And we're back!

Back from Christmas travels and blogging hiatus! Our first (well, second, after laundry) order of business is to call Barker and Datz to ask final questions about the more mundane issues pertinent to adoption. (a.k.a cost)

Starting Monday, our focus is collecting all of the documents needed for our home study. We've decided to go into the Waiting Child program in China, but since we have 15 months to wait (Allen needs to catch up on birthdays!) before we can submit our paperwork, we're doing the legwork now, and pursuing a private domestic adoption in the interim. Originally, I thought that we'd do all of the paperwork to have a home study done for an international adoption since you can use an international home study domestically but not vice versa. However, if we adopt domestically in the next 15 months, we'll need to update our home study anyway. So, theoretically, we could do the "easier" home study now, and update it to the international home study later. Another question to ask before we make our final agency selection.

Given the info sessions we've been to, Barker was clearly the winner in terms of organization, experience and overall smoothness of the adoption pipeline. Datz was second in all of those categories, but still very well run with great success stories. The biggest difference seems to be cost. Datz charges flat fees while Barker charges a sliding scale. In theory, a sliding scale is perfectly reasonable. We make more money, therefore, we should pay a bit more. The only problem I have with this system is that Barker didn't seem to have an upper limit on cost. I have heard anecdotes of people having to pay in excess of $20,000 for a domestic adoption (domestic should cost around $10-$15K, given the research I've done), and given that Allen and I are DINKs right now, I'm afraid we'll fall into the highest bracket. Again, this wouldn't be an issue except that we are planning to drop down to one salary once the first kid arrives. As such, we are trying to maximize our savings in the run up to adoption. Again, questions for agencies during business hours on Monday.

Final decision coming soon!