Are you wondering how the(our) adoption process works?

My aunt asked me last night about our adoption and I thought I should just post the answers on here for anyone else who might have the same questions.

The baby is probably from Ohio, we have not been matched yet. The first $2,500 will get us matched with a birth mother. The agency is in northern ohio and they work mostly with moms in ohio but it's possible there could be a mom in Indiana or Kentucky or somewhere that picks us. The way it works is that a baby is available that matches our criteria, the agency emails and asks if we are interested, we say yes or no and then we are shown (along with other families) to the birth mother. By "we are shown" I mean our family profile book which tells her who were are, what our life and family is like. Some of the babies that are placed through the agency might be "safe haven" babies which are abandoned at hospitals or police stations, but the majority are from mothers who have decided they cannot parent and have made an adoption plan. Most of the $16,000 is the agency contract, match acceptance fee, her medical expenses, living expenses, her attorney fees, our attorney fees, and then our post-adoption visits which are something like $200 per visit with about 6 required by law after placement. 


Once we've raised money (or received a grant we've applied for) we will sign a contract with the agency so they can match us with a mother. From there we will (probably) have a few months to get together money for the placement acceptance fee, assuming we aren't matched right away. When we are matched we will probably have a few months before baby is born, but we could be matched last minute before the birth. There's no knowing until we are it happens. For that matter, we might get matched and then the mother decides to parent. We'll find out when we get there. :)

Please visit our AdoptTogether fund raising page if you would like to help us get to that $2,500!