Pros of independent adoption

1. You have more control over the entire process, including timing of your travel. (Not total control, however!)

2. You are generally VERY involved in deciding which child comes to your family, oftentimes after you have seen the child in person.

3. Depending on which country you adopt from, you may be able to adopt a newborn.

4. Overall time frame, from referral to travel home, is often MUCH shorter than with an agency.

5. Along with your social worker and the applicable international law, you can decide your family make-up and not be restricted by agency policy.

6. You do not have to pay agency fees.

7. You have a lot more say where the money in your adoption “budget” goes.

8. You have a chance to really learn the process of adopting in one country and can become the person other people turn to when they hit bumps in THEIR independent adoptions.

9. You work directly with your child’s orphanage.

10. You are in your child’s country for several weeks, rather than just a few days. You may get to take more than one trip.

11. You have the chance to really immerse yourself in another culture, to learn to take life at a different pace and to respect the many different ways we “run” our lives around the world.

12. You get really good at “rolling with the punches”.

13. You become an advocate, an advertisement and a resource for independent international adoption.

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