[CarmJoeMom]

When interviewing an agency, what are good questions to ask? I have a few written but know I'm forgetting some!

[Devora]

Recently there was a thread about this...you might want to check it out. It was "Looking for advice on how to find a reputable agency" posted by mom2be1271.

Here are some of the things that are important to me in choosing a placement agency:

* Do they give a range of time for the different stages of the process? For example, we felt better hearing that time from referral until homecoming would be 4-7 months than we would have felt if we were given a "promise" of a definite time.

* Do they provide a detailed list of documents you need for your dossier?

* Do they provide samples with exact wording for some of those documents (like the testigos)?

* Do they check over your documents before sending them to Guatemala to make sure they're correct?

* Do they ever talk about the birthmother/families? Do they value making contact between birth and adoptive families possible? Is it possible to meet your child's birthmother if she wants to? (If they act like these are strange questions, I would not work with them. While there are many different ways of handling these issues and no one right answer, if they haven't seriously thought about the birthmothers then this is probably more a business to them.)

* What will they do if your child's birthmother chooses adoption for another one of her children? (In other words, will they first contact you to see if you are able to adopt another child? If you aren't able, will they help to facilitate contact between the two adoptive families so that the children can have a relationship?)

As for for the homestudy, for us the best thing was finding an agency that had a thorough homestudy process. I don't mean to offend anyone who is happy with their agency who has a quick process. But for us one of the best things about our agency is the very thorough and in-depth approach they take. For example, the social worker typically has 4-6 meetings with adoptive parents during the homestudy process (each 1-2 hours; most of them 2) and in addition to the 1-day Adoption 101 seminar they require at least 2 additional workshops (typically 2 hours each). They have a variety of additional workshops to choose from and let you choose those that best fit your needs, but you can attend as many of them as you want at no charge. Personally, this kind of in-depth homestudy to me is integrally connected to the fact that our agency puts the needs of children first and have a lot of support available.

I would also ask about support after your child is home:
*What kind of support is available?
* Are there addiitional fees?
* How long is it available to you?

Our agency, for example, has a social worker who spends most of her time working with adoptive families not only on transition issues, but also on parenting/family issues. Sometimes, for example, she works with families when their child becomes a teenager and is having new identity/relationship issues connected to the adoption.

There were a lot of other good questions on that other thread. I'm sure people will chime in here, too!

Best wishes,
Devora