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First you need to know about the different routes towards getting a AA infant.
1. Agency Adoption
With agency adoptions you attend an information meeting then sign up with them. After you sign up you complete your homestudy and paperwork (about 2-4 months) then wait patiently for a baby. You mentioned your a couple which can be a good thing because couples are generally prefered over singles. You can expect a match in about 1-12 months with a 1-6 month wait being the average. The more open you are to alcohol, drugs, mental/emotional health disorders and other special needs the more quickly you can anticipate a placement. Most of the time AA infants are cheaper to adopt than healthy CC infant because of the great need for families. The total cost can be 10-20K not including travel and finalization which can add about 2-3K.
Another way to adopt is through a public agency-AKA the foster care system. There are children of all races and ethnicities in foster care but unfortunately, AA and sometime Latino children are consider diffucult to place. Sibling groups and older chidren also fall into this catagory. With that being said, foster care is a great option for families who are open to infants with medical risks since the vast majority of the infants available for adoption have been exposed to drugs in utero.
In international adoption the rules are a bit more flexible and its easier to specify gender if thats important to you. However, it is impossible to recieve a newborn baby because of the process in international adoption. Most of the children available for adoption are ages 6-12 months and up and are of Asian and CC decent. With that being said you can adopt from Ethiopia or Haiti if you want an AA looking child and the total cost would be about 20-25K. From the time you sign up to the time you have a child can but about 12-18 months for Ethiopia and about 12-24 months from Haiti.
2. Independent adoption
This is another route towards becoming a parent. Attorneys tend to be more accepting of "non-traditional familes" and older couples. You advertise and look for the birthmother though networking and placing ads in newspapers. Independent adoption tends to be faster than agency adoption and in some cases, cheaper. However, I would not recommend this route if you want to just sit by the phone and wait for your social worker to call you. You have to do a lot of the work yourself but you will have your Attorney to assist you with the "legal stuff" like birth mother fees and open adoption agreements.
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