The Agency, and The Country

Having made the decision to move forward with adoption, our next step was to decide on an agency, and a country. Having done a bit of preliminary research, we knew that the two variables were somewhat tied to each other- each agency only works with a handful of countries. With some internet research and tips from friends, we identified two agencies in the metro Detroit area: Americans For International Aid and Adoption, and Bethany Christian Services and made appointments with each.

The meeting with AIAA was held on March 24, 2009. One of the case workers sat down with us to review the various programs they offered, including Ethiopia, Russia, Jamaica, Korea, China, and several others. We learned the China program was limited to parents over the age of 30 (a requirement that I didn't, and still don't meet). AIAA was kind enough to show us an actual referral from Korea. Seeing the picture of the little baby made the whole thing very real, and really exciting for both of us.

Later the same day we met with Bethany Christian Services. This was a much less intimate setting as we were one of 5 couples in attendance, but it was still very nice. They played a video which provided an overview of the adoption process for each country they worked with and an older lady spoke about each. The wait times described at Bethany were much longer than those described at AIAA. That combined with the one-on-one attention provided by AIAA were really the only variables we used to ultimately decide to work with AIAA.

Upon learning about the pros and cons of each program (and much conversation following the meeting) we decided on Korea. The foster care system there is excellent (the children receive a lot of one-on-one time with their foster parents), the children are placed with adoptive families at a much younger age than most other countries (average age of children placed is currently 9 months) and the wait times are relatively short (less than 18 months).

So far, AIAA has performed incredibly well. They have held true to all of the time lines described and have been very responsive to all questions. The only down side so far is that the social worker assigned to our case has been less responsive than we would like, but the staff at the agency, and the speed with which they are processing our case has been incredible.