How do I give my baby up for adoption?

Woman experiencing an unplanned pregnancy talks with pregnancy counselor about how to give a baby up for adoption.

Considering adoption?

You have many options for your child, but if you’re considering adoption, you’re in the right place. We help thousands of expectant parents every year—of all ages and backgrounds—and empower them to make an adoption plan.

Explore adoptive families

We have many families, individuals, and couples who are approved to adopt a child through Bethany. They have each written a letter to share with you why they’re interested and what their lives look like. You can think through the type of family you’d like to raise your child.

Colin and Wendy

We love each other and the idea of building our family. Unable to have children of our own due to unexplained infertility, we were surprised to hear of being pregnant. God had other plans and our baby miscarried. We feel we are to redirect our focus on adoption and look forward to meeting the little one that He wants to place in our lives. Colin is a loyal family member, friend, and colleague. He is well respected in our community and at work. Colin is "all boy". He loves to watch football, baseball, hockey, and lacrosse. He enjoys playing ice hockey, skiing, snowboarding, tennis and riding bikes. Colin enjoys our sweet neighbors and their children. We have eight children on our block! Many run up to greet him when he comes home from work. Colin is kind hearted, gentle, slow to anger and sweet spirited by nature. Colin is an outstanding husband and would make an incredible dad. Wendy loves to dream big and sets lofty goals for herself. She has accomplished her goals and loves to set new ones on a regular basis. She works hard and encourages others around her raise the bar for themselves. Wendy has such a loyal and kind heart. She is such a blessing to our friends and families. She loves to travel and she has seen the world. Wendy is a good steward of our resources, gifts, has such a light heart and loves to laugh. She laughs with me, at me, and for me. This has been such a blessing to our marriage. She is an outstanding wife that displays love to me and will embody that same love to a child.

Garth and Jennifer

Hello! We are Jennifer and Garth. Thank you for taking time to look through our profile. We can't imagine what you are going through as you consider an adoption plan for your baby. We realize this will be one of the most difficult decisions and our hope in reviewing our profile page it will help you understand our life as a family and us as parents. We always knew we wanted a big family and the journey of doing so hasn't been easy. However, we realized God's plan is always working and you have to continue having faith and hope. That faith and hope brought us to welcome our daughter into our family through adoption, which has been the biggest blessing in our lives so far. We hope to continue growing our family through adoption and to show our children support, encouragement, celebrations of milestones and achievements, encouragement with smiles, hugs and laughter, encouragement for them to be their true selves, the ability to build their confidence and most of all LOVE.

Summer and Alex

Hi there! First off, we truly want to express how bold and courageous we believe you to be for choosing life and for potentially going through this process to make an adoption plan for your baby. We see your heart and we thank God for placing you here to take even a peek at our page to learn a little bit more about us as a family. Thank you for weighing us as a potential home for your sweet baby. We promise to raise your baby up to most importantly know the Lord and, in tandem, always know what love and fun is. Though we are new to the adoption world, we are not new to parenting and we are grateful for the excitement and devotion we have to parent another sweet child. We believe adoption is such a beautiful picture of what the Lord has done for us as we have been adopted into His family (Galatians‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬-‭7‬) We look forward to meeting you and coming alongside you in this process.

Aaron and Amanda

Thank you for taking the time to connect with us through our profile; we are very excited to share more about ourselves with you. In the years since our 2000 wedding, we have prayed that we would someday have the amazing opportunity to become parents. Adoption has always been something in our hearts and on our minds even throughout several years of unsuccessful fertility treatments. After seeing the joyous adoption path of others in our church and praying over the decision we are thrilled to be on our own unique journey.

Joshua and Chelsea

We have been together for six years, married for five. We are so excited to share our love with a little one, and with Josh himself being adopted, this just seemed like the natural path for us to take to grow our family together.

Dan and Alana

Hi! We're glad you found yourself on our Family Profile. Our names are Dan and Alana. Since our first conversations about our future family - back when we were dating in college - we've always known that adoption would be in the picture. We believe that we were all adopted into God's family when we were in a time of need and we want our family to reflect that model. After getting married and taking some time to grow our relationship with each other, we've found that we are longing to give ourselves to a new family member. We are excited to start our family with and through adoption! We are also excited to get to know a family that would trust us to adopt their child, and look forward to starting a long and lasting relationship built on loving and caring for this little one together. We hope that you will consider whether your child could be a part of our family's story.

Autumn and Zane

Hello and thank you for taking the time to look at our profile. We hope our personalities shine through and give you a glimpse into our life! We met in November of 2016 and quickly discovered that while our personalities might be opposites, we shared a deep connection on the things that truly matter—our faith, morals, and views of the world. Zane is quiet, calm, and a self-proclaimed nerd, while Autumn is talkative and outgoing. We’ve found that our differences perfectly balance us, keeping our lives fun and exciting! We got engaged on our one-year anniversary in November 2017 and were married on October 6, 2018. Our Life Together Our greatest joy is found in experiencing life together. We love to travel and explore new places, but we also cherish our time at home. You can often find us tackling home projects, whether it’s gardening or remodeling a room. Creating a peaceful and cozy environment in our home brings us so much happiness. We also love friendly competition with games, enjoy listening to music (even with our different tastes!), and were both self-taught on the guitar and drums. Weekends often involve getting creative with crafts like painting or making candles. We truly enjoy trying new things and sharing experiences, always learning and growing together.

