By Gretchen Keiser

A fledgling adoption service, arising out of the department’s work with women in crisis pregnancies, has begun at Catholic Social Services.

Licensed in January by the state, the adoption service will make a full circle of work the agency already does for and with women who are pregnant and in a “crisis” situation.

Until now, the network of shelter homes, counseling and material help given through Crisis Pregnancy Services, a unit of CSS, stopped short of being able to help a woman who decided that she wanted to give her baby up for adoption after birth.

“Before, if a girl chose to place her baby for adoption we had to refer her elsewhere” for the services needed to place a baby legally and sensitively with an adoptive family, said Sister Mary Jacobs, director of Crisis Pregnancy Services.

“But now we’ll be able to provide services from whatever stage of pregnancy they come to us,” she said.

Those involved in the program are careful to emphasize that it is small in scope and will proceed slowly to work through procedures that have been set down on paper, but that will be fleshed out by the actual experience of families working through the adoption service.

There are clear limits on the scope of the adoption service right now. Noreen Horrigan, who was hired as the project coordinator of adoption services, is working on a part-time basis.

The agency has also decided to limit the geographical area served initially to adoptive families living in four metropolitan Atlanta counties of Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett. The decision to restrict the area at first reflects the limited staff size and budget of the service and the significant amount of time involved in working with families in preparation for adoption. The hope is to expand the area in the future.

The geographical limit applies only to the adoptive families, not to Crisis Pregnancy Services which helps all women who come to them in need, regardless of where they are from. In the last year, approximately 50 women came to the service for help during pregnancy, some receiving extensive help and support and others coming for some short term counseling and material aid, Sister Mary Jacobs said.

The overwhelming majority of women who receive help choose to keep their babies and raise them either as single parents or with the help of their families. Nationally the statistics indicate that 96 percent of women choose to keep their babies, Sister Mary Jacobs said.

However, Catholic Social Services has also received steady requests over the past few years either to help women who wanted to place their babies for adoption or to help families who were seeking to adopt a child and wanted to do so through a Catholic agency.

“I guess because of the growth of the Church in this area, the question keeps coming up: “Why isn’t there a Catholic adoption service in Georgia?’,” said Steve Brazen, executive assistant at Catholic Social Services.

The question, in part, reflects the good reputation that Catholic Charities has nationally for providing high quality adoption services, he said. Many Catholic families in Georgia have moved here from other parts of the country where they were accustomed to the church having an adoption service as part of its work.

While the growing Catholic population is part of the reason for the addition of the new service, there is also a sense that it is a highly appropriate and needed addition philosophically, Steve Brazen said. He noted that in letters of support written to the state on behalf of the new service, several Catholics said that, in view of the church’s pro-life stand, the agency should be providing adoption services. Catholic families are known among Georgia social service agencies for their willingness to adopt children, particularly children with special needs, Brazen said.

In addition, the new adoption service is being structured particularly to help pregnant women who are low-income and want to give up their babies for adoption, he said. At the present time low-income women who cannot afford the cost of prenatal care and delivery in a hospital end up seeking out a private attorney who will put them in touch with a family interested in adoption, Brazen said. This takes place because the family is willing to pay for medical costs, while a private adoption agency may expect the pregnant women to absorb at least some of the medical costs before they are willing to take on her case.

The Catholic Social Services adoption unit will not place the burden of medical costs upon the pregnant woman, but upon the program as a whole in order to make the adoption services available to low-income women, Brazen said.

Although the service is only a few weeks old, there is already tremendous interest and enthusiasm. Ms. Horrigan, who formerly worked for Fulton County both preparing to work both with foster families, who will have temporary care of infants, and those who want to become adoptive parents.

A first request for foster families, who will provide a home for infants for a short period of time while legal matters are resolved between the biological mother and the adoptive family, has led to the training of one foster family and preparations to train nine more, Ms. Horrigan said.

In addition, a waiting list is beginning of families who are interested in becoming adoptive parents. From that group will come a pool of families who will begin, with the help of Ms. Horrigan, to delve into the questions raised by adoption, examine their own family situations and meet with other adoptive parents. Through what is essentially an educational process, a family comes to a decision as to whether or not they are ready to adopt a child, Ms. Horrigan said. The new unit has been thoughtfully designed to emphasize the human dimensions of adoption as they affect the biological parents, the adoptive family and the child. Ms. Horrigan will also continue to work with the adoptive family for several months after the child has been placed.

There is great excitement and also concern for the feelings of those who long to adopt children. “Right now we’re just taking inquiries – we’re not going to raise people’s hopes,” Ms. Horrigan said.

But she also acknowledged, “We’re excited to start.”

(Those interested in adoption services should call 881-6571 and ask for the help of an adoption intake worker.)