We began the adoption process quite by accident. I had been on board for adoption for quite a few years, my husband, not as much. (He is always a bit slower to understand that I’m right. Ha!) One day, I received a social media message from a friend that knew of a young lady hoping to place her baby for adoption. When I mentioned it to him, he said yes. After years and years of no, he finally said yes! We began searching for a home study adoption agency the very next day.
We decided to pursue a local adoption agency that had great reviews and had a seemingly similar attitude towards adoption as we did. We also chose them because they worked with both adopting families and birth families, and they provided pre-adoption and post-adoption services and counseling for all parties. Also, they were able to help us with a home study and how to navigate a private adoption from out-of-state. For us newbies, this was a huge relief.
A few months after we were licensed, we were matched. What a wonderful delirious time that was. Our caseworker was wonderful. She helped us through all steps of the matching, meeting process. She was a wonderful guide and advocate on the night our son was born. Unfortunately, when our son was born, our birth mother had a hard time with the hospital staff. They were not adoption competent. Our caseworker filed a complaint against the hospital on behalf of our birth mom. She eased the awkward moments, filled the happy moments, and grieved with us and our child’s birth mother in the hard moments.
When we pursued adoption again after we had moved states, we chose another local adoption agency. After the initial process, some staffing changes happened, and we could not be happier. We are currently licensed with this agency. They have walked us through the process, advocated for our children, for our family, guided us through child protection investigations brought on by the birth parents of our foster children. They’ve grieved with us and celebrated with us. We have managed to find exceptional agencies. The caseworkers we have been matched with have been our biggest cheerleaders, our sounding boards, our voice when we couldn’t find it.
Our adoption agency has many different branches, which means years and years of experience. Our caseworker was able to ask questions and get real information where we were only offered speculation. When the placing agency made unreasonably, unrealistic requests of us, we had knowledge, experience, and the law on our side. It has been invaluable having an adoption agency to work with and through in our experience with domestic infant and foster care adoption.
Are you ready to pursue adoption? Visit Adoption.org or call 1-800-ADOPT-98 to connect with compassionate, nonjudgmental adoption specialists who can help you get started on the journey of a lifetime.
