Here is a list of tips and questions to ponder that I give to people who contact me that are interested in adopting a child. I think that this list gives people a good starting point to decide what adoption program is right for them, and also a good starting place for educating themselves on adoption and transracial adoption issues. Please note that there are lots of links in the questions below to guide you to information and resources relevant to the questions.

Questions to ask yourself about the child you hope for:

- What age child am I hoping for?
- What gender child am I hoping for?
- Am I open to any special needs in a child?
- What race(s) of children am I open to? Would I choose to parent an Asian baby? A Hispanic baby? A black baby? A mixed race baby? Why or why not?
- Am I open to siblings?

Questions to ask yourself about transracial adoption:

- Do I believe that I can be a good parent to a child of another race?
- Do other cultures appeal to me?
- If my life homogeneous or do I have friends, family members and acquaintances of many different races?
- Am I willing to go outside of my comfort zone to meet and interact with new people and live a more racially diverse life?
- How would my extended family accept a child of a different race in the family?
- Am I willing to be a conspicuous family?
- How am I preparing to adopt transracially?
- Am I aware of racism?
- Do I believe that a child's race and culture are important parts of who they are?
- How am I prepared to help my child build pride in and knowledge of his race and culture and to connect with other people of his race?
- Am I aware of issues of race related to adoption?

Questions to ask about the adoption process:

- What risks am I willing to take?
- Am I willing to go with a program that could take longer than others?
- How much money can I spend on an adoption? (Make sure you research funding options.)
- Are there any issues in my background or any special circumstances in my family that could affect what programs we qualify for?
- What programs do we qualify for? (Look at age, income, family size, marriage length and other requirements).
- Am I willing to consider an open adoption? Why or why not?
- Am I aware of some of the ethical issues surrounding international adoption and domestic adoption?
- Have I found resources for researching programs and adoption agencies?

I am sure that there are plenty of other questions that could be added to this list (and please feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment), but I have found that using these, with some variation, give me a really good idea of what adoption programs to suggest to someone, and should also be a good starting point for someone just embarking on a transracial adoption.