Introduction -- 1. Deciding to become a parent -- Examine your legal status -- Deciding how to become a parent -- Approximate costs of assisted fertility vs. adoption -- Deciding who will be the biological parent -- Arranging your finances -- 2. Your adoption choices -- Adopting as a single or a couple -- Transgender adoption -- Open or closed adoption -- Domestic or international adoption -- Agency or private adoption -- Finding and choosing an attorney -- Facilitators -- 3. The adoption process -- Choosing an adoption agency -- Affording adoption -- Home studies -- Consent -- Notice -- Timing of consent -- Consent procedures -- Revocation -- Court process -- Post placement -- Birth certificates -- 4. Second parent adoption -- States permitting second parent adoptions -- If you can't do a second parent adoption in your state -- Deciding to do a second parent adoption -- Notice or consent -- Preadoption procedures -- Second parent adoption process -- 5. Domestic agency adoption -- Public agencies -- Financial assistance for public agency adoptions -- Private agencies -- Interstate issues -- Ethnic concerns -- 6. International adoption -- Choosing an agency -- Choosing a country -- Choosing a child -- Dealing with paperwork -- The international adoption process -- Dealing with immigration -- Citizenship -- Visas -- Readoption -- 7. Independent adoptions -- Adopting independently with an agency -- Finding a birth mother on your own -- Facilitators -- Advertising -- Choosing a birth mother -- Contact with a birth mother -- Payments -- Counseling -- Home studies -- Your relationship with the birth mother -- Finalization -- 8. Foster parenting -- Requirements -- How to apply -- Nuts and bolts of foster care -- Family-to-family foster care -- Foster parent rights -- 9. Sperm donors -- Insemination -- Known sperm donors -- Unknown donors -- Legal parents -- Birth certificates -- Protecting your family -- Fertility problems -- Affording insemination and fertility treatments -- 10. Using a surrogate -- Surrogacy laws -- Surrogacy legal process -- Surrogacy programs -- Finding a surrogate on your own -- Surrogacy agreements -- Payment -- Insurance coverage -- Problems with surrogacy -- Other steps to protect yourself -- 11. Other parenting options -- Coparenting -- Preserving eggs and sperm -- Embryo donation -- Nuclear transfer -- Cloning -- 12. Family support and protection -- Family leave -- Wills and guardianship -- Medical consents -- School consents -- Health insurance -- Other employment benefits -- Life insurance -- Finding support -- Safe schools -- Appendix A. Resources -- Appendix B. Agencies and associations -- Index -- About the author.