What adoption agencies will allow an 18-year-old to adopt a child?

You should consider all the facts before having a child. Children are expensive and I hope you and your spouse make enough money to support one.

These are some age restrictions on international adoptions

For international adoptions, the age restrictions are:

Russia - 25 years old - married or single women

Ukraine - 25 years old - married or single women

Kazakhstan - 21 years old - married or single women

China - 30 years old - married only

Vietnam - 21 years old - married or single women

Guatemala - currently no age restrictions, but on a case-by-case basis - single or married

Wait until you are 21. Then you can adopt a newborn and have some time to research what you are getting into.

http://www.adoptionnetwork.com/adoptiveparents/ado...

In the UK none as a rule. I have only ever heard of one 18 year old adopting and that was exceptionally circumstances. Her parents died when she was 17 and she wanted to adopt her siblings who were in their teens but she couldn't till she was 18 as that's when she was legally an adult. She proved herself to social services that she would be able to cope and that was with her continuing her studies so the adoption was allowed. Normally nobody can adopt till they're at least 21.

I'm sorry but no adoption agency will allow you to adopt. They have VERY strict rules to go by. However, I live in California and as long as you are an adult (18 and over) you are alllowed to do an independent or step parent adoption as long as you are at least 10 years older than the child so yes it is possible but not through an agency.

However, I must say this... When I was 18, I was married. We had a beautiful 2 story home built, big yard on a cul de sac... yada yada yada... and I was also infertile. PLEASE wait until you are at least married. Marriage does change your relationship, sometimes not for better. We attemped independent adoptions and were matched several times but no birth mother wanted to give their child to an 18 year old. Heart breaking yes... but I was young and knew I had many years to adopt or attempt to have a child by infertiltiy treatments.

Now, I have since re-married. I am almost 24. Still infertile and my new husband and I are matched with a WONDERFUL birthmother! Our baby girl is due in just over 10 weeks!

Most State Laws that govern adoption has placed the Required age at 21 to adopt or foster. It is a requirement.And usually they will go with an older couple if two or more couples have the same to offer.

State law almost invariably sets the age requirement at 21 minimum (in one state it's age 25.) So no agency would do this, because it would be breaking the law.

For now you could mentor or do volunteer work with kids or families.

No adoption agency will allow an 18 yr old teen-ager to adopt.

None, hopefully.

I suggest you start at http://7rin-on-adoption.dreamwidth.org/tag/blogpos... move on to http://7rin-on-adoption.dreamwidth.org/tag/an+adop... and if you're not finished scaring yourself, there may be a few on http://7rin-on-adoption.dreamwidth.org/tag/adoptee... that aren't linked by the other two links (doubt it, but there might be).

Oh, and you don't get to bond when you adopt - you might get to communicate and share, but bonds rarely happen. Go look up "genetic mirroring".

Many women adopt who can not call themselves mothers by the way they behaved to their children. Please, no-one take offence at that, I just mean to me personally because there're so many people who've adopted and then abused - and some have even killed - their adopted kids: http://nobodyisforgotten.blogspot.com/

Moms are there because you can go running to them with a problem - dads and brothers and sisters and nans and granddads and aunts and uncles and cousins are there so you can go out and play and laugh and have fun.

I was gonna say that my opinion on that was nothing to do with being adopted, but seriously, it's probably got a lot to do with it because I grew up in a loving, caring, nurturing adoptive family from when I was seven months old, instead of growing up with my abusive biological mom.

You're never gonna be able to "win" 'cause adoption screws kids up one way or another, but you need to be able to learn to understand what your kid's going through.

My aparents have had to watch as their kid goes through all of the agony and trauma that comes with being adopted. They have had absolutely no help in dealing with any of this - as all good parents do, they winged it. It's testament to their brilliance that I'm even remotely sane (hush you lot at the back! :p) and a functioning member of society.

Adoption screws kids up. It's not a fact that the adoption mongers like seeing said in public, but it's true. Not every kid, obviously - some on here are happy to've been adopted, but a surprisingly high percentage of us grow up deeply screwed up.

I was abandoned to adoption at seven months old. I honestly and truly wish that I'd been aborted instead of abandoned to adoption. I didn't have a bad adoption - my afamily are the best I could ever have chosen... but if I'd been able to choose, and I'd known then what I know now, I'd've chosen to be aborted before birth instead, 'cause at least that way the lifetime of agony I've gone through would've been over in minutes, instead of the decades that I've been suffering for now.

Taken from Nancy Verrier's book, Coming Home to Self:

For the adoptee every day is a challenge of trying to figure out how to be, although he probably doesn't understand the difficulty this presents for him. It has been true his whole life and, therefore, feels normal. However, it takes a great deal of energy and concentration. And it never feels quite right. He never quite fits. Therefore he feels as if /he/ is never quite right.

(pg 50)

Abandonment and neglect are reported to be the two most devastating experiences that children endure - even more devastating then sexual or physical abuse. That's why some neglected children do naughty things to get attention. Even though the attention is hurtful - being yelled at, hit, or otherwise harmed - it is better than neglect. /Anything/ is better than abandonment. Abandonment is a child's greatest fear. For adoptees, it is also reality, embedded in their implicit and unintegrated memory.

(pg 102)

It is sometimes difficult to spot grief in children. After all, it isn't as if the child sits in a puddle of tears his entire childhood. As one adoptee said, "Of course I played, laughed, sang. Do people think that if you're not sitting in a corner with your head on your knees, you are not sad? I had happy times, but the sadness was always there, even when I was having fun."

(pg 117)

Please read back through a few months worth of resolved questions in here http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index?sid=2115500138 and then go read through all of the books and links listed at http://7rin-on-adoption.dreamwidth.org/tag/recomme...

Comprehend that lot, and you'll be about ready to adopt. :)

None. Most require you to be at least 25 & married at least 2 years. Get married, save money, & in a few years you'll be able to adopt.

Sorry to be redundant but "none" is the answer.

None, doesn't matter how much experience you have.