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I decided to go the route of using a private agency after being told that the Homestudy would take 6 months maybe longer and then I should plan on at least a year wait for a child, but no guarantee as to placement. I met with a CW for a Public Agency and then received a referral for the Private Agency from a friend. The CW for the Public Agency said that she would not be able to help with an out-of-state adoption and only would assist with kids in our state and highly discouraged anything else. I offered to pay for my HS or have another agency (Private) do the HS, but she said that I would wait longer if I did it that way. My husband and I decided after we met with the Private Agency that we would only search out of state and would try to do it our own way. I started the process in mid March 2006 and had an approved Study by May 8. I was aggressive with making contact with out-of-state
workers and my CW said after we had gone through two thirds of my visits (all else was verified and complete)that I could register on various sites and tell workers that I was approved only waiting on the official hard copy of the HS. All that perseverance paid off and we were matched with our kids on Memorial Weekend and are hoping to have our first visit in the next few weeks. The cost of the HS was $2000 and well worth it to me. I advocated in my own behalf and didn't involve my worker unless absolutely necessary. She charges $125/hr., so you can probably see why. There is just no way I could wait 6 months to do something that takes 4-6 weeks. We're looking at the travel aspect of things as our vacation this year knowing that the route we chose is more expensive. I think there are always alternatives if you're willing to be creative about things. As a side bar, we didn't have to take the state classes as we're not adopting from our state. We did online education and that is fine with the sending state. Just my experiences...you do have other choices.
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