[sak9645]

Research the agencies carefully before sending money to any of them. While some extremely ethical and service oriented agencies use the photolistings, there are, unfortunately, a few agencies that may practice "bait and switch", misrepresent children's health status, etc.

Also, become an "expert" on international adoption in general, and on adoption from your country of choice, so that you can recognize misleading information.

As an example, some countries prohibit photolisting. If you see a child from one of those countries on a photolisting, you could run into major hassles if you pursue an adoption with the agency. The country could discover the photolisting, refuse to allow your adoption, and prohibit the agency from placing its children.

Also, if you see a healthy infant, and especially a healthy infant girl, on a photolisting, consider it a red flag. In general, photolistings are used to help agencies find homes for hard-to-place children, such as school aged kids or kids with special needs. They are not needed for healthy infants. Most good agencies already have long waiting lists of families wanting to adopt healthy infants, especially girls. They don't WANT more people to suffer the strain of a long wait.

While it is remotely possible that a good agency may be in a situation where a whole bunch of healthy infants became available at one time -- for example, if it opened a new country program -- it isn't common. In most cases, you should consider the following possibilities:

1. The agency is going to play "bait and switch" -- showing you the picture of a gorgeous, healthy baby and then telling you, "Oh, that child was just placed, but we have another child (not described in the same terms) who needs a home" or even, "Oh, we just referred that child, but if you send us X dollars, we will put you on our waiting list."

2. The child is not healthy. There have been several cases where agencies have posted children as healthy, when they knew that at least one family had turned them down after meeting them and discovering that they had very significant special needs.

3. The agency is so bad that no one wants to adopt through it. This agency may have a history of losing paperwork, not knowing the rules, having unethical practices, having excessively high fees, etc. As a result, even if it truly can access healthy infants (which is unlikely), you probably won't bring home a child without going through a horrible experience; you may not bring one home at all.

Sharon