Infant Domestic Adoption
At Flourish, we are committed to supporting your domestic infant adoption journey. We aim to honor everyone involved—expectant mothers/families, hopeful adoptive parents, birth mothers/families, and the child/adoptee. We believe everyone in this process deserves respect, support, and understanding. By prioritizing open communication, empathy, and collaboration, we strive to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where each triad member feels valued and empowered. We aim to ensure every adoption experience is guided by compassion, dignity, and mutual respect for all parties involved.
THREE
ONE
TWO
Once you're partnered with our adoption agency, we'll be right by your side to help you navigate every step of the domestic adoption journey.
To start your infant domestic adoption journey, fill out our contact form, and we will email you more information.
Next, our colleague Anna will help you start the application process.
HOW IT WORKS
PUT GOD FIRST
In Decision Making - Each decision we make should be a step further along the journey God has laid out for us.
At Home - Consider how you spend your time, resources, energy, spiritual gifts, and understanding of God. Everything we have was meant to bring God glory.
At Work - Putting God first with our work can be the catalyst others need to want to get to know Him.
back to core values
SERVE WITH A MINISTRY MINDSET
• Jesus led by serving and loved by serving.
• Serving others and humility go hand in hand.
• To be a servant means you genuinely need to care for people—keeping your hearts, ears and schedules open for divine appointments.
• No task was ever beneath Jesus and no person was ever unworthy.
back to core values
EMPOWER OTHERS WITH GUIDANCE, COMFORT, & TRUTH
• We don’t need to have all the answers—what’s more important is being present.
• Comfort others by sharing how God has comforted you.
• "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” -2 Corinthians 1:3-4
• Truth inspires change. God’s word changes us and has the potential to change others through us.
back to core values
OPERATE WITH INTEGRITY
• Integrity means being honest, whole, and undivided.
• Be honest with yourself.
- Do I say I will do things that don’t get done?
- Do I make excuses for not following through?
- Do I substitute words when actions are needed?
• Our integrity is priceless, the choices we make matter.
back to core values
Here are the things that set us apart from other domestic infant adoption agencies:
Our agency’s Case Workers walk with expectant families, while our Adoption Coordinator walks with hopeful adoptive parents—from the very start and through every turn, bump, or curve along the adoption journey.
Our goal is to answer the needs of both expectant and adoptive families through seamless and sensitive communication as well as being easily accessible.
Our adoptive families and expectant mothers become like family to us throughout their adoption journey.
Our prayer is to provide guidance, encouragement, and support as God intersects their stories with our own.
We want to serve our families by encouraging and ministering to them no matter what they're walking through.
One of the biggest reasons we started Flourish Adoption Ministries was to provide an affordable option to hopeful adoptive families.
With the national average cost of adoption continuing to climb, we strive to keep our average much lower.
Offering affordable adoptions is in large part due to the bar our Board of Directors sets for our organization, to operate with integrity and transparency.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Expectant mothers who work with our agency are offered separate legal representation, but not required to have it.
We have a network of attorneys with whom we work and offer expectant mothers representation via any of these attorneys or the attorney of their choosing.
Our agency ensures the case worker who has been holding her hand throughout the process is available to be at the hospital if desired, to provide emotional support.
If the expectant mother desires counseling while in the hospital we arrange that service for her.
The expectant mother completes a hospital plan and her wishes are adhered to in terms of her desire to see the adoptive parents, desire to see the baby, her interactions with hospital staff, etc.
Expectant mothers absolutely get to choose their own medical providers, including an OBGYN they are most comfortable with.
No, our agency believes that is highly unethical.
South Carolina has very specific statutes regarding biological father rights. Flourish Adoption Ministries does not have an attorney on staff at our agency, therefore, we do not give legal advice regarding biological father rights. The attorney that the adoptive family retains will assess the situation and determine if it is required by law to notify the biological father of his rights.
If notice to the biological father is appropriate, it is done so in a manner determined on a case-by-case basis, based on the unique circumstances involved with each situation.
This depends wholly on whether or not the biological father is involved in the adoption plan.
Flourish Adoption Ministries, Inc. offers all expectant mothers education and resources on parenting if they choose to parent.
Counseling is offered to all expectant parents in every situation, both pre and post placement. Expectant parents are in contact with a case worker who also provides support throughout the adoption process.
Are there post-placement services & support in place for biological parents? if so, what services are offered, how long are they offered, and are they free?
