Adoption Help

I recently adopted a 28 month old boy from Russia through Childrens Hope International in Des Plaines. They're wonderful!

I have also heard great things about The Cradle. We have friends who adopted a couple years ago and had a great experience.

Good Luck!

Hello. Have you looked into The Baby Fold in Normal? Their website is www.thebabyfold.org
I have heard all good things about this organization. Good luck!

Try The Cradle: http://www.cradle.org
or Lutheran Social Services: http://lssi.org/Service/AdoptionServices.aspx

Both are excellent resources.

Good Luck

Hi T.,

I am an adoption professional ( I have a master's degree in social work) and have been in the field of adoption for over 12 years. I also do adoption consulting where I would meet with you to go over all of your options etc... Please feel free to call me anytime. My phone number is ###-###-####. I would be more than happy to talk with you. Aoption is full of false information, myths, and misconceptions largely due to the media. I would like to talk with you about what your options are and put you in contact with the best resources there are.

Best Wishes!
J.

I'm with Children's Hope International in Des Plaines. We are adopting from China and they have been great.

You have lots of options so far! But here's another one. Family Resource Center in chicago was fantastic for both myself and my cousin. They have both domestic and international adoption programs. Their website: http://www.f-r-c.org/

Good luck and God Bless your growing family!

T., we adopted our newborn son through Angel Adoption, not an agency, but they work with Luthern Child and Family Services which is an agency. I would call Lutheran first and see if they can work with you.
Good luck and God bless.

Hi,I have 4 children. 3 biolgically and 1 adioted from russia. She came home last Christmas when she was 20 months. She is the love of our family. We used AAI. My coordinator was Diane. We are still good friends, she is wonderful. My sister has 3 adopted children, 2 from Mongolia and 1 from China. They are absolutely beautiful. She is very active in the adoption community. She is now the president of BRAFF, which is an organization that helps children in the Bailkail region (siberia). I understand your desire. Good luck.
If you want any more info., feel free to contact me.
____@____.com

Hello. We have 4 adopted children following years of infertility treatments. We went through Catholic Charities when we adopted our first 2 and brought each home at birth from the hospital. You can not be gender specific if you want an infant (well, you can be but you won't be selected by a birthmom since they usually do not know gender). Catholic Charities also use to handle placement of children through child services but I'm not sure if they are still doing that. If they are, then they would have children of all ages but the ones through the child services program are generally children that were neglected or abused.

For our 3rd and 4th, because we wanted to be gender specific we did international adoption. We brought one child home at 9 months and one at 15 months. The ages through international adoption really vary depending on the country you select but most result in you bringing a child home as a toddler which sounds like the age group you are looking for.

We found that the cost for both domestic and international ended up not being too much different even though many articles you read indicate that international is signficantly higher. It just depends on the agency and depends on the country and your level of income (Catholic Charities based their fee on your income and that money was used to pay the birthmother's medical bills.)

Good luck!

I would recommend Journeys of the Heart if you are looking into adoption. We adopted our son through JOH 5 months ago. Their domestic program is mostly newborns but they have had the occastional older child. I'm surprised DCFS was not more helpful since older children generally come out of foster care. Good luck!!!

Hi, T.,

I'm not sure how wide the area served by this branch of MamaSource is, but if you happen to be in the Champaign/Urbana area, a local agency I've heard good things about is called LifeLink. I'm pretty sure they facilitate domestic as well as international adoptions; I know that they do work with a variety of countries for international adoptions. We adopted our daughter from China through a China-only agency, which was wonderful; but since the wait from China is now taking SO long, I've been advising people who are interested in adopting to look at other options.

Good luck to you!
L.

If you are considering International Adoption, my sister adopted a beautiful little girl from Guatemala. She did a lot of research before picking an agency and she chose All God's Children, in Portland Oregon. This is a Christian based, non-profit adoption agency and she was very happy with the outcome and all of the support from the agency. I was able to pull up their website through my search engine, and I see that they have stopped Guatemalen adoptions for the time being, but they do facilitate adoptions from many other countries, as well. Good Luck and God Bless!

Catholic Charities is one of the agencies. Another I believe is Lutheran Services. You will be required to attend a class that lasts I believe 9 weeks, which is a very tough (emotionally) class to attend. Catholic Charities does place children in temporary foster care as well, and the class that is required, which is for all potential adoptive and foster parents, is I believe required for all agencies.

Wow- you have received a lot of great advice! We adopted our 3 year-old son from St. Mary's Services in Arlington Heights and had a wonderful experience with them. We chose a larger agency for our second but can still really recommend St. Mary's. For our second adoption (our son is due this week!) we used Adoption Network Law Center and loved them. You can check them out at www.adoptionnetwork.com
Good luck to you and your family! Adoption is wonderful!!!!

