The goal at Christian Adoption Services is for children to grow up in Christian homes where they are adopted for the right reasons, loved immensely, cared for, protected, honored for who they are and where they came from. Most of all, it is our hope that they come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior so they will spend all eternity with the one true God. We desire for our agency’s ethics and morals to align with scripture, treating all members of the adoption triad with respect and honor. We believe that adoption is not merely a one-stop transaction but rather a journey, and therefore we uphold certain standards that we believe set us apart from many other adoption entities.
You can find more information about the adoption process, training, and answers to some of your questions below. Click on the buttons below or keep scrolling to learn more.
Domestic Adoption Program Qualifications
Are you qualified to adopt through our domestic adoption program?
In order to adopt through our domestic program, You must meet the following requirements:
Married for at least two years
At least 25 years of age
Good physical and emotional health
No criminal record inclusive of major offenses or pattern of such offenses or any criminal matters that have not been satisfactorily resolved
Applicants with CAS must be believers in the basic Christian tenets
To view eligibility requirements for all of our adoption programs, you can view them here.
Frequently Asked Questions
You probably have a lot of questions, and we’re here to help. Here are a few of the most commonly asked questions we get from families as they start the research phase of the adoption process.
What services do you provide?
CAS is a full-service adoption agency, offering Domestic Adoptions (specializing in newborn but licensed to place older children also), International Adoptions, Home-Study Services and we also have a partnership with the Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina that offers a Foster-to-Adopt program.
What is the cost to adopt?
The cost to adopt varies dependent upon the program and the services received by the adoptive parents. Call 704-847-0038 for more detailed information.
Will I lose fees if there’s a failed match/placement?
No, fees are not lost unless a family decides to withdraw from the process altogether. If a situation with a particular matched expectant mother does not work out, a family goes back into the pool of waiting families as they wait to be matched to another situation.
What is the first step/the process to adopt?
Learn more about what the domestic adoption process looks like here.
What is the average wait time for placement?
Placement varies depending on the openness of the adoptive family. Families who have more limited preferences to gender, race and special needs such as substance exposure during pregnancy tend to wait longer. The profile of the adoptive family also has a bearing on wait time. Childless couples tend to get chosen more quickly. Because CAS limits the number of adoptive families that are accepted into the domestic program at any one time, the waiting period for our families is minimized. Since 2016, the average wait time for placement has been 7 months once a family’s home study/pre-placement assessment was approved.
Do you work with families outside of the Carolinas?
At this time, our domestic program only places with families that live in North Carolina and South Carolina.
What age are the children you place?
CAS’ domestic program specializes in infant adoption. However, on occasion older children are placed.
What types of children do you place?
Through our domestic program, we place children, primarily newborns, of all races, both genders, most of whom are considered healthy and many who are born with some challenges. However, many are able to overcome some of those challenges with the nurture, love and resources provided by adoptive families.
Can I specify what type of child I’d like to adopt?
Families are allowed to limit their preferences; however, openness to race, gender, health risks, prenatal exposure and other special needs has some bearing on acceptance into our domestic program. Generally, the more open and flexible a family is, the better fit for our program they are. Families do specify their openness and preferences in the application process.
Is open adoption a requirement?
All families who adopt through CAS are trained on the benefits of having openness with birth families who may desire contact or mediated updates. In many arrangements, CAS facilitates the contact due to the preferences of the birth family; however, each case is different and every family who adopts through CAS must be willing to come into the process with an open heart. We ask adoptive families to honor birth families who desire contact so they will know their child is thriving and doing well. For more on open adoption, we recommend the book “The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption” by Lori Holden. At CAS, we want to love and minister well to everyone we serve, including our birth families.
What type of training & education do you require?
It is our desire for families to have a firm foundation in which to thrive in their adoption, and we do our best to do the hard work up front in hopes it will make for a smoother future. Therefore, CAS does require education (books & online classes) in the application and home study process as well as a daylong in-person training before placement can occur. We believe that adoption is a journey rather than a one-stop transaction, requiring an investment to prepare for parenting the adopted child well.
What kind of after-care services and support do you provide families?
CAS began over 40 years ago and is still going strong. We have a long-standing commitment to the families we serve to be available pre and post-placement. Individual families continue to be part of the larger “CAS Family” by participating in our annual picnics and other events throughout the year. Furthermore, we have online support groups and a network of families who welcome one another into the adoption community. This supportive environment allows us all to learn and “do life together” as we love each other and our adopted children well. No one has to be on an island alone, together we are better.
Domestic Adoption Process
Curious what the process looks like from making the first call to holding a baby in your arms and everything in between?