Our agency has been certified by Lifetime Healing on post placement care. We provide monthly support groups as well as lifetime counseling free of charge with any licensed counselor. To learn more about our ARROW Post-Placement program, check out this video.
As South Carolina law does not provide for enforcement for an open adoption, we encourage both parties to have an open adoption agreement, to be clear with each other regarding their intentions and expectations so everyone is on the same page; however, we do not feel it is ethical to have attorneys draw up an agreement that would imply to the expectant parent that something is legally enforceable that is not.
Our agency educates our adoptive parents on the necessity of re-evaluating annually the open adoption agreement made with their children’s biological parents.
We encourage direct communication between adoptive parents and their child’s biological parents.
Expectant Parents will never pay anything for an adoption. All services are free of charge to Expectant Families and Birth Families.
Our Hopeful Adoptive Family Cost Breakdown is listed below:
Application Fee: $500 / This is due upon sending in your application for the wait list. If you don't get approved, we send your money back. If you do get approved, and decide at a later time not to move forward with adoption this fee is non-refundable.
While on the waitlist, you will pay for a profile book and a home study. Send us an email at info@flourishadoptions.com if you would like to get the list of profile book vendors or home study providers we recommend.
Agency Onboarding Fee: $1,500 / This is due upon being approved for the wait list (typically around 2-3 weeks after submitting application).
Agency Domestic Program Fee: $7,500 / This is due upon being approved as an Active Family with Flourish Adoption Ministries, Inc., (typically around 6-8 months after being approved for the Wait List).
Agency Caseworker Fee: $3,500 / This is due upon being chosen by an expectant mother.
Continuation Fee: $2,000 / This is due after 12 months of being an Active Family, if you have not yet been chosen by an expectant mother by then and want to renew the contract for an additional 12 months.
NON-REFUNDABLE. Any/all fees paid to Flourish Adoption Ministries, Inc. are NON-REFUNDABLE. Flourish Adoption Ministries, Inc. does not charge per birth mother situation. In the event that a client has not had a successful adoption after one year, there will be a Continuation Fee. The clients agree to pay the fees due and understand it is non-refundable should they decide not to adopt, pursue another adoption situation through another agency, facilitator, consultant, attorney, or any other means, or become pregnant.
Legal Fees: Legal services must be contracted separately with a qualified adoption lawyer chosen by the adoptive parent. The fees for those services are not included in the agency fees and are subject to any agreement between the adoptive parent and their chosen lawyer. Flourish will make a referral to a qualified adoption lawyer, although the family is free to choose another lawyer to assist in the completion of the adoption. Typical legal fees range from $6,000 - $8,000 depending on the specific situation.
Expectant Mother Expenses. In some instances, the expectant mother will incur expenses as part of the adoption process. These expenses are not included in the agency fee; however, any/all expectant mother expenses paid are at risk, and if the adoption is not successful, the expectant mother is not obligated to repay the adoptive parent. The adoptive parent; however, are obligated to pay any/all expenses incurred for the expectant mom or expectant mother they are or were matched with. All expectant mother expenses incurred in the case of a disrupted adoption must be paid in full before adoptive parent may be presented to any other potential expectant mother situation. All expectant mother expenses in the case of a successful adoption must be paid in full before scheduling the final court date.
Travel Expenses. An estimate range for travel/food expenses for traveling to the expectant mother is around $0-$6,000 depending on the situation. If the expectant mother resides in SC, keep in mind you will also be required to return for finalization in our state 3-6 months after placement.
Agency Fee: $7,500 flat fee paid upon becoming an active client with Flourish Adoption Ministries, Inc. This fee includes the following:
+ the first 12 months of advertising
+ website design,
+ purchase of URL,
+ social media setup and management,
+ access to our staff for support and education throughout the adoption journey
+ Access to receiving expectant mother situations
We can work with expectant mothers in any state.
We are able to work with adoptive families in most states. Click HERE to email us and find out if we can work with your state.
Flourish is a licensed child placing agency located in South Carolina. This means we can match adoptive families with expectant mamas as long as one or both are located in South Carolina. If both the expectant mama and adoptive family are out of South Carolina, we can still work with the adoptive family throughout the entire adoption; however, we will bring an attorney in at the time of match to assist with communication with the expectant mama.
All of our advertising is done in-house by the agency. We do not outsource or pay another vendor for advertising as we find that paying outside advertising companies contributes to higher adoption costs. This also allows us to be sure the advertising is being done ethically.
