Adoption in Washington

There is an incredible agency called Antioch Adoptions that only does adoptions in Washington State. They are incredible for many reasons, the most obvious of which is the fact that they do "no fee" adoptions. I can tell you more if you're interested... they have limitations and there are things a couple needs to do before even getting an application... but if you can get back to me quickly, and you like what I tell you... then you might be able to get underway in December!!!! My e-mail address is ml.fazekas@verizon.net If you would prefer to talk on the telephone (I don't know where in WA you live.), then once you e-mail me I wouldn't mind giving you my phone number and we could go from there. Whatever... e-mail is fine too. Mara

Mara, Thank you so much, but I tried trhem and they said no as well. Because we are catholic and not Christian, and because we don't belong to a church. But thank you it was a great suggestion!

We are starting an active search of a good agency also. There are so many out there. How is your search going?

SL&RL, No have not found anything yet, it's tuff, because its not really that there's not an agency or facilitator that we have been able to find that we can afford. Looking around we have found a couple places that we would love to go ith, one is a facilitator, and we really like them and feel that we would love to go through the adoption process with them. But we simply can't afford it. I have a couple slightly possible leads. One is rthough a freind that works in corrections, she had said that they where working on a possible adoption program for pregnant inmates, but it got put on hold till next yer and then it would probably be a year before we would know weather it was passed, not to mention that the process could start again if it was revised, or even be completly thrown out. The other lead is just a freind that knows of a couple girls that are pregnant and would like to do an independednt adoption, so all we would have are the atty fees and court costs. But who knows if that will work out. We are hoping for a single healthy infant, of any ethnic background, do not have a sex preferance, and would do a case by case basis on possible drug exposure, and minor fixable birth defects like a hurnia or something. My state has a program for only $350 that covers all costs from start to finish except for any travel expenses you might have. And up tp $1,500 is refundable as soon as adoption finalizes. But they only offer older kids, special needs kids, or toddlers in sibling groups. We don't know if we can go from 0 kids to two kids from one day to the mext, and we are young so a baby is ideal. I have heard that on occasion they have an infant in a sibling group. We are so desperate! We have been talking about it for about a week, and if there happened to be a young toddler, and a nearly newborn infant and neather of them where special needs, we would take them. For now we are going to wait a couple of weeks and see if the girls my freind knows are serious about an adoption plan, and if they even consider us. If it does not work out, I just don't know. Keep me informed of how you are doing. May

Thanks for replying. Have you done your homestudy yet? We are hoping to have the homestudy done by the end of the year. I think we are going with an independent at this point. I have a bunch of packets from agencies......so we still are not sure. That is great that you have some leads. Sounds like you are doing some great homework :) Shelley

Shelly, No we have not done our homestudy yet. We have not done it yet for several reasons, one is that I think we still have hope that we can afford to go with the facilitator we liked, and since the homestudy id only good for one year we don't want to get it done too soon, and then have to pay to have it re-newwed. Also different agencies, and the state sometimes have homestudyies done of their own so we don't want to pay twice for something either. Once we find out a bit more about what we are going to do, we will have it done. If we are going to be adopting through the state the $350 includes the homestudy, so it would be in our best interet to wait and see if that's the way we will ahve to go. If not I have a packet already filled out to a lady that was recomenede by a friend that did her homestudy and she only costs $700. If we end up going through the facilitator, we could use her, also if we end up going independently we can use her. lol only $700.. yes it's a lot less than some other homestudy fees, but we don't even have enought to do it just yet. That's good that you guys are thinking of doing an independent adoption for now at least. For us I don't want to actively start one. We don;t really want to start putting ads in paper and al that because it seems that it would be unlikely that someone would respond,and when they would we would have just about spend as much on ads, and other methods that we could have paid a agency. Since we do have the option for that state program, we want to sit tight for now. I do hope tat if you start an independent search you get a baby fast. Have you heard of that happening? I don't know that much about doing an independednt search. The best thing would be if we where able to adopt from one of those girls I told you about. But we will just have to wait and see.

While growing up, my parents were foster parents to infants through World Association for Parents and Children (WACAP). The infants came directly from the hospital my mother worked at and stayed with us until the adopted or birth parents took them home. Most were adopted. We had one couple who had not decided and adoptive parents not chosen; they decided to raise the child. I checked their website and they currently only place African-American infants domestically. Have you checked agencies in other states, especially Idaho and Oregon? Joy

Hi also don't forget that you can up to 10,000..on your tax return back of your adoption expenses and even if you find a private resouce don't forget there will be attorney fees and birthmother counceling ( hopefully) Good luck to you in finding your bundle of joy

I don't know where in Washington you are, but Medina Children and Family Services (just now changing their name to Amara) in Seattle works on a sliding scale. It can work out to be much less expensive than a traditional agency. They place infants in traditional adoption situations and also foster adopt children--infants to teens. [url]http://www.medinachild.org/[/url]

We are currently registered with Amara (formerly Medina) and it's true, their fees are sliding scale based on your income--they also offer some financial assistance resources to help you overcome any financial barriers that might exist for you. You might give them a try. Our experience so far has been fantastic.

Keep us informed! The post before yours was 10 months and we have since adopted. We were matched with our sons birthmother in December 04 and he was born March 05. So we now have a wonderful 6 month old :)