[kathyrosebud]

I can't be the only prospective adoptive parent in Nevada--gosh, if that was the case, I'd have a house-full of kids right now!

My husband and I are just starting out, we've been pre-approved through Catholic Charities and are now trying to patiently wait for our homestudy to begin. Has anyone else adopted through them, and how long was the wait, would you recommend them, what other agencies or avenues has anyone used to find the child that God has intended for them?

I'd love to hear from you!

[2GirlsMom]

It's finally nice to see someone else in Nevada who is or has adopted! We have adopted 2 girls. We just finalized our last adoption two weeks ago! Our agency was LDS Family Services. In Nevada, there are only three adoption agencies that I know of. LDS Family Services, yours and the county. There have been a few others, but they were based in other states and only had a small office here. Out longest wait was 9 months for our 2nd. We actually had one fall through during that time. Our agency never likes to give a time line. They always say, "When YOUR baby comes, everything will fall into place." We also have some friends who are with your agency. They have been waiting for almost a year. I think it really depends on how picky you were on your preference sheet. If you are only looking for a blond hair, blue eyed boy thn your wait will be longer than if you were will to accept more situations. Hopefull soon your little one will be home!

2GirlsMom

[kathyrosebud]

Yay! Finally, there is someone else in Nevada!

Is it still true that LDS Family Services is only open to LDS families? I had heard that they were considering opening their services to other denominations.

We will be attending the required parenting classes next month. I suppose one good thing about the wait is that I'll have lots of time to get the baby's room ready!

What part of Nevada are you in? We're in Henderson. I hadn't heard about the county doing adoptions here, only the state. Does your county do adoptions?

I hope I haven't scared you off with too many questions!

[2GirlsMom]

Yes, LDS Family Services only does adoptions for members of the church. However, the birth mothers do not have to be LDS to receive free help from LDSFS.

We live in North Las Vegas! So we are in the same county. About a year ago, the county took control over the Family Setvices division. The state was having a hard time conducting the business for the entire state. Now the county does all of your visits and provides a social worker for you.

You can never ask too many questions! I'll be happy to help you with what ever you need! I know your agency has a support group for adoptive couples. You might want to look into how you can become involved. Our agency has one and we love it!

Let me know how your journey is coming! Can't wait to hear that your little one has found his/her way home. By the way, I did hear that your agency was having more and more birth moms come in. That's always good to hear! Talk to you soon!

2GirlsMom

[ScooterLV]

I see that you haven't written in awhile but I was hoping maybe you would soon.
We are just starting the process with Catholic Charities also. We are still waiting for the first meeting. How do you like dealing with them? Any pointers for me. How is everything going? Good luck to you.

[kathyrosebud]

We were in the December class with Catholic Charities. We finished up all of our paperwork the first week of January, and just had our home visit last Friday. It wasn't too bad--no looking under beds or peeking into drawers! :-)

Now we're just pretty much waiting...you should try to attend the PAK Moms meetings--they've been pretty helpful and fun. I won't be at the one for March, but the one in April will be at my house--I'd love to meet you!

Kathy

[ScooterLV]

Hi Kathy,
Thanks for responding. Wow it sounds like you are moving right along. I plan on attending a PAK meeting. They have been sending me the notices in the mail. I will plan on coming to your house. I wish they would hurry up and schedule the next orientation meeting. They told me that they only do two a year but one should be coming up. To bad we didn't get in the December class. We just did our last failed attempt with IVF that month. Does CC accept homestudies done by another agency?
Thanks,
Scooter (Colleen)

[kathyrosebud]

I'm pretty sure that they will accept homestudies from other agencies, depending on how current it is, and if it was an agency in Nevada or not. Have you looked into adopting before?

I completely understand how anxious you are to get the orientation meeting going! I sent in our inquiry form at the end of June, I think the orientation meeting was sometime in September, and then we were in the December class. I was constantly checking the mail for letters, checking phone messages, I know I called their offices a couple of times...



They had said at our orientation meeting that the next training classes would be in the spring, but didn't know specifically when. And it does seem like once you get rolling, it does go pretty fast, especially if you have lots to keep you busy. Now we've got nothing left to do but wait, so I decided to attempt making a quilt to keep myself occupied.

I look forward to meeting you in April!

[ScooterLV]

Hi Kathy,
No we haven't looked into adoption before. We started looking sometime in December. I just figured if we wanted to get started we could get the home study done and then be placed in other agencies. Then when CC starts there next orientation which sounds like it won't be for awhile then we could just give them a homestudy that was already done. Oh well I will just call and ask them. I have called some other local agencies here and they seem to take 4-6 months for the home study. Yikes ... that is also a long time.
I think that is a nice idea about making a quilt while you wait. What a gift for your new baby. Hmm ... you got me thinking that maybe I will have to start something. I now how to embroider (spelling?)
Are you looking to adopt a girl or boy or either? Are you planning to adopt cacausion or other ethnic backgrounds? Good luck on the waiting part. Did they say approximately how long you may be waiting?
Talk to you later,
Colleen

[NVMom]

I am also an adoptive parent from Nevada. Our situation is a little different from yours, we are adopting our neice after having her living with us for almost a year. It is an open adoption and because she is family we didn't have to go through the home study or use an agency.

It was something of a miracle when she came to us. My husband and I have two sons but after our youngest was born my husband had a vasectomy. That was 11 years ago.
I have always wanted a girl and so we started taling about having the vasectomy reversed or adopting about two years ago, I prayed a lot about it and asked God to help us have a baby girl. Then a series of events began to unfold involving my sister (whom I hadn't spoken to in about 8 years) that culminated in our recieving a beautiful 2 year old girl.

Even though it seems to be easier to adopt a relative, there are so many difficult issues that we are having to deal with now that we would not have to deal with had we adopted a newborn from an unknown birth mother.

[ScooterLV]

Sounds like your niece is lucky to have you. Much luck with your issues dealing with your niece. You wouldn't be given this situation if you couldn't handle it. We may be in the same boat as your are someday. We have already had our niece living with us for a time period (husband's sister's daughter). She is back with her mother for now. She ended up with us through child protective services.
We feel that in time she will also end up with us forever. We also feel there will be lots of issues when that happens. She is 8 years old. But in the mean time we are going forth with adopting a baby. We still have a couple of meetings before we decide what agency/facilitator to go with.
Talk to you later,
Scooter

[Krys2004]

[Edited To Remove Agency/Facilitator/fee based services Recommendations or comments]

Please remember that comments about agencies or other fee based services made after 2/10/2004 MUST be made via Private Message.

[kathyrosebud]

Our son was born on May 28, and we brought him home on June 2. He's perfectly amazing, and wonderful, and we are in awe!

We had a VERY short wait, even though it seemed like an eternity at the time, but every single second was worth it!

[Nevada Jen]

Do people not adopt in Nevada? It is really amazing to me how few agencies we have and how hard it is to get information. I am waiting on info from one of the three agencies in town. I am not elgible for the other due to being the wrong religon but they were very nice at the wrong religon agency. I really would love to find someone from Nevada to commiserate with during this journey.

Jen

[kathyrosebud]

I'm still here, I just check in every once in a while to see if anyone has posted anything. I know that there are lots of people who adopt in Nevada, and I know a lot of people personally who have. And it's hard to believe but my son is now 8 months old!

The agency that we used was wonderful--and they don't have "religion issues" either! :-) You can PM me if you want more information on them.