If you have decided to move forward with an adoption plan and think you’d like the services of an agency to help facilitate this adoption, you now have the task of choosing an agency.

Personally speaking, I did a private adoption (more on that another day) but many people use agencies to find a prospective adoptive family. Agencies (or most of the reputable, good ones) also offer post adoptive services that you can take advantage of as well.

I think the first thing we must do is define exactly what an adoption agency is. According to Adoption Services,"An agency adoption is when the placement is arranged through an adoption agency that has been carefully screened by the state to assure that a full range of services is available to the birth parents and adopting family."

How do I choose an agency?
Since this was not something I did, I turned to my birthmother friends and asked them how they went about choosing an agency. They had some great ideas so, I am going to share some of their ideas with you.

They suggest prowling online and finding a few agencies that look appealing and then asking the agency some questions to determine if they are the right agency for you. You can get some of the answers off the blurbs of their websites and with other questions you might need to call and ask your questions directly to an agency worker.

Some of the questions or things you should look for are:

• What legal services are offered to expectant mothers making adoption plans? (In most cases, expectant mothers can have their own attorney that represents only her, if she so desires.)



• Do they provide pre and post counseling for birthmothers? How long is the post counseling?



• Do they provide a birthmother advocate or a birthmother mentor to help you throughout the entire process? Do they provide a birthmother support group?



• What guidelines do they have for working with adoptive parents?



• Is the agency affiliated with a certain religion and if so do they only work with couples in that religion?



• What type of adoptions do agencies primarily do? If an agency does primarily closed adoptions and you are looking for open, then that is not the agency for you.


• Is the agency willing to mediate should a problem arise in an open adoption and help you get the issue resolved with the adoptive parents?

This checklist is great to assist in you in finding a good agency. It goes over questions just as we have done here and is available in a PDF file to print out.

Now, my friends want to share a few of the little things they liked about the agencies they ultimately ended up choosing.

Leigh liked the fact that most of the people working in the office were touched by adoption in some way.

Jamie liked that her agency had profiles of prospective couples on their website. She would go check out the site every few days and see that new ones had been posted.

Suzi liked the fact that the agency treated her like a person and made her feel like an individual and not just another client. Twelve years later, she says she can still walk into the agency and they know her by name and make a point to know of and ask about the children she has now.

Jessica was concerned with where (location wise) her child would be placed so the agency she chose did same state adoptions.

And last but not least....
Let me share a great resource with you that I have just recently found. Anyone considering adoption should read this free booklet published and provided by Concerned United Birthparents. This awesome booklet, entitled “What You Should Know if you are Considering Adoption,” is written by my co-blogger, Heather Lowe, and published by Concerened United Birthparents. This booklet gives you things to think about as you consider adoption, advice on choosing an agency, and more.