[Iowamommy]

Could anyone enlighten me on the process of private adoption out of your state? What are the time frames? If we wanted to adopt a baby from another state, what would we need to do, what not to do?

Any info would be great!!

[eagleswings216]

Hello. We adopted out a state with a private agency - an infant adoption.

You will need someone in your state to do your home study. If you are SURE you are going out of state, you can go ahead and start that process - if there is any chance you will go in state, you might want to wait until you know what agency you plan to use.

As far as time frames, etc., that really shouldn't be any different than adopting in your own state. It will depend on what age, race, etc. of child you are looking for, and also if you are open to things like drug exposure. From the start of our home study until we brought our boys home was less than a year.

If you are planning to adopt through the foster system of another state, now that is a different ballgame, and something I know nothing about, since we did an infant adoption through an agency.

[Linny]

You'll need to have the homestudy conducted within your home state (I'm assuming Iowa..). You'll also need to know what requirements Iowa has for adopting across state lines. For instance, in IL, people must have taken the PRIDE classes (even if abbreviated ones) in order to obtain the foster license. Even if you have no plan to adopt from foster care, in IL, you have to have that license. (sigh)

The agency that does your homestudy should be able to tell you what the requirements are as they do your homestudy, KWIM? Once you have those requirements, you can pretty much phone and email any other agency/attorney who can/does do adoptions with Iowa. We adopted out of state two times. I did a lot of networking over the phone and by email to talk with agencies/attorneys regarding their fees, practices, etc.

Feel free to pm me if I might be of help to you....

Sincerely,

Linny