No one gets married with divorce in mind.  So when a couple decides to adopt children, divorce is definitely not in their plans.  But life happens and sometimes a marriage just isn’t working, and the only thing to do is to get a divorce. When adoptive parents decide to get a divorce, it is the same as biological parents getting a divorce.  Actually, there is some evidence that adoptive parents are more likely to get a divorce.

Adopted children are more likely to blame themselves for the divorce, than biological children. They are more likely to worry that they will be abandoned, and that your love for them won’t be the same if you are no longer married.  Special care should be taken with adopted children during the divorce process because adopted children have, by definition, suffered a previous loss. Special attention should be taken to their emotional needs. You have to make sure that they know that your love for them is the same, no matter what.

Adopted children in a divorce will be treated the same way biological children are treated. Custody, support and parenting time will be part of the divorce process. After an adoption had been finalized, a divorce does not affect the parental rights of the adoptive parents. The legal rights of the birth parents have been terminated. But there is one caveat to this. If the biological parents gave consent to the adoption with the understanding that the child would be going to a two-parent home, but the adoptive parents were planning a divorce during the adoptive process and did not disclose this, the biological parents have a right to contest the legality of the adoption.