My dh and I have been researching the different independent alternatives for about 3 weeks. After spending a year with our state agency, we have decided that for us, an independent adoption is the path we want to take. This is mostly due to politics and problems we have had with our public agency sw and our desire to parent sometime before we reach retirement (lol).
I looked at several private agencies, attorneys, and facilitators, and checked a lot of references.
I was always able to find something that didn't sit well when looking at the private agencies...either something from a referral, a website, or verbiage stated in the contract that just didn't "feel" right. I also wasn’t comfortable with the number of clients they worked with at any given time.
An important factor in our final decision was finding a team (facilitator/attorney) that only work with 10 couples at a time, giving us more exposure and personal service.
It is my estimate that our final adoption incurs expenses totaling 17-20K because we are choosing to go with a facilitator to locate birth parents.
During my search I used these websites to check for any complaints and information:
American Academy of Adoption Attorneys
Adoption News
The Adoption Guide
In addition, I also checked each agency/company I was considering by calling the BBB in their area to get a detailed report, the Attorney General's office in their county, as well as called the local bar association for the state they (attorney) practice in.
We are signing up with our attorney tomorrow so our journey (wait) has just begun. I wish us all luck in our journey to become parents!