[craigery]

I am a single adoptive parent of three boys, all under 6 years of age. I went through a local county in California. The advantage of a public (county) adoption is the costs are nill, and in some cases you may obtain some support for difficult-to-place kids. I hadn't expected to adopt three kids, but the birth mother kept having kids! I am not LDS, incidently, but am LDS-friendly (I've stayed at Nauvoo, etc.).

Most schools in our area have before and after school programs for kids, so if you can afford it, and if your child is capable of staying with the program, there isn't too much difficulty being a full-time employed, single working parent, at least during the preschool and elementary years. Daycare is not cheap --- $800 - $1200/month or more for infant care, so plan accordingly!

I have a good friend who is a single mom who showed me how to be a good single parent. There are some advantages -- for example, of the parents in my oldest son's original daycare, probably half have now divorced or split up (professionals say that having kids often puts extreme stress on many marriages).