employees to help them through the process. Recently it has introduced a new booklet, A Step-by-Step Guide to Post-Adoption, to help with issues that may arise following an adoption.
Not only does the booklet make a valuable addition to the Foundation’s employer toolkit (available online), it helps to create a culture of acceptance for this alternate way to become a family, says Rita Soronen, executive director of the Foundation. “Sometimes children, particularly those adopted internationally or from foster care, have a bit of a difficult start in life,” she says. “There may be some real challenges parents face as they work to provide a safe and secure environment for the children. The booklet encourages employers to understand the need for a little flexibility at times.
“Adopted children … often experience a profound sense of grief and loss at some point in their lives. That reaction needs to be understood by the family and by the support system around that child. And the family needs to have the tools at hand to make sure that as the child goes through these developmental stages, to realize they are not negative indicators of an adoption that’s failing or not going well. They’re simply developmental and normal stages of a child who has gone through some profound experiences.
“The booklet helps provide some of those tools for parents who may not have been prepared for that and who suddenly feel alone. It’s the same kind of support we would want to provide any parent to make sure their child can grow and thrive, and become a viable member of the community.
“Think about pregnancy and childbirth and how much effort is spent in those first 9 months,” Soronen says. “Then all of a sudden the baby is born and sometimes the supports fall away. Adoptive parents have a parallel experience. They’ve gotten through the expenses of adopting, they’ve found the right child for their family and the right family for this child, gone through the legal process, signed, sealed, and delivered. But now what?” Making resources available through the Dave Thomas Foundation or in the community may be an easy and effective way to address those concerns, helping employees with their work/life balance.