We have made a decision on an agency

We are going to apply with Adoption Advocates International in Port Angeles Washington. They have both NSN and SN programs, and we can switch from NSN to SN if we find a child on the SN list before we get a referral from the NSN program. The great thing about their SN program is that they are on the shared agency list and have their own private agency list, so we have many more children to search.

They will also allow me to do as much of the dossier paperwork as I want, which is pretty much all of it. I know how to put together a dossier, and, I have some great dossier resources, like a courier that works in DC, which is where most of our docs have to go.

We can save time and money by doing most of it ourselves.

I found a precious little girl on another agency's shared list. If we are paper ready and her file has not been locked by another family, we will look into pursuing adopting her. That is a long way down the road though, and there are a lot of other families ahead of us in line to review her file. Her SN is one that would scare a lot of families away that are looking for something that is an absolutely non-special need issue. In other words, something that doesn't have any effect on the child, but, is more of a cosmetic issue. I am not afraid of what I have read, based on what I know from past experience with a similar issue with one of my other children, but, will need to review the file more closely if we get that opportunity down the road before I make a decision.