According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 641,000 children lived in foster care in 2012. Even with 52,000 adoptions in 2012, 102,000 were still legally ready for adoption with no parental rights' strings attached.

When a woman places her baby up for adoption, she isn’t making the choice to give up. Instead, she’s choosing a life for her child, according to the American Adoptions website. The decision for a mother or birth parents to place a baby up for adoption isn’t always simple.

The decision to search for a child you gave up for adoption can be challenging, both emotionally and practically. Some birth parents prefer to conduct a passive search.

Independent adoption is the term for adoptions arranged between birth parents and adoptive parents that already know each other or found each other without agency help. Adopting a friend's baby is a prime example of independent adoption.

When a child is adopted through a closed adoption, the records of that adoption are sealed by a judge to make the transaction private.

Gay adoption is also referred to as same-sex adoption. It allows couples of the same gender to be legally recognized as parents of a minor. In some situations, the child may be the biological child of one of the parents.

If you want to adopt a child, you must make a candid assessment of your particular circumstances. You must consider whether you possess the financial ability to raise a child. You need to appreciate whether there are elements of your history that may render adopting a child difficult or even impossible.

If you are searching for your birth mother, you may have lost contact when she gave you up for adoption, lost a custody battle, surrendered you to foster care, went to jail, was deprived of you through a parental child abduction by your birth dad, or your adoptive parents backed out of an open adoption agreement to kee

Families can pursue several options to adopt a baby: domestic public agency adoption, domestic private agency adoption, international adoption and independent non-agency adoption.

If you would like to adopt a child, but do not have a lot of money to spend on agency fees, attorneys and international travel, consider a domestic adoption through your state's child protection agency.

Putting a child up for adoption is a very serious decision that can change the rest of your life as well as the life of your child. Many times, adoption leads to a complete relinquishing of parental rights and offers no guarantee that the biological parents will be able to interact with their child in the future.