Let's get this started

We have just adopted our little girl (9 Months old) from Guatemala and what a blessing..... I would love to host a play date with other mother's in the area. We are located in Lovettsville Virginia. I wish all the best to everyone now still in the process of adopting from Guatemala.

We too are in Northern VA , in the Ashburn Area. We are waiting patiently( but not sanely) to get back into PGN after being kicked out for the second time. We are waiting for Max who was born 4/22/06

Hey Friends,Single mama waiting on number two from Russia.I am in Occoquan.Waiting for reaccreditation. Been in this process for well over a year!Glad to hear from you all!

Hi all! We have a 4 year old and we are looking to adopt a toddler. At first we looked into Guatemala, but with all the recent havoc down there we started to investigate domestic adoption. We attended our first info session today with an agency and learned a good amount about pursuing domestic options. We will likely register for the 8-week training course that they offer to get started.

Well, I'm slightly different then most of you guys!!:yoda: I'm in Northern Virginia Fairfax County area but am doing an older child foster care/adoption out of state. A 13 y.o. boy to be exact. :love: Single parent! And its a domestic foster to adopt situation. I'm surprised, there don't seem to be a lot of activity for foster care or adoption in Northern Virginia area, seems to be dormant for some reason. Although glad to see lots of international babies getting homes!!:banana:

I haven't seen any recent post. Does anyone have any updates? I, unfortunatly, do not have any. We are still waiting to get out of PGN. Most days I do not ever think it will happen. On a brighter note, we are going to visit the little one for his 1st birthday!(yup, been waiting a full year for him!) But, if we by chance get out of PGN while we are there, I will be staying until we get our passport to come home. Lord knows how long that will be , but, at least i will be with my son! No more goodbyes!!!! Hope to hear from you! Robyn

Yes, we have an update -- we finalized our adoption yesterday. And even though DS has been our son since we brought him home at 3 days old, finalizating is a wonderful feeling -- officially, I am a mommy!

Hello. Well my adoption process if different from most of ya'lls. We are doing a parental placement adoption. That's when there is no agency involved, we just have an attorney. We had a family member connect us to the expectant mother, she is due early July. We were chosen by her in early March. We have about 10 weeks to go!! Time seems to be creeping by so slowly. There does not seem to be a forum that is specifically for "parental adoption", so I decided to write here, being as I'm from the Hampton Roads area. For months now I have been feeling alone because I could not share my story in a parental adoption catergory. I hope I will be welcomed here to share my adoption process as the next 10 weeks go by. Oh, we are adopting a girl! Still haven't decided on her name yet! Suggestions are very welcomed!

I believe a lot of people would classify this as a "private adoption." There are tons of people on this site who have adopted using just an attorney, and no agency.I'm not from Virginia, I just saw this and thought I'd let you know. If you see anything about private adoption, it's probably simliar to your situation.

Right, a private adoption. I mainly use the term "private adoption", but once in a while I say "parental". On two seperate nights while I was in the adoption chatroom I mentioned we were adopting thru a private adoption and had people tell me that if I did not want to talk about the adoption it was okay! I guess they did not understand what a private adoption was!! I feel as though most people who post in the forums are adopting thru agencies. So many of them have the joined agency date, matched dates and what not. How shall I describe my timeline? I guess really that I don't need too. Anyway, I guess I'm just rattling on here, so I shall stop! We are an older couple, (well older than many adopting parents!) I just turned 45 and my husband is 49. I wanted to give some hope and support to other couples our age who are wanting to adopt. Of course though, support to all! Thanks!

Hi All! I am in Northern VA too...... Woodbridge area. I have been reading these forums for over three years now but have never really posted -- too shy I guess?? but thought I would now pop in and say hello to some fellow Virginians! Countrygirl -- My husband and I also adopted through a "private parental placement" using just an attorney (actually one for us and one for birthparents) and it was also a relative adoption. We adopted our great neice! We got her at birth (I was in delivery room) and she just turned three. The adoption process can be so different for each family but I think the roller coaster of emotions are the same no matter what! Nice to meet you all! Cindi ps. Forgot to say we are also both older (dh is 46 and I just turned 49)! We both have grown kids as well.

