Advertising for Domestic Adoption Opportunities

I know there are people who do exactly what you mentioned. It wasn't our style. We would never have considered doing it even if suggested as we would personally feel uncomfortable with it.There are agencies that do not suggest that. Yes, you open yourself up to more risk of fraud going that way. Is the suggestion that you find the mom then bring her to them for everything else?

My guess would be that while they are suggesting you do advertising of your own, that you could place all their contact information on the web and print materials so they are doing the vetting and counseling of the expectant moms. Also, it's fairly typical that the fees can be significantly reduced of you are able to find your own expectant mom by doing this. We did this successfully, and were matched with a birth mom we found within 3 months and adopted our son at birth. It's becoming quite the norm. You may want to reconsider or at least talk with them about their vetting and counseling process as well as utilizing their contact information on the materials. HTH - Sandy

Sandy - are you in FL? My understanding is that FL like GA where I am doesn't allow advertising. . . . It is allowed in Illinois.

With our agency, networking is not meant to take the place of the agency's involvement in the adoption. Even with the agency's online profiles, expectant mothers are able to contact a family first without contacting the agency. I've heard some emoms say that the first thing they did was look for a family, not an agency. That makes some sense to me: the family is directly related to the goal of finding a better future for their child, the agency is not. We also felt really uncomfortable with advertising. We mailed some profiles to a few local places, but that only cost us postage and even that made us feel uncomfortable. We do have a Facebook page and I actually really like it. I don't use it much now. After 18 months and two near placements, my energy for it is pretty low still. I still post a few times each month and in the beginning, I was posting something, something about adoption, something about us, whatever, every day. We didn't garner any emom attention that way, but we did get great support from our family and friends (and their family and friends). That has been totally worth it. When we did match, our FB page was also a sort of live, dynamic profile of us, much more informative and approachable than our official profile, for emom to look at, current pictures, fun, silly facts, a great deal more about what we value and the kind of parents we'd be.

Yes, I'm in FL. Ok, so you can't do print advertising but you can likely do outreach & networking online. In questioning the antiquated FL law, a prominent AAAA attorney here in FL translated the law as meaning that it did not include outreaching & networking online; only print media is illegal. See if you can get that same clarification from your agency or an attorney in GA. Also, there are a good handful of states that do allow advertising. You can certainly advertise in those states even though you reside in GA. Craig's List is a good example. You can post on there, for free, every few days and in every state that you are permitted to do so by law. I've seen several successful matches via Craig's List, Facebook, as well as the online networking/match sites for adoptive parent profiles. :wings:

Lakeparkcpl - I don't mean this to sound like judging you, and FL is the wild west of adoptionland. You can pretty much get away with anything there. There's been plenty of agencies who have violated FL law still in business and the adoptions still finalize.Here's what I found of the FL statute "Citation: Ann. Stat. 63.212(1)(g)It is unlawful for any person, except an adoption entity, to advertise or offer to the public, in any way, by any medium whatever, that a minor is available for adoption or that a minor is sought for adoption; it is unlawful for any person to publish or broadcast any such advertisement without including the Florida license number of the agency or attorney placing the advertisement."That looks like more than print media to me. When I post on my blog, for copyright purposes it's considered published. So in FL, even if an attorney thought he could argue it, I wouldn't do it.Georgia's law is even more specific. "Citation: Ann. Code ǧ 19-8-24(a)(!), (d)It shall be unlawful for any person, organization, corporation, hospital, or association that has not been established as a child-placing agency by the department to advertise, whether in a periodical, by television, radio, or any other public medium or private means, that the person, organization, corporation, hospital, or association will adopt children or will arrange for children to be placed for adoption. Individuals seeking to adopt a child or to place their child for adoption may communicate by private means, which include only written letters or oral statements."Personally, I'm not comfortable with advertising for a baby although I know many do it. And I can't imagine trying to find a baby on Craigslist. There's been so many issues with fraud on Craigslist already, that I don't use it for anything.It's really a personal preference. To me, the spirit of the law in both places is that agencies can advertise, individuals can't. My personal ethics are to abide by that not to find creative ways to skirt the intent. It's also a protect for PAPs. You are more likely to be scammed making your own match than going through a reputable agency. I adopted from FL and the agency certainly didn't suggest that we advertise. And everyone I spoke to in GA said it was illegal here.

I had a hard enough time creating a profile and writing a letter to expectant parents! We DID write a letter to friends/family letting them know we were wanting to adopt and why we wanted to be parents. You never know, someone may know someone. However we ened up being matched through an agency.

Thanks for your advice, I think we will start out slow with facebook. At the very least, maybe I will meet other people who are waiting like us :-)I never understood how people advertised on craigslist, where do you post the advertisement?