The Process of Adopting a Stepchild throught the Eyes of the Stepparents in the Czech Republic

This thesis deals with the process of adopting a child through the eyes of step parents in the Czech Republic. In the theoretical part, with the help of external sources, it explains the current substitute family care with its conditions in the Czech Republic. More emphasis is put on the conditions of an adoption, legal release of a child, mediation of an adoption, and lastly the steps that lead to a child adoption in the Czech Republic. The practical part is written with the help of data acquired from a qualitative research with adoptive parents. Based on the adoptive parent interviews, it introduces their experience with the process of child adoption and explains the shortcomings which they encountered in the process. The results of the research imply that the average waiting period for a child is 25 months in the Czech Republic. One of the largest downsides for adoptive parents is that each Czech region acts on its own and a centralized adoption system is non-existent in our country. Keywords substitute family care, adoption, adoptee, adopter, foster care, biological paren