[lisa in venice]

I didn't think you could do an independent adoption in MD. I thought it was an agency state. Maybe it has changed

You have plenty of time so no need to run around and worry about it. I hope you spoke to ADOPTION attorneys not just a family law specialist but someone who does adoptions and not step parent adoptions but infant placements to see what the rule really are. I have a friend who adopted in MD several years ago and from what I remember the rules there were stricter than many states so you want to be careful to choose a professional who really knows their stuff.

CA allows for post placement homestudies in independent adoptions (It is not any cheaper) and we have done it twice but in both cases we did use agencies to do birth parents counseling. I don't know what the revocation period (time after palcement when the birth family can change their minds)is in MD but in CA at the time it was 3 months for independent adoptions so I wanted to make sure that the birth mom was REALLY well counseled before placement and really well supported after. The agency allowed us to just pay for the counseling so it was not a big expense($100/month for about 6 months). The attorney did everything else.

BTW our first independent adoption was a long match like this. It was a great time for our families to get to know each other and to sort of bond. It is funny but I think I bonded faster with that baby because I loved his birth family so much by the time of the birth.
lisa