Not Sure Where to Start

1. Relatively few licensed American agencies are accredited by Ethiopia. As a result, you may not have an agency meeting these criteria in your home state. But that is no big deal. Nowadays, it is extremely common for agencies to work with out of state families. With access to email, phones, faxes, overnight delivery systems like FedEx, the postal service, Internet listservs, and so on, many agencies form as strong bonds with out of state families as with in state families. You don't have to go to the agency, so it doesn't even matter if the agency is at the opposite end of the country from you. In fact, some East Coast families like West Coast agencies, because the West Coast agencies will still be open when they arrive home from work, so phone calls are easier. There are a few advantages to working with an in state agency, but they are not enormous. As an example, you can have your homestudy and your placement handled by the same agency, which may save you a little time and money, and ensure good coordination. However, if you pick a good placement agency out of state, it will help you choose a homestudy agency in your jurisdiction that can do a good job at a moderate cost. With an in state agency, you can possibly benefit from preadoption classes offered by the agency, as well as from post adoption counseling and support. You can participate in adoptive family gatherings to celebrate the holidays of your child's birth culture and the joys of adoption. But if you have other good resources in your state, you don't need to get these services from your agency. In short, my feeling is that if there is a licensed, accredited agency in your state that has a good reputation and is consistent with your personal preferences, by all means use it. However, remember that your agency will be your partner in one of the most important events in your life, so don't choose an agency that doesn't "feel right", just because it's local. There are some outstanding agencies out there, and one is bound to be right for you, even if it is not local. 2. Any agency should be able to give you a good breakdown of fees. But be sure, when comparing agencies, that you are comparing "apples to apples". As an example, two agencies may appear to be very different in fees, but one may not be including the homestudy, or MAY be including your child's visa fee. If you do your homework very carefully, you should be able to come up with some good figures. Of course, remember that air fare is an important component of costs, and air fare can vary dramatically, depending on season of the year, preferred class of service, etc. 3. When you get right down to it, price won't vary all that much among agencies. Yes, one may recommend that you stay at an orphanage-run guest house, and you may save a few dollars by staying there instead of in a hotel. Or another may have slightly higher fees, but offer to do more steps of dossier preparation for you, and this may be important for you because you HATE paperwork. If an agency has a reputation for honesty and good service, AND its fees are lower than others, by all means choose it. But don't choose an agency that claims to have unusually low fees, unless you are sure that it is licensed and accredited, highly experienced, and highly regarded. For one thing, once you make a little spreadsheet and figure out all the components of cost, you'll see that the allegedly low cost agency may be leaving out items, either because it assumes you'll know that you have to pay those separately, or because it wants to mislead you. As an example, few agencies include travel in their fees, but they should be able to give you an estimate of travel costs, and whether the estimate is based on flying coach or business class, in peak season or in low season. Chances are, when you do a good analysis, the agency's costs won't be much different from any other agency's. Remember that most adoption costs are NOT associated with the agency. One of the biggest components of cost is your travel. Now, some agencies can help you find good prices on your airfare to the country or hotels in the country, but in most cases, you will book your own travel, choosing your own airlines and hotels. You may not qualify for the lowest fares, because you may have to book travel on short notice. And you may decide to upgrade over your usual preferences, because you will be parenting a child who may be sick or grieving and will want to be as comfortable as possible. 4. NEVER try to plan an adoption so that it happens in a certain time period, such as during your summer vacation. The best anyone can do is to say "about" how long an adoption is taking RIGHT NOW. Next week, a country's government could put some new rules in place and create an extra review step that takes a month. Or a critical judge or official may decide to go on vacation or may have a heart attack, leaving paperwork piled up for weeks. Or there could be a strike or some civil unrest that causes your agency to tell you to postpone travel until things settle down. Or there could be something like the recent swine flu scare. Or you could wind up having to redo some paperwork. There could also be orphanage related changes in timing. With Ethiopia, agencies tend to work with specific orphanages. There's no way of predicting how many children of the age and health status you are requesting will be at the orphanage when your paperwork is ready for matching. If there's no child available, you'll have to wait until one is available. And if you are looking for an infant, your agency probably has a waiting list, so you won't get matched until everyone before you who has requested an infant is matched. These things, as they say, "happen in God's time". We just aren't in control of them, no matter what we do. And if we want to have a child and not go totally crazy, we have to accept that. Sharon