How did you find your agency?

MrsMike0527 · January 2009

We are trying to find an agency to work with... but aren't sure where to begin. Do I even trust google with this important of a decision? How else would I search for one?

CaptainSerious · January 2009

Lots of research. The first thing you?ll have to do is decide what kind of adoption ?fits? your family best; that will point you in the right direction. Books like "Adoption for Dummies" or "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Adoption" will get started, give you lots of basic information on adoption and the process, and help you narrow down your answer to that question. Another good book is "The Complete Adoption Book."

The other great things about these books is that they will tell you what it is important to know about an agency, and why. They will give you tons of questions to ask or find the answers to. I literally asked each agency that worked with the country we chose to adopt from (there were only 8) all of the questions I found in "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Adoption," plus others I collected from websites. I kept track of all the responses in a spreadsheet, and when I was done, we had it narrowed down to two agencies. That?s when the Internet research came into play.

If you decide to pursue a domestic adoption, I would then find agencies near you and ask for printed information, including their annual report, and all the questions. Once you have a few frontrunners, look them up on the yahoo group called "AARD" (Adoption Agency Research ? Domestic). That group is dedicated to giving honest feedback on agencies. You can ask about the agencies you are interested in directly, and also search their archives and files.

If you choose international, you need to then pick from which country. The US Department of State's website lists the requirements and specifics of adopting from each country (https://snipurl.com/2patx). Once you've made your country choice, you'll need to find an agency that has a program specializing in adoptions from that country. The yahoo group "Adoption Agency Research" is a phenomenal resource for vetting agencies, and works the same way as ?AARD.?

Good luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. We've all learned through the help of others.

speak-ez · January 2009

We actually started with the phone book and called every agency in the yellow pages. It helped us narrow it down. We requested info from a few. In the end (when we were down to 3) we started asking around and got personal recommendations. GL!

kgs0505 · January 2009

I attened an adoption panel that my local Resolve chapter puts on, once or twice a year. They had 6 panels, 3 domestic and 3 international to describe and talk about their adoption programs. It was really nice to get some a good picture of the various adoption programs available. For the domestic panel, they had an attorney, a facilitator and a fost/adopt SW. It was really helpful to us not only to choose domestic vs. international, but we found that we liked the lawyer and what his business could do for us over the others. So, we managed to find who we wanted to work with right there. It was just a really nice way to get a lot of information at once. It was really a nice panel and totally worth the hour drive to get to it.

Dr.Loretta · January 2009

Adoption for Dummies suggested opening the phone book, so between that and the internet, we looked at agencies fairly local to us. Then we started narrowing down the list depending on how responsive they were. We're down to 2 agencies now, and will decide once we get the $ to proceed.

silliestbunny · January 2009

If you are interested in DA, start asking around. As soon as you start asking, you'll find there are tons of people and opinions about agencies in your area. We found it helpful to get started.
Ultimately we did not go with the "popular" agency in our area but it did get us started.

iluvhimso · January 2009

We got several recommendtions from friends who have friends that adopted through our agency. DH's doctor also recommended our agency and adopted one of his children through them as well.

How did you find your agency?

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