Adoption Process — How to Get Started — Waiting Children — Waiting Families — Success Stories — Support Our Families — Connecting Families — Homestudies — Post Adopt Services — FAQ’s

Adoption is a beautiful thing!  When a child is in need of a permanent, loving, stable family, Covenant Kids families lead the pack in offering the most outstanding, forever, families for children who come from hard places.

Covenant Kids is a licensed contract provider for adoption services with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS), finding permanent homes for children who have been removed from their family due to abuse or neglect that are unable to return to their biological families.

Covenant Kids also has a Private Domestic Adoption program, Embrace Adoption, that provides pregnancy counseling to women and couples considering an adoption plan for their child.  If a birth family chooses to make an adoption plan, they are given the opportunity to select a family verified through Embrace Adoption.

Families can be verified as…

• A foster-to-adopt family for children in the custody of TDFPS
• A matched adoption family for children in the custody of TDFPS
• A private adoption family for children placed through Embrace Adoption
• Any combination, or all, of the previous three options!

Foster-to-Adopt

These families are interested in adopting a child/children and are verified therapeutic foster families through Covenant Kids. Covenant Kids works closely with CPS and the family and attempts to place children in homes that have a high likelihood of becoming free for adoption. Because the child’s case is still in progress at this point, there is no guarantee that the child will be eligible for adoption. However, if the child is not able to return to his/her biological family and suitable relatives are not found, the foster family is likely to be able to adopt the child. A foster-to-adopt family receives a daily reimbursement rate during the time in which the child is in foster care. This method of adopting special needs children provides a better chance of adopting a younger child.

Matched Adoption

These families are not interested in providing foster care but would like to make one or more children a permanent part of their family. These families are verified through Covenant Kids as an Adoptive Family. However, they will not receive a child until he/she is free for adoption, and the family will not receive the daily foster care reimbursement rate. There are two ways that adoptable children can be chosen and placed. The family can search the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TARE) at www.adoptchildren.org and contact Covenant Kids about children they are interested in. Also, Covenant Kids advocates on behalf of the family with CPS to locate children who match the family’s criteria. In both cases, Covenant Kids communicates with CPS regarding the family’s interest in the child and submits the family’s home study and life book to the CPS worker. The decision is then left with CPS, and they must determine the most appropriate family for each child.

This method of adopting special needs children often provides a better chance of successfully adopting a child placed in the home. However, because this process cannot begin until the child’s parental rights have been terminated and other options have been eliminated, the child is usually at least 1 year old when he/she becomes free for adoption.

A Covenant Kids Adoption Case Manager works closely with all families who are interested in adopting.  Adoption-motivated families are encouraged to create a “life book” or short photo album about themselves, their home, and their interests that the Case Manager will provide to CPS to acquaint the workers with the family.

Private Domestic Adoption

These families work with the Embrace Adoption program in order to prepare for the placement of a child whose birth family has chosen to make an adoption plan.  Covenant Kids is able to verify families throughout Texas for the adoption of children throughout the United States.  Families may be matched with a birth family that contacts Covenant Kids for pregnancy counseling and supportive services.  However, if a family is contacted by a birth family who is considering adoption and would like the counseling and supportive services that Embrace Adoption can provide, we are happy to facilitate the adoption and provide services to all of the parties that are involved.

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Are you ready to take the next step?

CLICK HERE to find out more about becoming an Adoptive Family!

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Covenant Kids, Inc. is a private, non-profit, Child Placing Agency.  We are licensed by and receive funding from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.