[Calmia22]

So I am sure theres bound to be a few people on the forums who have adopted in California. My husband and I have been thinking about it for a long time, and over the past few days have really decided that we are ready for this.

I have been doing a lot of reading over the web and I have some questions for anyone who can help me.

Which agencies or attorneys do you recommend going through? This will be for northern California BTW.

If you decided to adopt without an agency, what ways or resources did you to through for finding the birth mom?

I have seen some stuff about an adoption tax credit where you can get reimbursed for $12,000 or more... is there a special way to apply for this? Or would an agency or attorney be able to help me out with that?

Also, Adoption loans... with that adoption tax credit, we could definitely afford adoption. Any good places to go to for these kinds of things? Esp. with not so good credit.. (my husband has a foreclosure on his name from around 3 years ago)

Oh, and is there a minimum amount of money that a family has to make in order to adopt? Or do they just look at each situation differently? We dont make much money in comparison to most people, but we dont have any kind of rent or mortgage either, which really makes this possible for us.

Thank You all for any information you can give me! I know most of these answers will probably have to be PM'd to me, so thanks for anything!

[mom.mama.mommy]

We're in similar boat. In California (southern, though) and looking to adopt. Have yet to chose an agency, but that will be done in the next couple of months

If anyone can PM me too, I'd love it!
Total newbie to this, seems like I've been at it for a while (we decided a few months ago), but that's such a small time frame to make such huge decisions, it seems!!

[Angelnetty]

We're also in Socal. Right now our biggest decision is if we're going with a private or a public agency (we're adoping an older child).
To my understanding regarding finances- there is not a minimum household income. They are going to look at the overall picture to determine whether or not you'll be able to afford an additional child. :-)