Adoption Pictures

Adoption pictures, also referred to as photolistings, are collections of photos and biographies of adoptable children. These are generally posted by a state's public or private agencies in hopes of catching the eyes and hearts of prospective adoptive parents.

Most children in photolistings will be associated with a public agency. Public agencies handle older child adoption of children within the foster system. There are hundreds of thousands of children in the foster system, so not every child will be featured in photolistings. However, adoption photos and bios that are posted are still helpful resources for prospective adoptive parents. They allow parents to familiarize themselves with the kind of children available. Many children in foster care may have special emotional, physical or mental needs and support. Most bios will not include this kind of information. Prospective adopters can expect more personality-related information, such as hobbies, temperament and age to be listed.

Infant adoption pictures are not as insightful as older child adoption pictures. Primarily due to the very modest development infants have experienced by the time they're a few months or years old. If anything, the most helpful information a prospective adoptive parent will find in infant photolistings is the child's Apgar score, which ranks the child's developmental progress in comparison to the average child its age.

Note: Photolistings are sometimes used to establish contact between an agency and adopters. Not every adoption picture is of an available child. Try not to fall in love with just one photo and 100-word bio.