Fargo Families Taking First Step in Adoption Process

it could take some two years or more to get a child

FARGO, N.D. — Social workers at the Village Family Service Center say one of the biggest misconceptions about adoption is people think the birth parents give up their kids because they don’t love them.

“Every birth mom and birth father that I’ve ever met has so much love for the birth child and they’re making this plan for them because they love them, not because they’re throwing them away,” said Sarah Flesberg, pregnancy and adoption social worker at the Village Family Service Center.

Many of the parents who give up their infant for adoption at the Village tend to be in their late 20s and early 30s.

“And already are parenting other children and just can’t picture themselves adding another child to their situation because it might place a strain on the children they’re already parenting and maybe wouldn’t be fair to that child to add them into the mix of what’s already going on,” Flesberg said.

Many couples from around Fargo-Moorhead are now trying to give those infants their future forever home.
But it’s going to be a costly process.

“North Dakota infant adoption ranges from about $16,000 to 20,000 and if you do an interstate adoption where you adopt from a different state, it can be anywhere from possibly $25,000 to $30,000, if not even more,” Flesberg said.

It’ll also be a long process because there are currently no newborns available for adoption.
That means parents could be waiting two or more years until they get paired with a child.

“It’s great because there’s less of a stigma in the world of becoming pregnant when you’re not married. It’s not so great for the people that aren’t able to have children that want to adopt babies just because they have something missing in their lives,” Flesberg said.

But when they finally get the child they’ve been longing for, Flesberg says that void will be filled for good.

“By the time they actually get a child they’re just so overcome with joy and are just so happy and that’s so great to see,” Flesberg said.

The Village Family Service Center offers embryo, international, relative, interstate and identified adoptions.