Anybody had experience with adoption? How did you pick your adoption agency? There seems to be many when I have googled "adoption agency". How do people possibly know which one to choose????

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If you need to get in touch with me, my email is teach1107910@yahoo.com.

Well I "sort of" have experience with adoption. Years ago after 5 or 6 years of trying to get pregnant, my dh & I started pursuing adoption. I was lucky that I had a social worker friend at the hospital that I worked with who had adopted children and helped place children for adoption who were born at the hospital and put up for adoption. She worked with an attorney who only does adoption in his law practice now. He's quite well known here locally. My dh & I met with him on her recommendation and started the process. We were older already, and he recommended we try private adoption. We ran ads in papers, installed a 2nd phone line with a pre-recorded message that we gave as the phone number, and had received a few calls inquiring about us (from people wanting to give up babies) but had not finalized with anyone when I got pregnant!! So I started the process, but never finished it. But I do know several people well who have adopted and most of them did use agencies and had success. HTH

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ME, ME, ME!!!
We adopted our DS when he was a baby-a preemie to be exact (born at 26 weeks!). We had a wonderful experience!! It is a very overwhelming process, especially at the beginning, because you have so many options. Domestic v. international, private v. agency, open v. closed (most agencies these days do some level of openness). If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. I don't know how to start without overwhelming you even more. We went through a private agency and did an "open" adoption, although we haven't seen or heard from our birthmom since his birth. All I can say is that it has been the most rewarding experience of our lives, and if you met us, you would swear my DS is my bio child!! He is a perfect addition/completion to our family!! All the best to you in your research and decision-making. Let me know if I can give you any more info.

DUH!! Okay, to answer your original ?...
We narrowed it down to knowing we wanted to do a domestic, open adoption through a private agency, and began researching them, and visited with a few local ones. All I can say is when we met the social worker, it just clicked and felt right. And, although this wasn't the case for us, it is helpful to get feedback from friends or acquaintances that have worked with that agency.

I don't know much about domestic adoption but we have 3 children adopted internationally. We adopted after having 3 children biologically and it has been a huge blessing for us all. According to my husband (once very reluctant to even consider adoption), everyone should adopt at least once If I can answer any questions, please feel free to PM me. You can see my beautiful kids on my blog Loos Locos~The Crazy 8

Good luck in your journey, Lisa