The Cradle FAQ

1. Tell us a little about the founding and development of your organization?
   Founded in 1923 by Florence Dahl Walrath, The Cradle has a long history in adoption services, placing approximately 16,000 children in loving, permanent homes.
2. How are your adoption home study and your organization unique?
   The Cradle is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian adoption and child welfare agency. We take great pride in our pre-adoption education, as well as our post adoption services. We embrace an open adoption philosophy. In open adoption, birth families and adoptive families have an opportunity to know one another in a way that is comfortable and acceptable for everyone. The spirit of openness involves sharing your child’s adoption story with them and creating an open atmosphere to talk about adoption and to give your child the language needed to talk about their birth family and their adoption story.
3. How long is an adoption home study valid?
   The home study needs to be updated on an annual basis.
4. Approximately how much time is necessary to complete an adoption home study by your organization?
   At The Cradle, the home study process takes about 6-8 months. This is dependent on the pace of the hopeful adoptive parents in completing required training, meetings and paperwork. Our counselors meet with hopeful adoptive parents as a couple twice and then individually, with the final step being the home visit. Typically, we ask clients to set aside two hours for each meeting. Illinois has a minimum training requirement of 10 hours for the initial home study. The Cradle often has clients complete sixteen to twenty hours of training, which will be tailored to fit your needs.
5. Can adoptive parents use a home study completed by your organization to adopt a child born in another state?
   Yes, we refer to this type of home study as an Agency Assisted Home Study.
6. If you complete my home study, do you also have to complete my post-placement visits?
   Yes, if we complete your home study, The Cradle also would complete the post-placement visits.
7. How many post-placement visits does your organization require?
   The Cradle requires a minimum of three post-placement visits. However, if the state in which you are adopting requires more than three visits, we will follow those guidelines.
8. What is some advice you can give to potential adoptive families about the home study process? What should they be prepared for?
   We advise hopeful adoptive parents to create a support network of family and friends to be a part of this journey with them. We encourage clients to include in their support network others who have adopted. We are able to provide resource and mentor families, if needed.
9. What do your home study social workers look for in a home and a family when they visit potential adoptive families' homes?
   Adoptive Parent Counselors ensure the home is compliant with the Adoption Home Standards established by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
10. Are you Hague accredited, and if not, does your international home study comply with Hague International Standards?
    Yes, we are Hague accredited.
11. Do you have experience in completing the home study and working with international placement companies?
    Since 1985, we have helped hundreds of children from around the world find loving homes. We offer workshops to help prepare families for intercountry adoption as well as exploring the joys and challenges of cross-cultural adoptions. At The Cradle, you will be informed, educated and supported at every step, even after your child is home.
12. Are there other services and benefits you would like to share about your company?
    The Cradle has The Sayers Center, named after legendary NFL star, Gale Sayers. The goal of the Sayers Center is to educate the African American community about the process of adoption, recruit Black adoptive parents and to provide ongoing support and opportunities for connections to all families who have adopted African American and Biracial children, both domestically and internationally. The Our Children Education and Empowerment Initiative, a program of the Sayers Center, explores the realities faced by diverse families parenting children of color, and LGBTQ adoptive parents. The initiative aims to give diverse families the tools needed to understand, support, and parent their children. It launched in response to requests from Cradle families for parenting programming aimed specifically at challenges faced by their communities. Given our long-standing presence in the Chicago-area, The Cradle offers a number of post adoption services including, but not limited to individual and family counseling to all members of birth or adoptive families at any stage of life, consultations, workshops, family and alumni gatherings, psychoeducational groups, and birth relative search and connection services.