Cam6770A, Your story is very similiar to ours, although this is not a relative adoption. We just had a relative connect us to the pregnant mother. We plan on having a semi-open adoption. We too have grown boys. They are both in their early 20s. The expectant mom had to go to the hospital last night, was having terrible pain. I was glad to hear everything is okay. Seems the baby dropped low last night and was causing her some major discomfort. She also found out she is one centimeter dilated. I hope she can continue on, as we have 10 weeks till the baby's due date! She is feeling much better today, thank goodness. I was wondering if you or anyone else knew about the homestudy. Does the homestudy need to be done before the baby is born? I am thinking that once we go to the juvenille court, 10 days after the birth, and the parents sign over their rights, that the court system will order the homestudy. That's what I have been told by most, but a few have told me that it needs to be done before the baby is born. Any help with this would be appreicated.

We had to have everything done before the birth according to our lawyer. We found an agency close by that was willing to expidite everything (the home study takes a while sometimes) for us because we also only had about 14 or 15 weeks from the time we were asked to adopt to the time she was born. Do you have an attorney already? If not, I would suggest that you do that quickly and try to choose one who specializes in adoption. Ours did nothing but adoptions. I can't remember......... is the emom in the same state as you or will you have to go to another state? If she is in another state, you will have to do what's called an ICPC which is an agreement between both states for you to take the child from one state into another for the purpose of adoption. Our daughter was borh in Texas. Cindi

Yes, the adoption is in the same state. Same city to be exact. Also, yes, we have an attorney. Although he does not specialize in adoption. My husband has legal benifits thru his employer, he pays a premium every paycheck, and if we need to have a lawyer there is no charge. Only charge is where we pay a monthly premium, same way health insurance works. I have questions as to what the expectant mother is going to tell people after the birth. There are children around that know she is pregnant. You know how children can ask questions, such as "where's your baby". Wondering how she can handle that. I am really scared now about this homestudy. I have got the run around for quite some time as far as the timing goes. If I have to have it done now, I don't think there will be enough time. If the homestudy were not completed, can't the baby still live with us, as long as we have an entrustment agreement/power of attorney? I mean as long as the birthparents want us to take care of the child until the adoption is final, don't see why the courts could have any say so where the baby is living, right? I know it is best to get the ball rolling on the homestudy, so everything can happen at a reasonable time as far as getting towards the finalization of the adoption. It just seems sometimes, when adoptive parents are choosen so close to birth, there is not enough time to get a homestudy started, or for that fact, completed. Then what? I was told once we go to juvenille court, they will order a homestudy. Our county's social services department said they would do the homestudy for us, but that it had to be "court ordered". I can't get the juvenille courts to order one yet, so I think, they have to have some kind of paperwork saying we are petioning to adopt. Sorry I've gone on and on, but I'm just trying to explain myself the best I can, and the only way I know how when it comes to this adoption. I have not adopted before, and everything is new to me. We were not in the process of seaching for a child to adopt, it came to us! Although 2 years ago we had let many people know we would like to adopt. That is how this person knew to call us! Thanks for listening and helping my with the advise you can give. I look forward to receiving all the information I can get!

Hi Im a foster adopt parent at FT Lee, VA. I waited on my agency to find a match for about 10 months then I contacted the surounding area DSS to ask to be added to their list of prospective FP. If you have any advise on a good agency I would appreciate it. My agency refuses to give me a copy of my homestudy. They also refuse to let me seek adoption from other states using the homestudy they approved. Im frustrated with this agency but cannot afford to go through a privaet agency. I started out wanting to help children now I want to adopt but feel Im not being given a chance. I will keep waiting and praying.