If you are interested in learning more about our domestic adoption program, we ask that you call our office at 704-847-0038 or fill out this form, so we can tell you more about our program and answer any questions you have.
Once we have spoken with you, we can add you to the waitlist for our next virtual interest meeting (which occur a few times per year). Attending an interest meeting is required to continue through the following steps.
Apply using “Eadopt” (an online web portal). The application is a two step process that involves:
Step One
Application
Family Profile
Motivation to adopt
Status of your health
Statement of Faith
Financial data
Another important part of step 1 in the application process is that we ask you to complete a document entitled “Preferences of a Child” This serves as a GUIDE to let us know what you are open to regarding the child you are seeking to adopt.
We’ve also recently implemented Training Requirements in the first step of the application process to include topics: Transracial Adoption, Prenatal Exposure, Openness
Once you have completed step one of your application, an internal review team makes a decision on the next steps based on your family profile, your preferences and our agency’s needs. You are notified. One of three decisions are made:
Approved - Move to step two of the application process.
Hold Status - Perhaps as Hopeful Adoptive Parents you need to firm up your finances or maybe there are too many other families in our program at that time with the same family dynamics/profile that is too similar to yours.
Not Accepted to move to Step Two - Some reasons for not being approved to the next step may include that as Hopeful Adoptive Parents you do not meet the requirements of CAS or your the expectations are not realistic.
If and when you are approved to move to step two of the application process, the next step is to prepare to complete your Homestudy, aka Pre-placement Assessment. The home study is a process where supportive documents are gathered and submitted to CAS. Once all necessary documents are received by CAS, your application is reviewed for acceptance. If fully accepted, a caseworker is assigned who meets with the you to conduct visits in your home and will help prepare you and your family for placement.
While you are going through the homestudy or immediately following, we ask that you begin working on your profile album and gathering photos for your online adoption profile. We guide families on how to create their profile albums. The albums are typically shown to expectant clients around their 7th month of pregnancy.
Once your homestudy is approved, you are officially admitted as a waiting family! Profiles of admitted families are presented on our website as Waiting Adoptive Families. You are also invited to an online group that offers support for CAS adoptive and waiting families.
If an expectant mom chooses your family, our adoption coordinator will notify you with a referral for placement. They will be with you every step of the way - from meeting the expectant parents to the hospital experience to signing the paperwork.
After placement, you will participate in family post-placement visits with your caseworker that lead to finalization. We also ask for you to:
Send in updates to eadopt per the agency agreement.
Maintain communication with your child’s birth parents by whatever was mutually agreed upon (we help mediate this agreement).
We also offer annual family picnics and continued involvement with our agency functions and events.
The CAS staff is always available to discuss concerns or issues relating to your adoption. If a member of our staff is not equipped to address your particular issue we can serve as a referral resource.
Required Training
It is our goal as an agency to educate, equip, and set realistic expectations for every adoptive family we work with. Below are some of the methods we use to help set our families up for longterm success in their adoption journey.
Online Training Classes
Complete a minimum of four classes from Adoption Learning Partners from this list:
Lifebooks
Let's Talk Adoption
Conspicuous Families
The Journey Attachment
Open Adoption 101
Adopted: The Identity Project
Becoming Your Child's Best Advocate
Finding the Missing Pieces
Infant CPR Class
As a part of completing the required training to officially become a waiting family with Christian Adoption Services, we require both husband and wife to complete an infant CPR class. The Red Cross provides classes as well as some community centers. You will need to obtain a training certificate.
In-Person training workshop
We offer in-person training workshops twice a year for couples currently in the adoption process with Christian Adoption Services. We require that both the husband and wife attend a 1-day training workshop. Topics covered include: open vs. closed adoption, communication with birth families, transracial adoption, attachment parenting, substance abuse effects in infants, and more.
If you are hopeful adoptive parents in the adoption process with CAS and would like to sign up for one of our workshops, you can call our office at 704-847-0038.
Contact Us
Interested in learning more about adopting through one of our three programs or maybe you’re ready to jump in?
Fill out the form below to learn more about adopting through CAS.
*IMPORTANT UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF THE DOMESTIC PROGRAM! PLEASE READ BEFORE COMPLETING THE INQUIRY FORM*
Most of our expectant mothers choose the Prospective Adoptive Parents that they want to adopt their child. The majority desire couples that do not have children. We are able to accept families with children on an "As Needed" basis and at this time we are at capacity. If you are presently parenting, please consider International Adoption, Foster Care, or Foster-to-Adopt, as this is where the immediate need lies. Thank you!
In the meantime, be sure to check out our
FAQs
eligibility requirements
adoption process
If you are pregnant and considering making an adoption plan for your child, please use this form to contact us, and someone will contact you shortly!
