Choosing the right Adoption Agency and Home Study Agency are some of the most crucial decisions that you will make in the beginning steps of the adoption process. Looking back to February when we started making those decisions, we must have made 10-12 phone calls to different agencies, not to mention the countless hours we spent looking through agency websites. I won't give advice about which agency to select first (Adoption or Home Study) because at the end of the day, it doesn't really make a difference in the order in which you select them, but it's so important to make sure you feel confident and comfortable with any agency that you decide to go with. Something that we learned right off the bat was that the Home Study Agency has to be local to where you live, because they will be the ones to come to your home for an interview and post placement, etc. The adoption agency, on the other hand, does not have to be local and the choice is really up to you. For us, we started by going to the US Department of State website under the Hague Convention (link is located in the Adoption Terminology and Information section of the website) and located all of the agencies in the United States that were Hague Accredited. I'm no expert on this and there are still a few parts of this that don't make sense to us, but it's my understanding that in the coming months and years that all countries will only be working with adoption agencies that are Hague Accredited. While not every country requires this accreditation yet, adoption laws and regulations can change at the drop of a hat, so for us, it was piece of mind when selecting an adoption agency that was Hague Accredited. While I am not suggesting that you select an agency that is Hague Accredited, I do suggest that you research and educate yourself on Hague Accreditation and the country you are adopting from and their laws regarding the matter. Again, a simple search form the US Department of State site will list all agencies that are Hague Accredited, and for us, we narrowed down from there until we found the agency that was a good fit for us. We decided to go with an agency located in Colorado called A Love Beyond Borders and so far we have been very pleased with them. A Love Beyond Borders is technically a "child placement agency" and they use an agency in Oregon called Adoption Avenues to do their adoptions. I might be misinformed about this, but from my perspective, A Love Beyond Borders serves as a middle man, so to speak. We did look into using Adoption Avenues as our agency and cutting out the middle man, but after talking it over again and again, and after speaking to both agencies on multiple occasions, we felt more comfortable going with A Love Beyond Borders. That's no discredit to Adoption Avenues as we have heard nothing but great things about them, but like all decisions in this process it was a decision of the heart and going with ALBB just felt right for us.
When we started researching about selecting agencies, a lot of the advice given was to reach out and talk to others that you know who have previously adopted. Friends of friends or even friends of friends of friends, can be a good resource of information and give some good insight from their personal experiences. When it came time for us to select a Home Study Agency, we had no idea where to begin as we don't know anyone personally from Florida that has adopted before. So one day we were walking through Publix and we saw a couple that had clearly adopted internationally. After a little hesitation, Mary went up to the mother and asked a few questions regarding the adoption. In their short conversation we were given the name of a local Home Study Agency that we ended up using and it worked out great! One thing I will say regarding talking to others about adoption is that it's not something people are ashamed of and people generally love talking about it openly. Once you determine that you are going to adopt, you start to notice others when you are out and about, that have adopted too. Mostly I am referring to couples who have adopted internationally, as you can point out the difference in ethnic backgrounds or race. The point is, ask questions! All of us who are in the process of adopting or have completed an adoption started out not knowing, and asking questions is the best way to become educated and informed.
When we started researching about selecting agencies, a lot of the advice given was to reach out and talk to others that you know who have previously adopted. Friends of friends or even friends of friends of friends, can be a good resource of information and give some good insight from their personal experiences. When it came time for us to select a Home Study Agency, we had no idea where to begin as we don't know anyone personally from Florida that has adopted before. So one day we were walking through Publix and we saw a couple that had clearly adopted internationally. After a little hesitation, Mary went up to the mother and asked a few questions regarding the adoption. In their short conversation we were given the name of a local Home Study Agency that we ended up using and it worked out great! One thing I will say regarding talking to others about adoption is that it's not something people are ashamed of and people generally love talking about it openly. Once you determine that you are going to adopt, you start to notice others when you are out and about, that have adopted too. Mostly I am referring to couples who have adopted internationally, as you can point out the difference in ethnic backgrounds or race. The point is, ask questions! All of us who are in the process of adopting or have completed an adoption started out not knowing, and asking questions is the best way to become educated and informed.