Seeking Adoption Info

I was in your shoes once, and I know how confusing it all seems. But take it one step at a time and it's not such a big deal. I am including a link for an Illinois adoption agency that works with people across the country. I have friends who adopted through them and it was a great experience. I went through an agency as well, but mine only works in Illinois and Indiana. My older daughter was about 4 when I had a miscarriage and then couldn't have any more children. She was 9 when we adopted my younger daughter. It was meant to be for our family and I'm glad that it all worked out the way it did, although it was hard going through the sadness of miscarriage and infertility. Message me if you have any questions. I would check out the website and perhaps call a counselor to see what your first steps might be. Good luck to you!
http://www.cradle.org/

I know this isn't local for you, but you may wish to check out The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois (it's a suburb of Chicago). It is a fantastic place for adoption. Their website is: www.cradle.org (I believe).

We adopted our middle child, a baby boy, from South Korea. S. Korea has a pretty straighforward process. He was 11 months old when he came home to us. Our agency is just for this region, but I think Holt international works across the country. Babies available for adoption in S. Korea are in foster care, but it's a little different from here.

You can also call your county to ask about adoptions from foster care. Different things are right for different familes, and at this point, I'd suggest you find out all you can and see which way your heart leads you.

I have gotten familiar with international adoption through friends. One friend adopted from Guatemala, but it's now "closed" to adoption. China has gotten REALLY stringent with some pretty weird policies, but there is something MANY people don't know about -if you're willing to adopt a child with a "fixable disability" such as astygmatism, cleft palate (which is often already fixed), asthma and some other things, you can adopt fairly quickly. You also have a likelihood of getting a boy. Most people only think of adopting girls from China. One of my best friends tried for several years to adopt a girl from China, and they were basically about to give up when the agency told them about the "fixable disabilities" list. Within a week they got a call, and they're going to pick up their little boy in two weeks! It will take you some time to go through the initial screening, paperwork, etc. but I think many people don't realize they can do this. Their little boy was born (and given up because) of a cleft palate, but you can barely even tell! It has already been corrected.

Call your local child welfare agency, social services, child protective services, etc...they are different names in every state. Anyway, if you becomne Foster Parents you get paid to care for these children and if they don't end up going back with their families or a relative they can easily be adopted by the foster family. The good thing is that the state will pay the adoption fees. You may also find that giving care to many different children while waiting on the "one" that will become yours is a great feeling of doing something wonderful.

Sometimes these adoptions are open adoptions where the mother or father can still have scheduled contact with their childre (maybe just once or twice a year), usually a supervised visit and some will be closed adoptions too. Where the parents lose all contact.