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My husband and I live in Washington, D.C. and we just adopted a baby boy.
We initially went through the Barker Foundation in Bethesda, MD and had a very good experience. After completing our homestudy in February 2008, we were matched with a birth mother in May 2008. We met the birth mother at the end of June 2008 and the baby was born in mid-July. Unfortunately, this birth mother changed her mind at the hospital. It was difficult for us, but we understood that this is always a possibility with domestic adoption. So, we just continued to look forward. After three weeks, the same birth mother called the agency and said that she just couldn't parent and wanted to see if we would still be willing to parent. Of course, we agreed. This was a Friday. The baby was going to be placed in foster care for the weekend and we were going to pick him up on Monday morning. After preparing over the weekend to go get our little boy, we got a call on Sunday night that the birth mother had once again changed her mind. We were very disappointed and felt like an emotional roller coaster.
We decided to look at agencies outside of the D.C. area. For some reason I felt like our baby was going to come from South Carolina (very strange, but it is what I felt). So, I googled agencies in South Carolina and sent some emails. I got an email back from one agency and just kind of let it sit in my inbox. One week later the same agency emailed me again and told me about a situation that they had and did not have any families to show the birth mother. The baby was fully African American and because of the location in South Carolina, there were no families willing to adopt an African American boy.
We got all of our paperwork together and sent to the agency. One week later we were matched with the birth mother. The baby was born the next day. Two days later we went home with our baby boy. We had to stay in South Carolina for a week because of paperwork to bring him across state lines. However, in South Carolina (along with some other states, once the birth mother signs her rights away, it is a done deal).
We now have our precious baby boy. Our adoption will be semi-open. We met the birth mother in the hospital. She actually handed our little boy to me. We know a lot about her story and have some pictures of her to show our son. Since our son is African American (and we are white) there will be no question he is adopted, therefore we want to be able to share as much information as possible with him.
Nationally, depending on location, African American babies or bi-racial babies are often more difficult to place. However, in the D.C. area, there are many minority families pursuing adoption that are more than willing to have an African American or Bi-racial join their family. All that to say, if you are open to having a multi-racial family, then the domestic process can definitely move a lot faster.
We couldn't be happier with how things went for us. Even though we went through a difficult time in July with two "adoption losses" we now know why we went through all of that. We are falling in love with our baby boy more and more each day. He's two weeks old tomorrow!
We initially went through the Barker Foundation in Bethesda, MD and had a very good experience. After completing our homestudy in February 2008, we were matched with a birth mother in May 2008. We met the birth mother at the end of June 2008 and the baby was born in mid-July. Unfortunately, this birth mother changed her mind at the hospital. It was difficult for us, but we understood that this is always a possibility with domestic adoption. So, we just continued to look forward. After three weeks, the same birth mother called the agency and said that she just couldn't parent and wanted to see if we would still be willing to parent. Of course, we agreed. This was a Friday. The baby was going to be placed in foster care for the weekend and we were going to pick him up on Monday morning. After preparing over the weekend to go get our little boy, we got a call on Sunday night that the birth mother had once again changed her mind. We were very disappointed and felt like an emotional roller coaster.
We decided to look at agencies outside of the D.C. area. For some reason I felt like our baby was going to come from South Carolina (very strange, but it is what I felt). So, I googled agencies in South Carolina and sent some emails. I got an email back from one agency and just kind of let it sit in my inbox. One week later the same agency emailed me again and told me about a situation that they had and did not have any families to show the birth mother. The baby was fully African American and because of the location in South Carolina, there were no families willing to adopt an African American boy.
We got all of our paperwork together and sent to the agency. One week later we were matched with the birth mother. The baby was born the next day. Two days later we went home with our baby boy. We had to stay in South Carolina for a week because of paperwork to bring him across state lines. However, in South Carolina (along with some other states, once the birth mother signs her rights away, it is a done deal).
We now have our precious baby boy. Our adoption will be semi-open. We met the birth mother in the hospital. She actually handed our little boy to me. We know a lot about her story and have some pictures of her to show our son. Since our son is African American (and we are white) there will be no question he is adopted, therefore we want to be able to share as much information as possible with him.
Nationally, depending on location, African American babies or bi-racial babies are often more difficult to place. However, in the D.C. area, there are many minority families pursuing adoption that are more than willing to have an African American or Bi-racial join their family. All that to say, if you are open to having a multi-racial family, then the domestic process can definitely move a lot faster.
We couldn't be happier with how things went for us. Even though we went through a difficult time in July with two "adoption losses" we now know why we went through all of that. We are falling in love with our baby boy more and more each day. He's two weeks old tomorrow!
