Picking An Agency

One of the hardest choices in adoption is what agency to use. We chose to work with Barbara Weaver from Adoption Journey in Longmont, Colorado. The state has some international requirements that make adoption here difficult. Picking an agent, we found, has a lot less to do with what you want and a lot more to do with how everyone else wants you to do with YOUR adoption. Through much of the process you feel like you are the last person in control.
It can be very frustrating!
We remind ourselves constantly that this is what we want and although we may not like some things this is what we have to do so we can bring home our children. Bringing home our kids is our focus. It keeps us motivated and more then a little excited!
I know it must be hard to imagine how a person can be attached to a child they have never met. But, you do become attached. Even, as in our case, when you don’t have a child’s profile and picture to look at. You know that there is a child out there destined to be yours and that’s what you hold on to. It makes everything worthwhile and very real.
I guess that’s why when there are set backs and endless delays it can be so disheartening. We’ve have had our share of delays. A few due to Chris’ work, some we had no control over and some have been financial.
We just keep going.

I looked over my comments on picking an agency to work with and I really didn’t say much about that. It’s hard. We talked to and received information from at least 80% of the adoption agencies in Colorado. We know we wanted to adopt internationally. We also knew we wanted to adopt from Ukraine. Those two points helped to narrow the field. But, not by much! One of the best parts of a Ukraine adoption for us was that their adoptions can be done independently. Meaning you secure that assistance of a facilitator and translator in-country to assist you with your paperwork, court process and really the whole adoption from the time you get there. We liked that. It would have saved us significantly on our adoption fees.
If you go through an agency here they like to tack on another few grand for their services. Services which, if you do your research and find a reliable in-country team you can manage without. These additional fees can be anywhere from $ 3000.00- $ 8000.00. That’s a lot! And, keep in mind that is in addition to the country fees, the home study fee, the INS fees and you housing expenses while your there.
Unfortunately the state of Colorado has recently mandated that all adoptions by people living in Colorado must be done with an agency that holds a contract with the in-country team. You can’t imagine how we felt when we discovered this. We had already researched facilitation teams in Ukraine and picked the team we wanted to use. We had exchanged emails, reviewed hundreds of references. We knew who we wanted to work with. This was one of the many times we felt like everyone had control of our adoption but, US. And this was jus the beginning!
So we started the search again and found a small agency in Longmont, Colorado. Adoption Journey is owned by Barbara Weaver. She has a Ukraine program with reasonable rates and a contract with a facilitation team in Ukraine. NOT the team we wanted to work with. We made a choice and a compromise and opted to work with Adoption Journey.
Barbara has been peasant to work with and very informative. She’s even adopted her own angel from Ukraine, a beautiful teenage daughter. I think that’s what made the compromise easier for us. It’s nice to be working with someone who not only knows the steps but has taken them.