[Eponine]

This may be a dumb question but how do sites like this work if you are already working with an agency?

DH and I have our homestudy complete (since June 2006) and the social services agency we are working with gives our profile to pbmoms who have decided on adoption and that we 'match' with as far as race, drug use, health history, etc. but it's been 6 months and we've only been looked at twice and frankly, we're getting impatient.

So, if we put a profile on a site like Parent Profiles, would we just refer pbmom to the agency we are already using? Or do we need to remove our profile from the agency before going online? Or if we find a pbmom through this site would we have to do an independent (I think that's the right word) adoption just with our attorney and the agency not involved at all?

I'm fairly new here so if this is more appropriate to PM me about than post, please do so.

Thanks!

[my someone]

We were forwarded the Parent Profile information from our agency, actually. They wanted us to consider using it as a marketing tool. We signed up and used the site and used it for 7 months.

We did not put our personal contact info into our pages. We listed our caseworker's cell phone number and our agency's phone as the contact numbers. This was the caseworker's advice; she felt she was the professional equipped to know what to say, answer and ask. She screened all our calls and emails and I'm really glad she did. She talked to a few legitamite contacts and a whole bunch of "off-the-wall" and non-serious ones.

I guess my advice would be to check with your agency and see if they object to the above kind of scenario. I don't know why they would. It's just another way of finding prospective birthmom's they might be able to help.

[waiting4amiracle]

The agency which conducted our home study highly recommended ParentProfiles.com to us as another marketing tool. The way the agency will work it for us is if we make our own independent match there would be one fee and if they make the match there would be a different fee. They are happy for us to refer to them any PBM with whom we match should she need their counselling services. Our adotion attorney has been great about fielding call which go to her and we have also accepted some direct calls and emails from folks. We have been fotunate not to waste much time on scammers either because our "guts" told us to walk away or our lawyer advised us to do the same. Either way your profile will get a lot of traction and visibility thus increasing your chances of a match. Our perspective is we can do too much to let the world know we desire to grow our family through adoption. Happy to share our experiences with you in more detail if you wish. Drop me a note!

All the best!