adoption help in Maryland

Hi, One of the main 'challenges' of domestic parental placement adoption is the timeline - it's very unpredictable. I'm a firm believer though that you can adopt an infant of any ethnic background within one year. What it takes is some time doing personal networking/searching, focus and commitment. Since you are not married, you (or your SO) would need to adopt as a single person. If you and your SO are living together, both will be interviewed and have background checks for the homestudy - both the adopting and non-adopting individual. The vast majority of domestic parental placement situations are of newborns, though there are a few older children whose biological parents can no longer provide care for yet DSS is not involved. Most domestic situations have fees and costs (this is including homestudy, legals, advertising/networking, travel, meals, etc.) between $4000 and $10000. You will see situations offered by agencies, attorneys and facilitators that are higher than this. This is primarily because there are more 'professionals' involved ergo more fees and also likely the prospective bparents are needing assistance with living and medical expenses. Please note that they are not the norm - they're advertised BECAUSE there are fewer people out there willing/able to pay these fees and expenses. HTH, please feel free to ask questions. Regina, AMom to Ryan Joshua Thomas

We both would be willing to undergo a homestudy and such,but I just do not feel confident a lot of biological moms would consider giving us a chance since we are currently not married.I am torn only because I do not want to go through the whole homestudy process and years later still not have an adopted child.In Maryland it seems almost impossible to find any adoption situations.I sent away to a couple of Maryland agencies and none could actually guarantee a child especially not a white child we would be open to white or hispanic.I see lots of available adoption situations on the internet but i am not sure to trust anybody or any agency.Babies R Blessings seems to be very nice,but there are differnt fees that apply to the adoptions and i am not sure exactly the total cost after everything is said and done.International adoption is extremely expensive $25,000.00 and up for a country where travel is not required.I honestly cannot make a decision.I just wish i could hear some postives about domestic adoption -If anyone out there can recommend a domestic agency or whatever where we can turn to please advise us-thank you

One of the unique things about domestic parental placement is that for every prospective aparent 'situation' there are prospective bparents who would consider it a 'match'. For instance, someone choosing to place their child with a single adult or unmarried couple may themselves be a single parent and/or have been raised by a single parent or unmarried couple. In our case, DH was planning on being a SAHD and is well over 40. We were worried that this would be less attractive. 4 months after we started searching we met Ryan's bparents who thought DH would make a great at-home dad and could've cared less about his age (he is 2 years older than Ryan's biological grandfather). Ryan's bparents are Wiccan, they were terrified that all paparents were deeply religious Christians and would condemn them. Well, surprise, didn't bother us a bit. Also, please do keep in mind that you're not restricted to finding your child in Maryland, Ryan was born in Texas and we're in Virginia. Most domestic situations happen because of your networking and searching, not waiting for an agency or attorney to 'find' you a child or 'place' a child with you. As for agencies, I've heard good things about Adoptions From the Heart and the Barker Foundation, both of which provide services in MD. We used Shore Adoption Services in Virginia Beach. They only work with Virginia families. Babies R Blessings I think is a facilitation/referral service. Adoption is about risks - there is no risk free way to become a parent. It's not a matter of which way has no risk or fewer risks, it's a matter of which you feel you can handle and which you feel you can't. One of the 'risks' in domestic adoption is timeline - there is no set time after which you become parents. It can happen in a day, a week, a month or a year. This is difficult for anxious prospective parents to manage, believe me. Anyone who tells you they can 'guarantee' a placement within X time in domestic parental placement is either a fool or a fraud. One of the things I see a lot is people saying OK I'll go domestic for X months/years, than if I don't have a child by then, I'll convert and go international. We started that way too - gave ourselves a year to see if we could adopt domestically, then we were going to go overseas. Surprise. Ryan was born 355 days after our last homestudy visit. HTH, Regina, AMom to Ryan Joshua Thomas

Thank you for your response you are very helpful.We decided after January to try and get some of our financial bills down before jumping right into adoption.We have known for years that adoption is for us.We absolutely adore children.I could not even imagine a life without children.I pray everyday to St. Jude to give us the strength to eventually be able to adopt a precious child.A child would mean the world to us our prayers would be answered.Hopefully one day our little angel will arrive until then we keep the faith.thank you for your response.

Kelly, I am also in Maryland.. are you willing to do foster care and adopt out of the system? if this is the case, you may be able to get much of this done with less money and possibly quicker.. but it is with risk as some of the child do go back home.. We actually are foster parents, but are also looking into international adoption.. there are programs where the children can be escorted home and I would be happy to talk to you about that as well.. please feel free to email me at mlbrecht@yahoo.com Mandy