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Hello,
My husband and I just applied for newborn adoption through LDS Family Services. We live in Arizona...and we are wondering how long it usually takes to have a child placed with you? Months? Years? We just don't know what to expect!
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It's different for everyone. I know people who have had placement literally within days of being approved, and others who it has taken three years plus, if at all. Ourselves, we were officially matched just short of six months after being approved, and had placement nine months after being approved. It took us almost seven months to get approved, so from absolute start to finish (paperwork to finalization) was about two years.
In California the average is like 2 - 3 years. We had 2 failed adoptions in 2 years and then ended up switching agencies. But, I have a friend who adopted 4 kids through LDSFS (the same office we had) in 6 years! You really never know.
My wife and I are on our second adoption through LDSFS. We dragged our feet doing the paper work on the first adoption but had a baby placed after a couple of failed adoptions about a year after approval.
We took about 5 months to get approval this time and we have been waiting only about three weeks so far. However, we have a birthmother that found us on parent profiles and say she has chosen us. Meetings are set up and the wheels are in motion but we remain cautious having done this before.
My biggest advice for LDSFS couples (and I'll probably try to post this on other discussions as well) is to not "wait" for a placement. LDSFS does a wonderful job at all the administrative and legal work, and they are very affordable but their outreach isn't as good is some states. They are making active progress to be better and we have already seen great changes since our first adoption including a better website and more contact with local congregations. But my advice is to do lots of networking and to get yourself on parentprofiles.com. Just because LDSFS does all the paperwork, doesn't mean that you can't bring them a birth mother. Parent Profiles gives an awesome discount for LDSFS couples and we get lots of birthmother inquiries from our exposure there. The combination of LDSFS and parent profiles, to me, is the ideal way of getting a baby for a Latter-Day-Saint.