Has anyone adopted/attempted adoption throught Catholic Family Services

  • Thread starter Thread starter thelibrarian
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

thelibrarian

Guest
We have been considering adoption for a little while now and are faced with deciding what agency to contact to start the process. Obviously, service varies by state and region, but has anyone gone through Catholic Family Services, or did you choose another agency – and why/why not?

In my area, I read that the homestudy for CFS is not “portable” to other agencies, so don’t want the mistake of paying for multiple homestudies. Does CFS do what small boutique agencies do - do they require you to spend a lot on advertising to attract a birth mother, spend a lot of money on an presentation album? Or do they not expect you to pay for advertising - because they attract birth mothers based on their reputation?

Thank you for any experience or advice. As a childless couple in our 40s, I know our time is limited to be considered for an infant or younger child, so we want to do out due diligence.
 
My experience was 30 years ago and it did not go well for us. They assured us that being Baptist would not be an issue and they took our money. Then they told us a Catholic would never give her baby to a Baptist family. Then they raised some issues with my husband and he went to their counselor. They did not approve us because of him. Probably for the right as we are now divorced due to some of those issues.
 
I would think that a lot has changed in 30 years, but to be fair, if your husband had issues that precluded him from being a suitable adoptable father to the extent that you eventually divorced him, I don’t think its fair to pin that on the agency. Perhaps they told you that you were not barred from adopting due to being Baptist, but perhaps they should have reminded you that its likely a birth mother would choose a Catholic couple as first choice before they took your money.

I am just nervous about our ages — I don’t want to be stuck at an agency that only will match you with a birth mom who comes and sits in their office but allows you to match with other children throughout your whole region/state, etc. I don’t have many years to find out that its only down to the birth mothers who walk through their individual door (and might not choose us). We are somewhat open on race, so that may help a little.

Maybe anyone who has adopted from other agencies would chime in as well.
 
Except for two, every adoptive family I know has adopted through DHS. They have children who came to their homes at only a few hours old to teenagers to sibling groups and every combination you can dream of.

Private adoptions are very expensive and agonizing. There are kids right now in foster care who really deserve loving families!
 
You still have to find an agency to do a home study, right? We do not wish to adopt a teenager. Most people I have encountered who have adopted teens had been couples who had already raised biological kids. It is just not for us at this time. Wouldn’t Catholic services deal with more children that were voluntarily given up?
 
We have children through both birth and adoption. I can’t speak to what the Catholic Family Services in your diocese is like. Some dioceses have larger adoption programs than others. Some dioceses work or worked with international adoption (I know Catholic Social Services in both Baltimore and North Carolina both used to have international programs, not sure if they still do), others focused on private infant adoptions, and some dioceses’ social service agencies provide foster care or adoption through foster care. It really depends on where you are. I’d do your research on Catholic Social Services in your location. Ask them how many placements they have in a year, how many adoptive couples they have waiting, how long families tend to wait for placement, etc.

As for paying for two home studies – it happens, and sometimes it’s unavoidable. We had to repeat a home study because we moved in the middle of the adoption process. I didn’t find that a home study was so much money compared to some of the other steps in the process. If you do switch agencies and have to do another home study, it would probably work out OK.

Good luck in the adoption process! 🙂
 
Yes, @thelibrarian, so much has changed since then and looking back, my ex definitely had issues I did not want to see at the time. We adopted through an agency in our city, special needs child. Truly a blessing, trials, but a blessing non the less. It was considered special needs as it involved the courts removing him from his birth parents.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top