[Jesheeca]

Does anyone know of any good reputable adoption agencies? Also, what kind of cost are we looking at? And, one more thing...how long did most of you try to conceive before deciding to move on to adoption? Thanks for your input!

[ChinaMommy]

Are you looking at domestic or international?

I don't believe there is a "set time" that anyone should wait...you have to do what feels right for you. We started after 2 years, which was right for us.

[ashley84]

We have been looking into adoption for some time now but have not taken the leap to actually start the process. As of cost from the research I have done it look like 15k -25k for domestic and can be more for international. There is a tax credit right now of 10k. so that helps in the end but you need all the money up front. We have been trying to conceive for 6 1/2 years now and still don't have a child to call our own.

[Kari]

We tried for about 2-1/2 years before pursuing adoption. We adopted through a local non-profit agency (domestic adoption). Our cost was $15,000. We had looked into national agencies for domestic adoption and they seemed to range from $28,000-42,000. One important question to ask is whether you lose $ if the emom changes her mind. If that happened thru our agency, we were not out any money and our letter would go back in "the book".

Best of luck!

[babydoll00]

Me and my husband have begun looking to adopt and we have decided to start the process of hopefully becoming approved. I have a lot of questions like you do. A lot of people have told me to call my local to DHR or Dept of Human Resources to see what needs to be done b/c i know there are evaluations and home studies to do. We are also concerned with legitimate agencies in the south. If anyone knows of any please message me. Also i checked out Adoption, International, Domestic, Waiting Child, Baby, Infant, Open, Adoption, Adopt, Adopting, Ado. They do have a lot of info. We have been ttc for 4 yrs with 2 losses and we now accept that our blessing may be in the form of an adopted baby or child instead of a biological one. I think when you and your spouse are both in agreement and comfortable with it. Once the idea of adoption was uncertain to me, now I am excited and looking forward to it. Best Wishes to you.

[Dren09]

We did a domestic adoption and used American Adoptions. They are a very reputable company and often times work with other agencies to get more exposure and matches. We decided to pursue adoption after 3 years of ttc. We were homestudy approved and active with American Adoptions within 4 months. We were matched with our birthmom exactly 6 weeks later. A month after that, our son was born. American Adoptions has different prices ranges you can choose. We went with program 1 which is supposed to be less expensive but by the time we included our homestudy, the adoption agency fees, added costs because the birthmom almost backed out so it took longer than expected which also caused more paperwork, our travel expenses, and the post placement visits we had spent over $35,000. You do get up to $10K in a tax credit but it is over 5 years and only up to 10K so if you don't pay over 10k in federal taxes in 5 years then you're not going to wind up getting that much back. If you go with a reputable agency, I'd say you could easily expect to spend 15K-40K, the 20K-30K seems to be the norm from what I've heard. Some agencies advertise more than others so a lot of the cost can go to advertising. I know a big question to ask a potential agency is how many families are you currently working with and how many matches a year do you make? If the ratio of families is way more than the # of matches they make, then it means the expected wait will probably be longer.
BOL as you begin your journey!