Adapting to Adoptions

Booz Allen Hamilton began to offer its adoption benefits in 2004. The company offers $5,000 per adopted child and 10 days of parental leave. It also provides up to 24 weeks of unpaid leave. (Booz offers biological parents 10 days of paid parental leave and six to eight weeks of short-term paid disability for mothers who gave birth.)

Smaller companies may not have policies in place but many recognize the importance of adoptions and will make exceptions. Sometimes they have to make them on the fly.

Gaye Lins told her boss as soon as she and her husband knew they wanted to adopt. "My boss knew it was coming at any point, so I basically had to call him and say, 'I have a baby and I'm going to Russia.' "

Her boss told her the company would work around it. On top of the vacation time she had banked, the company gave her maternity leave. She had a total of about two paid months of leave to bond with her son, Roman.

"It was Russia, and we had no idea when we'd be traveling," said Lins, who is the associate managing editor at Warren Communications News, a small company in the District.

Unlike parents of biological children, who don't have to tell their bosses they might have a child someday, adoptive parents often have to provide proof of employment to adoption agencies at least a year before they will receive a child, so they might have to let their bosses know a child is coming. In addition, new parents might be asked to pick up their child with little notice and can have to go on leave (if it's provided) with little or no notice.

Ruta Skucas made her adoption plans public early. Her adoption agency needed letters from her employer confirming her work status. In the meantime, she became pregnant. After her biological son was born in December 2002, she took five months off, three of which were paid. Soon after, she was told a child was waiting for her in Lithuania. She and her husband brought him home in November 2003. She took six weeks of unpaid leave.

"You mortgage your house to do this in the first place, and then you're looking at unpaid leave," she said.

Her adopted son is now almost 6 years old, her firstborn is 4, and she bore another son, who is 16 months old.

No matter the struggle, parents say it is more than worth it.

"I have the two best, most adorable, most intelligent, most beautiful daughters in the whole world," said Moreau. She plans to spend today with those adorable, intelligent, beautiful daughters picking strawberries and flying kites.