[heather40]

Hi...me again! OK, I have been doing some serious research, and it looks like our wait time would be cut down a LOT by using an agency that advertises nationally. So, if we got a baby in another state, we would have to travel there and stay a while, I think. Anyone with experience in this?
Thanks for putting up with ALL my questions! It's a rainy day in Mississippi, so I have not left the computer all day!

[HopefulMom2bee]

It depends on the state as to how long you have to stay. We adopted out of state in GA. ICPC takes anywhere from a few days to weeks in some cases. We we're in GA for 10 days following the birth of our DD. There is a 10 day revocation period in GA that we had to wait out and ICPC was only cleared on the 9th day anyway.

[diva341]

We went to an agency out of state because we know two other couples who did this. The period of time the first mother has to change her mind is significantly shorter in some states than in others, and that was a consideration for us, but we also chose our agency because a friend had used it successfully twice. If all goes well, we'll go down for the birth, stay a few days, and then come home with the baby - there's not a long waiting period. But as I said, it definitely varies state to state.

[Leeah]

I haven't had any experience with this yet (I'm still waiting to be matched) but my understanding is that the average for ICPC is about 10 days. You should be prepared to stay in the other state for about 2 weeks but it could be shorter.

[eagleswings216]

We went out of state primarily because our state gives b-moms 30 days to change their minds. While I understand the reasoning behind it, that was not an emotional and financial risk we were willing to take. So we used an agency out of state. Keep in mind, though, that with a national agency, the baby may not be born in the state where the agency is either. We were in one state, the agency in another, and our boys were born somewhere else (which was actually closer to us than the state where the agency was - a good thing for us because the state where we were going was reasonable driving distance so we didn't have to fly, and we had very good friends there who let us stay with them until we could come home).

ICPC can get very, very messy and can take forever. The agency told us we would be home in a week even with dealing with three states. Turns out it was almost 3 weeks - boy were they wrong! We have some friends who were out of state for a month....and the ICPC doesn't depend on the agency - it's totally about the ICPC office in the state(s) and how slow or fast they are.

Hope this helps - feel free to PM me or respond here if I can help you more.

[jpchief2275]

We will be traveling from California (where the bmom can change her mind up until 30 days) to Nebraska where the bmom signs after 48 hours of birth and it is final. She has already signed the waiver for the 30 day period. We will be leaving in 2 weeks for the birth. Excited and nervous all together!! Our attorney does lots of ICPC adoptions and said we should plan for 5-7 business days. I will let you know how long it takes once we are back home GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mama2BSoon]

One other thing to consider on the out-of-state adoptions is that if you are open to them, you may find that you are able to learn of more situations than within your particular state. We actually registered with a few different agencies outside of our home state simply to open us up to more situations and possibly a faster adoption. In the end we matched in 5 months out of state.

For us there were two main issues that come up with an out of state adoption....1. Our adoption was very last minute so we had to scramble to book flights, hotels, car rentals, etc and actually had to drive to another city to catch the flight as ours was all booked up. Talk about making decisions on the fly...I've never thought and decided on anything that quickly...ever! 2. Since you have no way of knowing how long ICPC will take, you live in limbo for a while. Since we expected it to take up to 10 days, once we got there and had our little one with us at the hotel (I recommend the hotel suite places that include a kitchen like a Residence Inn), we booked a condo for rent for a week via VRBO.com. This gave us tons of flexibility and space and cost a little less than the hotel would have because the condo owner wouldn't have gotten anyone to rent if we hadn't called so they negotiated with us.

I highly recommend this. My parents were also so excited that they flew out to meet us after a couple of days and we had plenty of room to share the condo with them. The only risk is if ICPC completes quickly. Ours wrapped up in 4 days versus the 10 that we planned for but we just used the time to relax with the baby and actually did a little sightseeing. We cherished that time we had to ourselves. It was our first family vacation.

Good luck with the agencies and matching! It can be stressful but trust that it will be well worth it in the end. I'm happy to chat if you want to PM.

[jp4ga]

We live in GA adopted out of Iowa. We had a 3 day time period for the bfamily to change there minds followed by a 17 day wait for ICPC. In the end GA blamed IA and IA blamed GA.

On day 16 we had our GA Facilitator contact ICPC. We ended up faxing some stuff back and forth and the next we were cleared to go home. ICPC can be tricky and both fast and slow. It all just depends. Part of what we also learned during the process is the the ICPC office in our state had 3 workers= 1 on medical leave, 1 on vacation, and one left doing all of the work.