Guest Author - Karen Ledbetter

Whether you´re a hopeful adoptive parent or a birth parent seeking help in finding a family for your baby, don´t hesitate to ask an adoption professional tons of questions before signing with them. Your questions may irritate some, but legitimate adoption professionals should happily answer your questions and provide accurate information. Asking questions could mean the between a successful adoption and your being taken advantage of. The articles in this series address important questions to ask adoption professionals.

If you locate an adoption professional through an advertisement including only a phone number, website URL, or e-mail address, be sure to obtain is their street address, as well as their mailing address.

Pre- and post-adoption counseling can play a vital role in an adoption´s success. Ask if these services are provided for birth parents as well as adoptive parents. Some adoption professionals that do not routinely provide these services may gladly do so upon request.

A legitimate adoption facilitator should willingly provide the names of adoption agencies and attorneys s/he works with on a regular basis.

Find out how many babies the professional placed during the previous year, how many birth parents s/he´s working with, and how many waiting adoptive families s/he currently has. Birth parents may want assurance that there will be enough, but not too many, adoptive families to choose from if they choose adoption. Adoptive parents may want assurance that the professional is working with a realistic number of hopeful adoptive families.

Ask the professional about state adoption laws even if you already know the answers. If you´ll be adopting or placing across state lines, ask about specific laws regarding interstate adoptions and procedures. Don´t forget to ask about Interstate Compact procedures. Families adopting across state lines may need to have an agency in their home state to provide the homestudy and post-placement visits. Some states, such as Florida, require that nonresidents adopt through a licensed agency. Some states forbid private adoption and/or facilitators.

Don´t be afraid to ask financial questions. There should be no costs at all to birth parents. How much should the adoption cost adoptive parents? Does this include living expenses and medical expenses for the baby and his/her birth mother? Do the fees and expenses meet the state´s laws? At what point in the process is money due? Ask for a written breakdown of fees.

Ask about openness in adoptions, especially if this issue is important to you. Will the birth and adoptive parents meet? It´s wise for birth parents and adoptive parents desiring a similar level of openness to be "matched".

Once you´re satisfied with the answers to your questions, verify the professional´s credentials through the state adoption licensing agency, the state Attorney General´s office, and the Better Business Bureau.

Of course, there´s no foolproof method to adoption fraud prevention. However, a combination of wisdom, common sense, and questions may contribute greatly to a wonderful adoption experience for everyone involved.