[minibus]

If you are looking for a healthy caucasian newborn, it's going to be expensive. There's just no way around it, at least that I have found. The demand is just too high. You could take your chances with foster-adopt, but then you will likely run into worry about the duration to TPR.

We use an agency that is similar to a facilitator, though they are licensed as an agency. They have contact with different agencies all across the country, so our search is not limited to our state. They are expensive, though, because we have their fees and the birthmother's agency's fees. The other agency we have worked with (failed match) has offices/representatives in about a dozen states.

I think that you have to choose - do you want less expensive, or are you open to race, in utero alcohol/drug use. It's a harsh choice, but I think that it's often a choice that needs to be made, unless you want to wait a long long time for a "perfect" situation, which could very well turn out not to be perfect when it actually happens. The more you limit yourselves, the longer you will wait, in the majority of cases.

Also, I think that most domestic adoptions "favor" the birthparents. Birthparents are given every right and opportunity to change their minds about their adoption plans up until birth and for a given duration (depending on the state where the mother is giving birth) after the birth. I'm not saying that it's wrong, it's just something that surprised me when I got into this process.

Different states have different lengths from birth to TPR. In some states, it's 24 hours, in others it's 30 days or I think I've even seen 6 months.

I think it is possible that you could contact an agency outside of Maryland which has several offices/branches in different states and see if they will work with you, if Maryland does not allow facilitators.

Best of luck to you!