Adoption Advice

[buckeyegrad]

My wife and I recently decided to begin the process of adopting a child (it would be our second child as we already have a daughter by ourselves). Unfortunately, the first information session that we attended with a private agency was about as discouraging an experience as possible. The primary reason was that we desire a closed adoption (we may be willing to accept a high level mediated adoption as well), but it is obvious the agencies and the social workers are actively pushing open adoptions in which the birth mother remains a part of the child's life. With this agency--we will not be using them--they came right out and told us they recommend not using them if we are not willing to go the open adoption route. After hearing from this agency, we felt insulted as our perspectives were dismissed entirely, which is quite ironic since I'm adopted. (Unfortunately, the adoption process is so different than it was 39 years ago, my parents aren't much of a resource for advice.)

Has anyone here gone through the process? Any advice on how to find agencies who are more supportive of closed, private adoptions would be helpful.

 

[Taosman]

Congrats and best wishes on your efforts to adopt a second time.

http://www.adoptuskids.org/meet-the-children
Children in foster care are regular children who, through no fault of their own, had to be removed from their families due to abusive or neglectful situations.

More than 250,000 children in the U.S. enter the foster care system every year. While more than half of these children will return to their parents, the remainder will stay in the system. Most of these children are living with foster families, but some also live in group facilities.

The Foster Care system is a mess with too many foster families abusing kids. We should all laud the efforts of good parents like grad!
And the whole process of adoption is too complex and costly.
Where are our priorities?