Josh and Jenn

Hello! We are Josh and Jenn and we're looking forward to meeting you! Know that we think of and pray for you almost daily. We know what it is for life to take unexpected directions, for plans to shift, for dreams to be interrupted. Having kids has always been part of our plan and dream, and yet God has not fulfilled that dream in the way we originally expected. But we understand God's design and timing is always better, and we are excited to grow our family through adoption. Our philosophy has always been rooted in creating an environment and home where all are welcomed and loved. Adoption is something we always talked about as part of that philosophy. We’ve built our lives around creating strong community connections, friends as extended family, and an open door to our home for all. For our community, our house is a front porch for chatting, a front yard for badminton, a hill for playing tag, a driveway for sidewalk chalk, a walkway for blowing bubbles, a rock wall for driving toy cars, a garden for kids to help water plants and pick flowers, a living room for ladies book club, a kitchen for sharing delicious meals or baked goods, a back porch for late night conversation. We have “adopted” the families in our community - adults and children alike - our home is their home. This same philosophy is why we have become the gathering spot for our surrounding family. We are excited about the possibility of adding to that family through adoption and creating a space to welcome a child (and eventually, hopefully multiple children!) into our home. That said, we also want you to know that the weight of the decision you are making–the sacrifice–is not lost on us. Our own experience to start a family with infertility has taken us through deep emotions and many tears. Sometimes it’s the hardest moments in life that remind us to trust in all circumstances that God has a plan, through mountains and through valleys. We hope you are part of God’s plan for us, and that we are part of God’s plan for you and your child!

Kevin and Lorraine

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to look at our profile. We hope it provides an honest look into our lives and the life we would provide for your child. After many years of infertility, we realized God had a different plan for us and felt led to adoption. We were blessed with our first adopted daughter, Isabella, in 2024 and would be so grateful to continue growing our family. Your child would be such a welcomed and loved addition to our family. If we are chosen as parents, we promise to... - Provide a home full of joy, and laughter (we love to be silly and joke around!) - Offer guidance, support, and unconditional love during the good and difficult times in life - Nurture all family and friend relationships - Teach them to know and love God And we believe that a child deserves all of this not only as a child but into adulthood as well. We understand that placing your child for adoption is a life changing decision. Our goal is to make you feel as comfortable and supported as possible during this journey and we look forward to getting to know you now and in the years to come. Please know that we (and many others!) are praying for you and your child daily. Love, Kevin and Lorraine

James and Sarah

Hello! First off, we can't begin to imagine what this process must be like for you and we just want to say thank you. We think you are incredibly brave. We also know you are doing your best for you and your baby as you plan for the future. We would like to come alongside you in this process to offer our best as parents, committed to growing our family through adoption. We are Sarah and James, new to adoption but not new to parenting. For us, this means we have full hearts and excitement towards adoption, but also realistic expectations about what it means to raise a child, as we have three biological children. Although there are hard moments, we truly do love being parents and understand that a new child would bring unique joys and challenges. We met the summer after graduating high school. We grew up seven minutes from each other, but didn't meet until a mutual friend introduced us. And just in time, because James was about to leave for a full-time two-year religious mission in Mexico. Sarah actually served a religious mission in Central America and returned home six months after James. By an act of fate (or God), we bumped into each other shortly Sarah arrived home, two and a half years after our initial meeting. We started dating and got married a year and a half later. We value faith, family and fun. We are hopeful to add one more precious child to our family through adoption.

Emily and Ryan

We want you to know how much love and respect we feel for you already. We cannot imagine what a difficult decision this is for you and we are praying for you daily. We pray that you would have the strength and the courage that you need, and, above all else, that you would feel the unconditional love of God. We hope that you will find us to be all that you hope for your child. Thank you for taking the time to learn about our family and for considering us as you make this difficult decision. We hope that you will be able to feel the love we have for each other, our kids, family and friends, our future child and for you. We absolutely love being parents and we can’t wait for our family to grow. Our son and daughter are overjoyed at the possibility of having a little sibling.

Katie and Kyle

Hello there! Thank you so much for taking the time to read a little about us. We’re a fun-loving, faith-filled couple who have been praying about growing our family for the last 3 years. Our hearts are full of love, and we’re ready to share that love with a child. We have an extended family and group of friends who are happy for us and supportive of our adoption journey. We believe God has led us to adoption and we’re trusting Him to connect us with the right birth family. We're excited to give you a glimpse into our life, our home, and the kind of parents we hope to be.

View Family Profiles

Woman who gave her baby up for adoption visits with adoptive family

Think about your adoption plan

If you choose adoption, you’ll have the power to influence how often, and in what ways, you will connect with your child’s adoptive family. Most women today choose open adoption, where they make an agreement with their child’s adoptive parents to maintain contact and develop a lasting relationship.

But it’s up to you to decide how much contact, if any, you want with your child’s adoptive family.

How do I give my baby up for adoption?