If you are just starting to look into adoption, you may be wondering, “Where do we start?”
One of the first steps is to figure out who is going to help you with your adoption journey. There are so many agencies, attorneys, and facilitators out there. How do you choose? This is the most important journey you have ever been on – so you have to find the right people to work with.
Who can help us?
When my wife and I began to look into adoption we had questions about the process and concerns about adoption scams. There was a lot to research on the internet and we felt overwhelmed about where to start.
We found that adopting internationally would likely be more expensive and we would be bringing home a child that was at least 6 months old. We wanted to adopt a newborn so this meant we would have to adopt domestically (in the United States).
So after spending many hours on the internet we realized it basically came down to three choices:
- Adoption agency
- Adoption facilitator
- Independent adoption
Which one to choose?
You may have seen some couples listed in newspapers or elsewhere “advertising” themselves as people that want to adopt a baby. This essentially is what an independent adoption is, where you would do your own search for a prospective birthmom.
This was not for us. We wanted (and needed) someone to screen potential birthmothers for us. During our research we simply started contacting different agencies and facilitators that we found through research on the internet.
We made it a point to contact all of their references – those adoptive families that have worked with them. This gave us insight on the agency/facilitator and how the process worked.
It came down to who was going to help us adopt a newborn the fastest while making the process as smooth as possible.
In the end, we worked with a local adoption agency AND a nationwide facilitator. Are you confused now? Well, let me explain.
We chose to use an adoption facilitator because they spoke to dozens of expectant mothers, presenting them with our profile trying to establish a potential match. The facilitator also did so much more for us.
They taught us how to put a profile together, coached us on how to talk to a potential birthmother and assisted us through the whole adoption process. Where did the adoption agency come in?
We had to use them to get our home study completed because they were one of the licensed agencies in our state. No matter what choice you make, you will need a home study.
Some questions to ask
Here are some questions we asked when researching agencies:
- How long has the agency/facilitator operated?
- How many children have they placed in recent years?
- What is the average wait time to matching with a birthmother?
- What is the average wait time to place a child?
- What is their reclaim rate? (How often a birthmother changes her mind)
- What help/support do they give birthmothers?
- What are the fees? What are the fees for?
- What happens if a potential match doesn’t work out?
- What kind of support services do they offer before, during, and after placement?
These are some good questions that you can ask but remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be careful.
Take your time (even though I know that you want to move as fast as you can to start your family). This will help save you a great deal of stress.
Choosing the right agency will improve your chances of having a successful adoption journey – to bring home that precious little one.
Click here to read a great article about choosing an agency or facilitator from AdoptionAttorneys.org.
Check out how some adoptive families, birthmothers, and others have rated adoption agencies and facilitators: www.AdoptionAgencyRatings.com
What do you think about working with adoption agencies or facilitators? Click here to post your comments.
