Looking to adopt.

I am sending you a PM.

You shouldn't give up on domestic infant adoption if what you really want is a newborn. It can be done cheaper and faster than you might think. When I was researching I found MANY agencies with costs around or less than $18,000 all told, which is about what we are spending. DH and I make less than $40,000 together. And you know what? We were able to afford it. Go for adoption through the state if that's really what you want, but don't give up on adopting a newborn because you think it's too expensive. It really, really doesn't have to be.

All though we would love to get as young a child as possible we have decided that an infant is no longer all that important to us. We just really want a child or children to parent and any under the age of 3 would be great. Renee

Okay, I understand. I just wanted you to really know that there ARE options out there to get a newborn that aren't too expensive. I don't know how many people I've had tell me there's no way they could afford it, until I told them what we are spending. I just don't want anyone to miss out because they think, wrongly, that they can't afford it.

I still think what you spent is way out of our price range but i'm glad that you were able to afford it. Renee

What county are you in? I am in Washington Co. I know of several people who have adopted children under 3. I always wanted older than that and my son was 3 when he came. They have called me with babies under 1 twice.

We are in anne arundal county and were looking more at wanting to adopt children that were already free then to actually foster. Renee

The only probbaly that you will have is the % is very high (at least in my county) most foster parents adopt their fc if they become available, so those children would never get to you.

We are hoping to adopt children from out of state. I know several that have become available in new york state which is what my post was asking information about. HOw to go about adopting a child that is free for adoption but in fostercare in another state.

I have a foster/adopt license in Maryland (Montgomery County) and was able to adopt a baby girl (4.5 months old) from NY. The costs came to about $3,100. Because Hanna was an infant from a private agency, I had to pay the NY agency fee ($1000.00), the post placement visits ($975.00) and lawyer costs ($925.00) plus other misc fees. If I had to pay for a private Maryland homestudy, the total cost would have been closer to $4,000. -but the private agency accepted the foster/adopt MD homestudy. The way my Maryland foster/adopt social worker explained it is-if Maryland DHS is doing all the work of preparing your homestudy and not charging you, then they want you to accept a Maryland placement first before looking out of state. After all, they are licensing you so you will adopt from them. However, if Maryland is unable to match you with a child in your age range, they will start working with another agency out of state to get you a child. If you choose a private agency like I did, you have to pay the costs associated with the adoption. If you choose to adopt an out of state child through foster care, most of the costs will be paid by the state. However, you have to give Maryland DHS a chance to match you first before you look at another state like NY. The availability of children (and the ages) changes daily. For example, if you wanted a 2 year old boy-There might not be any 2 year old boys today-but tomorrow they may have three become available for placement. I was looking for a 2 to 5 year old girl and was matched with a newborn (1 month old) girl only 3 working days after my homestudy was complete. Her placement didn't work out and I realized I really DID want an infant-that's when I approached Hanna's agency. Babies and small children do become available often by the state-and are usually adopted by their foster parents. So DHS will want you to be licensed as foster to adopt and they will then try to convince you that a legal risk is your best bet. It IS easy to get a placement that way-but the heartbreak when you give a baby back is very hard. You have to decide if it would be something you could handle. After going through it once, I came to the decision that I COULD do it -so I kept my license active. But you have to give some serious thought to the foster/adopt route before you take a "risk placement".