The Complex Economic Maze of Adoption

Adoption is a process that brings adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoptees into a common set of events, but in wildly differing and often unpredictable ways. Things that those outside the adoption experience rarely need to consider - tax structure, legislation, and the always-evolving efforts to restrict and protect women's bodily autonomy - all influence and impact the adoption process, impact options available to adoptive parents and those available to birth parents. How does a business designed to be a resource for both adoptive parents and birth parents in the most important decisions of their lives work? Our guest is a leader in the field and she joins us to explain some of these mysteries and shed light on existential threats to the adoption process and to those who most need the process to run smoothly.We talk with the founder of an option adoption agency to learn how this process works, how it breaks, and how it sometimes breaks hearts.

Guest:

Molly Rampe Thomas - Choice Network Adoptions

Episode Notes:

Choice Network’s website and Twitter

Adoption business growth rates from IBISWorld

Molly’s blog on “Gays with Kids”

Show Notes:

Theme music by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder.

Show branding by Peg Fitzpatrick & PMG Group.

P.R. and social media by Carol Lunger, Emily Stern, and A B+C Creative.