I was wondering how you went about finally choosing an agency to pursue? We are in the midst of interviewing agencies but we don't have a lot to choose from. We tried to contact an Adoption Services firm to help but unfortunately since we live in NY they were unable to help us and we are sort of feeling lost and will little options.
Is there anyone here living in NY who adopted domestically?
Our agency has a NY office and places nationally. PM me if you want more info.
We had 3 local-ish agencies we were interested in. One didn't return our calls, so they were out. One was small and had low fees, but they farmed out a lot of the process, and I didn't like the woman we talked to. One was awesome, but had higher fees. We asked a lot of questions, and ultimately went with one my DH's CW recommended. We were thrilled with our experience
I am not in NY but felt similarly when researching agencies. It's a hard choice! We went to a couple of info sessions too before we chose our agency which is a local agency. I think meeting with our agency director helped a ton because she had a similar story to ours and that was comforting. We are currently looking for a second agency who is willing to share our home study. @maryoosa I just contacted Adoption Star! Haven't heard back yet but I hope you've liked them.
Dr.Loretta sending you a PM now. We interviewed an agency that we really liked today. The only thing that we are hesitant about is their numbers. They currently have 15 approved waiting families and 9 unapproved but will be approved families. Last year they only placed 8 and 11 so far this year. We fear that we will be waiting a long time with them because they are small and don't have that much exposure. But we really liked them.
@Thusadeedoo we did an agency assisted private adoption- so we were introduced to our son's birth parent through friends. We registered with the agency in August 2012 and our son was placed with us in July 2013. I don't think they are necessarily a large agency. They have 3 offices- one in NY, one in OH and one in FL. I know 3 other families in NY who have had children placed in the last year through the agency's matching program- 2 of the children were matched through the ohio office, 1 through NY.
I'm happy to answer other questions about the agency privately.
Check out their communication. Also, ask if you can talk to a recently placed couple to get a feel for how they felt the process worked for them, what support was provided to the adoptive parents and the birth parents, and how they communicated (frequency, method).
We live in NYC and finalized our daughter's adoption in May. We used Adoption Star for a domestic infant adoption and the whole process from first paperwork to finalization took about 2 years. Feel free to PM if you have specific questions.
Re: Picking an Agency
I live in NYC and I am in the midst of a domestic infant adoption. Adoption Star out of Buffalo is our agency.
We had 3 local-ish agencies we were interested in. One didn't return our calls, so they were out. One was small and had low fees, but they farmed out a lot of the process, and I didn't like the woman we talked to. One was awesome, but had higher fees. We asked a lot of questions, and ultimately went with one my DH's CW recommended. We were thrilled with our experience
I'm happy to answer other questions about the agency privately.
5 Angels