|
A great source of info on agencies is to find the Yahoo group for each of those countries. Parents who have been there and done that are usually quite willing to share their experiences.
Remember that in I/A, fast and cheap is not usually a reality. After all is said and done, expenses come out to be about equal no matter what agency you use for a country.
We are adopting from Kyrgyzstan. Of the 5 or 6 agencies that are working there, all the parents I spoke to report their expenses to be within a couple thousand dollars of one another. Sometimes where you live actually determines how expensive things are. To get documents for your dossier certified in California is way more expensive, like a thousand dollars more expensive, than in Texas where we live. A home study cost can vary from $800 to $2500 depending on the providers in your area. Travel is also a variable that is hard to control. If you happen to have to travel during a peak travel season your expenses could be much more than a family traveling at another time of year. Your agency has no control over some of these expenses and can only offer very wide ball park figures.
Our agency's (and all others I looked at) estimated a plane ticket to Kyrg to be about $1200. I have NEVER found a ticket that cheap in the 3.5 months since we got our referral. We paid $2100 each for trip 1 plane tickets and will be about the same for trip 2.
The process we used:
1. decide on a country (you may be limited by the requirements that country has in place.)
2. decide on an agency that works with that country. we also made sure that agency worked in other countries we were open to and eligible for in case our 1st choice closed. we narrowed it down to 2 agencies and I called each one. I knew right away which agency was good for us because I felt very comfortable speaking to the coordinator. I knew that I could potentially be bugging this person multiple times a week for several months and I wanted someone I felt comfortable approaching with crazy redundant questions. I did not feel comfortable with the other agency, the person acted like he really was inconvenienced by my call. I did not want to feel that way every time I called him.
3. start the exciting journey of International Adoption!
|