There are lots of adoption agencies: The cradle in Evanston, Adoption Link in Oak Park. For DCFS, you generally become a foster parent first. If you call the two I mention, they will also give you the name of many more here in Chicago. Adoption Link does african american and biracial adoptions mainly and international special needs (eg. HIV+). The cradle does international and domestic. For the child's sake, it is best if an adoption can be done at birth, so that a good chance of attachment can happen.

My friend is a foster mom and she uses a agency that does not deal with the United States. I will get that info for you and I will let you know what she says. She says it is easier to deal with them then America itself. She has been doing foster care for a long time.

Hi T.- I have heard good things about "The Cradle" for adoptions. The are located in Evanston.

Best of luck to you and your family!

We used Sunny Ridge Family Center (now) in Bolingbrook for our adoption in 2006 for our daughter from China. They are AMAZING. Your message does not say if you are looking into only domestic or if you would be open to international as well. While China is NOT the stable program it once was (the wait is 3+ years right now) there are MANY other countries that are open and many have the age range you are looking at.

While others have said it is best to adopt an infant for bonding and attachment, I can attest that our daughter who was 20 months old at placement is doing great as are all her friends from China who came home around the same age! Don't be afraid of international adoption and don't give up just because DCFS and BCS told you no!!

Good luck in your journey it is the best thing to ever happen to our family!! If you have any questions email me at aproudmomma at gmail dot com.

D.

Hi T.,
My husband and I had a difficult time finding an ageny that would accept us due to our combined age. We went through a private attorney (Sheila Maloney out of Downers Grove ###-###-####). She was absolutely fabulous. She is connected across the country through an Adoption Attorney group and is on the board of several organizations for adoption. She could also point you to agencies. Working with her allowed us to adopt two beautiful children. She is supportive and caring and very successful at what she does. Grace and Anthony are now 3 years old and the joy of our lives. We couldn't imagine life without them and felt extremely blessed to have had Sheila on our side. We are fortunate to have found very supportive adoptive families in our area and have developed quite a network. Everyone has traveled a different path but hav eone thing in common - the love for their children. If you would like to hear more of our adoption journey and what we have learned along the way from both our experience and others, please feel free to contact me ____@____.com

Have you tried Catholic Charities...they are large.

We've adopted our son through The Baby Fold in Normal. We had a wonderful experience with them! Matter of fact, we are getting ready to start the process again. Good luck, adoption is such a wonderful thing!

The Cradle in Evanston is fantastic. They're a not-for-profit, non-judgmental adoption agency who could definitely help you. They are outstanding and I cannot say enough good things about them.

You might want to try Catholic Social Services. I don't believe you have to be Catholic to go through their agency for adoption, but I am not sure. Good Luck

Hi there,
Have you checked out Angel Adoption...they adopt from the states. I really liked the women running this company..they themselves recognized what a gift it is to be able to have a child. Many of the women in this company either adopted themselves or went thru many heartaches of miscarriages before having a child.
Good luck!

Sunnyridge Family Center in Wheaton should be able to help you. My older daughter was 9 when we adopted. Our plan was to go overseas, but God had another plan and our daughter was from Algonquin. Not so far to travel! Sharon Wolgemuth was our counselor there and helped us through the homestudy and all the details. I believe she is still there. My younger daughter is now 11. If you have more questions once the process begins you can always e-mail me. Been there done that!

We are going through the adoption process right now. We are using Childrens Home and Aid Society out of Rockford. We have had a great experience with them so far. Its nice that they are so close.If you have any questions about the process feel free to ask.

Try The Cradle in Evanston. They are wonderful from what I understand.

T.,
We adopted our son as a newborn and are getting ready to adopt again. I also have a few other local friends here who did the same. It's actually quite easy and fast. We worked through Adoption Information Services in Georgia and were extremely happy. You can google them and call the Director, Marcia Barker. I hope this helps!
K. V

Have you checked with the Cradle and/or Easter House? These are 2 agencies friends have adopted through, but they adopted infants, so I am not sure if they facilitate toddler adoptions as well.

Dear T.,
The only adoption agencies of which I am aware are the Cradle in Evanston and Catholic Charities. I don't know if either works with the age child you are seeking. Good luck! I might think of the Cradle first as they contacted where I work concerning a special needs (blind) baby; I am an instructor at the Hadley School for the Blind. (No, we don't deal with children--<smile>--contrary to places for little kids who send groups to us looking for our child studens!)
S.