If you've decided that adoption is for you, there are a number of steps that need to be taken. Partners in Adoption are committed to ensuring that the entire process from the time you have your initial visit to being approved as an adopter, should not take any longer than eight months on our part, though of course we recognise that there may be reasons why you wish, or are forced by circumstances, to take longer. The children who need adoptive families may have come from complex and troubled backgrounds. They need understanding, encouragement, patience and lots of love.  They need parents who do not have unresolved  emotional burdens of their own, as they will require more resilience and resources as parents then most  As they grow up, these childrenwill need to make sense of why they are adopted and you will need to be able to help them achieve this. These issues will be explored with you and your family during the approval process.