From Adoption 101: How to Adopt a Child:

1. Contact the adoption agency, attorney, or facilitator.

The very first step is to find an adoption agency, attorney, or facilitator. What is the difference between the three?

Adoption Agencies

An adoption agency is an organization, either public or private, that is licensed by the state to facilitate adoptions. Adoption agencies generally provide more services than attorneys or facilitators, including the following:

• Counseling


• Home studies


• Locating adoption opportunities


• Post-adoption services


• Pre-adoption education

Because of the extra services offered, adoptions through agencies tend to be more expensive. Agencies sometimes impose additional restrictions on the hopeful adoptive parents they will work with, such as some Christian agencies requiring membership in a church in order to adopt through them.

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Attorneys

Hiring an adoption attorney is an alternative to working with an agency. Some adoption attorneys will be involved in matching the hopeful adoptive parents with a child; others will not. Those who are involved in the matching process generally charge a higher fee.

See Private (or Independent) Adoption for more information.

Facilitators

Adoption facilitators are people who are not licensed either as an adoption agency or as an attorney but who assist in matching expecting mothers with hopeful adoptive parents. Some states do not allow facilitators to be paid for their services. Using a facilitator illegally can affect your ability to finalize your adoption.

See Adoption Facilitators for more information.

Selecting an Adoption Professional

Once you have decided which route to take, you will want to interview the agencies, attorneys, or facilitators you are considering before selecting one. Adoption.com has a very good article on this process called Selecting an Adoption Agency or Attorney. The article provides a long list of factors to consider and questions to ask when searching for an agency, attorney, or facilitator. I strongly recommend printing out these questions and working through them to assist you in finding a quality adoption professional with whom to work.

Notice that the first suggestion on each list is to ask for referrals. People who have worked with an adoption professional are in the best position to reassure you that the adoption professional knows what he is doing.