What a process this is! I am surprised just how thorough they get. We started out interviewing adoption agencies. There are so many to choose from. We originally looked at LDS adoption services. My cousin went through them, but had told me that they can take awhile to place a child with you. They were less expensive... around $10,000, but then we would probably be on the waiting list for about 4-5 years! This was much longer then we felt we wanted to wait. The agency said that if we went through another agency and were willing to pay more (around $20,000- $30,000) then we could get a child much faster. She said there were grants out there that we could also apply for that would help with the adoption costs. She then referred me to the adoption.com website and there I found many private agencies and grant application
We then began the interview process. We met with one agency and were very helpful. They knew a lot about the adoption world. The owner of the agency happened to be there that day. She said that once you find the agency you will just know that this is where your baby will be coming from. The next week we met with another agency. She was also very helpful and their agency specifically worked with African American children. After leaving that agency... we knew! We both had a very strong feeling that this is where we were going to be receiving our baby from.
So once the agency was decided on then began ALL the paperwork! What an enormous amount. We had to do a home study first. This is where a social worker comes into your home an evaluates to see if you would be fit parents. They check EVERYTHING! There are back ground checks, health exams, tax evaluations and the list goes on and on. They looked inside your history, your families backgrounds, and then your home. Before you are able to adopt your house has to be baby proofed. We may not have a child in our home for a year, but they want to make sure you are ready anytime.
The process is exhausting and so much work, but we did it. I am so grateful that everything from our end is done. Next comes the matching process and of course the funding. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
