Ok…new topic to keep my mind busy. :)

I have to say that I have met/run into/heard from/spoken with more than a few adoptive families lately that have realized well into their adoption processes that the agency they chose was not the right or best choice for them. Finding out that the agency you have chosen isn’t a good fit for you for whatever reason AFTER you have given them your hard-earned money and oh so precious paperwork is not a good thing.

I am surprised, considering what a huge decision adoption is, and the great amount of money that adoptive parents give to their agencies, how quickly some people just jump into the process with any old agency without doing a lot of research.

Most people would not buy a car or a house without doing a lot of research. Most people would not send their child to a preschool or daycare without doing a lot of research. And so it should be with choosing an adoption agency.

While it is easy to think that all adoption agencies are out there to help children, so therefore you can’t make a bad choice, that is just not the case.

Here are a few reasons that are NOT good reasons to use to choose an agency (without doing research to back up the decision.)

-Because you know someone else that used them.
-Because they are close to where you live.
-Because you have "heard of them".
-Because they have lots of big, shiny ads in the adoption magazine.
-Because you put a phone call into the agency and the person you spoke to was nice and encouraging.
-Because your mom’s, friend’s, hairdresser’s, sister works there.

You get the idea. Now often times these sort of reasons are good starting points to look into or consider an agency (and often times that agency can turn out to be a good choice for you), but PLEASE…if your only reason for choosing an agency is one or all of the above reasons, you owe it to yourself to do more homework on this.

Continued…