[MichelleL11]

We live in WA state and adopted from Ohio. I had grown up in Ohio and was comfortable traveling there (visited my sister, nieces and nephew who lives in Michigan as well) -- we also ended up finalizing in Ohio because it had more favorable laws regarding birthfather rights for our situation (another visit with my sister, yay!)

In any case, there were a number of differences at the time (note that I think the law might have changed in the meantime so be sure to ask your agency specifically before doing anything). Our homestudy was done in WA but we had to amend before leaving to pick up our daughter with an additional form regarding safety, get a formal fire safety inspection, and get FBI fingerprint clearance (only child services clearance was required in WA at the time). Since our DD was essentially a baby born situation those differences resulted in some frantic scrambling before we headed off to Ohio, but we got it done.

I have since thought that because the agency we were signed up with does so much work in Ohio, it would've made sense to have us get those things in place ahead of time -- so you could definitely ask about differences and work getting them in your file during your wait (obviously, you may never use them, but it would avoid a rush if you did match with a child from state where they do a lot of their work).

Oh -- one more difference -- Ohio required many more post-adoption visits than WA -- one a month until finalization at six months. We were very lucky in our SW gave us a discounted rate for all the extra visits, so it didn't end up being much more -- but if your SW wasn't so generous, it could end up increasing your costs.

Good luck with your decisions.