Ø Refrain from laying guilt trips on a child for wanting contact with their birth family;

Ø Are gentle and loving to their children;

Ø Defend birth parents when they hear slurs, mistruths and unfair judgments about them;

Ø Believe in the concept that we are all responsible for what goes on in the life of a child;

Ø Understand that if they are not part of the solution; they are part of the problem;

Ø Do not expect an adopted child to be a blank slate to be molded into their image;

Ø Adopt a child fully aware of the challenges and extra issues that an adopted child may face;

Ø Are committed to parenting a child they adopt and giving their full efforts no matter how difficult the challenge;

Ø Are not adopting in some public attempt to convince the world of their goodness;

Ø Enter into an adoption with eyes wide open and continue to educate themselves as their children grow;

Ø Understand that the answer to adoption loss is not simply to “get over it”, but, understand that grieving a loss is a lifelong experience;

Ø Do not allow their fears of losing their child to affect cloud their judgment as to visits with birth family;

Ø Do everything in their power to encourage and honor an open adoption agreement and make it work;

Ø Refuse to support adoption agencies and/or facilitators who are known for using unethical, illegal or questionable tactics during the adoption process;

Ø Refuse to participate in adoption practices which they believe might be questionable;

Ø Understand why it is wrong to label a new mother or an expectant mom a "birth mother" prematurely;

Ø Adopt children from foster care who desperately need homes instead of newborns; and

Ø Help make conditions better for other children in the countries from which their children were adopted.