A traditional approach to private adoption is for a couple to place personal advertisements in local newspapers. You have probably noticed these ads. There may be eight or ten such ads in a single addition of a local paper. They all begin with words like, “Loving Couple Wants to Adopt”. While it may at first seem a little pathetic, these ads have worked many times.

I have counseled couples who thought the thing to do was to advertise in rural papers, and some who thought the ads should be placed in urban papers. I remember one couple who decided to advertise only in Norfolk because there are so many sailers there and in their words “you know what that means.”

I handled one adoption where the connection was made through an ad placed in Rolling Stone magazine.

While the internet has largely changed all of this, and will be addressed in my next blog, it may be worth remembering that young women do read certain types of publications, and these might be worth considering.