Adoption

Hi again,

Are there any reputable national adoption agencies that you'd recommend? I did hear back from the two local agencies I contacted thus far.  (One the Catholic Social Services, the other with a Native American placement agency, which belongs to my husband's tribe)  The outlook didn't sound that great to me.  With CSS, they handle 12 waiting families at a time, and when that runs low, they hold another informative meeting/counseling sessions to get the next group going.  This could be in 6 months or a year or a year in a half...just to begin to wait.  They actually only get about 1 to 3 newborns a year for our region, and can't give out an average wait time, because they get babies so infrequently.  At least, the money down wouldn't be that much to start and they don't mind if we go with another agency while we're waiting.  With the NA agency, I just received back a packet of information, and haven't read it yet.  But I noticed that for both you have to be married for 3 years to even start the process, and we've only been married for 2 years since September.  I don't want to wait practically a year, just to begin the waiting, which could take un undetermined amount of time.  These were my only local choices.  Any ideas out there?  Thanks in advance.

If timeline is a major concern, I would expand your search. Really get down to what's important to you about this adoption, what you'd be open to racially, health wise, birth mother, etc., and then look at the states that have requirements you are comfortable with. Texas and Florida might be options for you, but really look at what you are comfortable with. Expand your search to areas around you if you want to stay relatively local. The agency we were originally going with places 25-30 infants a year, while the social worker who did our homestudy places only 1-2. There can be a wide variety of options, even if you don't want to use an agency. You could talk to family lawyers in your area and see what their timelines look like and what they require.

Also, I'd encourage you to look for a local support group of adoptive parents and prospective parents, they can be an invaluable resource. Having people in real life who've gone through what you are going through, that can sit and have coffee and answer anything that comes up for you is great. Not that the ladies here can't do that, they've become my first line of support! But sometimes when you're getting started it's nice to have in person input on area resources.

Look at other agencies near you and find one with an in person seminar or adoptive parent education, you can meet other couples that way as well. Any reputable agency should have some couples as reference that you can talk to.

There really are lots of resources if you know where to look, but it probably will take some time to gather all you need to know to make your decision.

Hope that's at least a little helpful! I know it takes time, but getting all the info you can now will help later in the process when questions come up.

Best of luck!!!

with kitties Stella and Pookie, and pups Josie and Penelope

I agree that maybe casting your net a bit wider is a good idea...I'm not sure where you are, but if you are concerned about staying in-state I would contact some agencies in larger metro areas if you're not already in one.

Beyond that the three 'national' agencies we spoke with were Bethany Christian, IAC (currently featured on the show 'Adoption Diaries' on WE), and The Gladney Center. I'm pretty sure that they aren't licensed in every state, but they seemed to have a significantly larger scope than some others we talked to. It's worth finding out if they work in your state. We chose one of these agencies, the one we felt most comfortable with, but we had heard good things about all three.

Susan

I don't know what you are considering local. We didn't like the agencies in our community. We live in the middle of VA. We drove to MD for our agency. The drive was a little over an hour, if the traffic was okay, but it was well worth it. My point is not to be limited to your hometown.

Good luck,

Thanks for the advice everybody.  Its hard and overwhelming to know where to start, especially when I don't know anybody in person who has adopted (Well, my husband has several cousins who were adopted, but that was 30 years ago, and a lot has changed.  They were all through the one agency I already checked with)We live in a very rural area in MI.  The region I'm referring to is about a 3 hour drive in any direction from here.  I think I'm going to call a few of those mentioned previously to see if they are licensed in my state.