Numerous web sites are available on adoption agencies
and businesses that facilitate adoptions. There are
three common types of businesses that conduct adoptions:
The agency, the facilitator, and the private lawyer.
Typically, adoption agencies handle all of
the ins and outs in an adoption from beginning to
end. They have a series of fees that include almost
all of the costs associated with the adoption. It
is normally a full-service group with legal helps,
social workers, facilitators, etc. This is especially
helpful when pursuing international adoption where
the legal maze can be incredibly complicated from
country to country.
Adoption facilitators are more commonly employed
for domestic adoption. These services generally connect
birth mothers with adoptive families either in an
open or closed situation. This can vary greatly depending
upon individual business policies of the facilitator
and desires of the birth mother and adoptive parents.
Generally, you will contact your own social worker
for home study and lawyer in your home state for legal
advice. It might also mean hiring a lawyer in the
state you are actually receiving the child from. The
facilitator should also have contacts for birth mother
counseling, legal helps in the state they are located,
and information necessary to complete the adoption.
Private adoption through a lawyer is usually
a combination of an agency and facilitator. The lawyer
may have birth mothers he/she knows to recommend and
might serve as facilitator in this manner. He/she
generally has social workers and helps to recommend
to adoptive families. This can also be as open or
closed as the parties involved are comfortable with.
An adoption coach, is someone who has "been
there-done that" and can be hired for a fee to
coach the adoptive family through the process from
a first-hand experience. This is a service that is
generally specific to the type of adoption the coach
went through (i.e., international adoption from a
specific country). This service can be invaluable
to a couple struggling to work their way through the
process of adoption by having access to someone who
has already trafficked the intricate maze successfully.
Before proceeding with an adoption done via the Internet,
you may want to consider the following questions in
addition to the regular questions outlined under Adoption
Questions:
- Obtain the full name of the agency including street
address and phone number.
- Ask for the names of the Director and the Board
of Directors.
- Find out when the business or agency was established.
- Call the Better Business Bureau in the city/state
where the web site originated to see if any consumer
comments or complaints have been made. It is important
to remember that this is still a business transaction,
and you should make every effort to protect yourself
financially and legally.
- Who screens the biological parents, and what credentials
qualify these screeners?
- How does the agency deals with obtaining parental
release of both the biological mother and father?
- Does the agency/facilitator have legal counsel
available? Contact the American Academy of Adoption
Attorneys at 1-202-832-2222, or www.adoptionattorneys.org.
Are they are aware of all the specifics on inter-state
compacts if the baby/child is in a different state?
- Ask for an itemized expense list which should
include projected costs for the birth mother's medical
bills if she is uninsured, her lodging and general
living expenses (if state law permits). Also get
estimated costs for travel expenses for the biological
father and mother to surrender the child (if state
law permits), expenses for legal expenses, agency
fees, as well as for a home study which needs to
be done in your state. Ask if there are any other
fees.
- Do you pay in full in advance prior to placement?
If money is being put in escrow, what it is for
and how is the money managed?
- Under what conditions a refund will be provided?
- Will the baby need to be in or is he/she currently
in foster care? If so, who covers that expense?
- Can you arrange to have a pediatrician (paid by
you) to evaluate the health of the child.
- Be sure to be very specific about how much (if
any) contact the biological parents wish to have
with you and with the child pre-placement and post-placement.
This is an important decision that you and your
spouse should reach as a couple before beginning
the adoption process so that you can be very specific
with the agency and facilitator you choose. This
will also help you narrow down agencies and facilitators
that will fulfill your personal choice
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