On Sunday, September 28, we conducted our first adoption ceremony for a family who adopted a 6 year old girl.  I did some work trying to find resources with limited success.  I did have a good conversation with a pastor friend in town with the Episcopal church.  I also utilized material from the “Gathering for Worship” worship guide (British Baptist) after adapting it to an adoption context.
I thought I would share with you the first material (the order of service, basically) we produced for this event.  The material is for the adoption of an older child.  I will be working to complete other worship orders for younger children and infants.  All of these are various working copies as well as the worship bulletin insert for the order of worship itself.
Because we have two worship services, we conducted this ceremony as a stand alone event between our regular worship gatherings.  It lasted about 15-16 minutes total, including the singing of the two songs.

Feel free to share this.  Also, let me know of other materials you have or find in the future for such ceremonies.  We have more them coming in our church, a fact for which we are grateful.

Peace, Randy Carter
Pastor, First Baptist Church of Hillsborough, NC