Working with Multiple Agencies

[trytobearunner34]

Has anyone here worked with more than one agency?

We have been waiting for nearly a year (DIA) and are working with Lifetime Adoption out of CA.  I know we have not even hit the average wait time.  However, even though adoption has always been something we had discussed, we worked through 4 years of infertility struggles before officially becoming a waiting adoptive family.  So it really feels like we have been waiting 5 years if that makes any sense.

Our current agency required an upfront payment which we paid over a year ago.  We have since saved the money needed for the other components (possible BM expenses, travel, legal, etc.).  We are keeping our budget the same so in theory we could seek out a second agency if there upfront costs were on the lower side and fees were paid upon match versus everything due in advance.

I think I am grasping at straws here as I do not know if DH will be overly excited about this line of thinking, but just thought I would see if others have traveled down this path before.  TIA

[casarosada]

I would love to hear answers as well. We have been waiting 3 year (i posted about this in my vent thread) and while I know we really can't afford to work with another agency I feel like it might be a good move. I e-mailed another agency with a few questions and was told they weren't sure if I could work with two agencies at the same time.

If you have worked with multiple agencies, were you upfront about this with both agencies?

[pinkie]

We worked with 2 agencies (3 total agencies between the two adoptions) both times and none of the agencies had any issue with it. They actually sort of encouraged it.

I'm happy to pm both of you the agency we were placed through both times. They only collect a small application fee up front. Let me know if you want the name (I just don't like to post it to a public forum).

[casarosada]

Aug 7, 2015 16:21:30 GMT -5 pinkie said:

We worked with 2 agencies (3 total agencies between the two adoptions) both times and none of the agencies had any issue with it. They actually sort of encouraged it.

I'm happy to pm both of you the agency we were placed through both times. They only collect a small application fee up front. Let me know if you want the name (I just don't like to post it to a public forum).

Ygpm

[trytobearunner34]

Aug 7, 2015 16:21:30 GMT -5 pinkie said:

We worked with 2 agencies (3 total agencies between the two adoptions) both times and none of the agencies had any issue with it. They actually sort of encouraged it.

I'm happy to pm both of you the agency we were placed through both times. They only collect a small application fee up front. Let me know if you want the name (I just don't like to post it to a public forum).

Yes, please and thank you

[theatrepal]

pinkie can you send the name of the agency to me too? As we approach the one year mark, I'm starting to think about 2 agencies.

[Stormtroopooper]

When we went through DIA the last time, we got fed up with our original agency, and I found two matches on my own through an adoption situations website. Both matches fell through before we even paid any fees though, so I can't really offer any other info.

[browneyes8]

Yes we did- although both of our matches for our 2 adoptions came from the same agency- the first after only a little over 2 months of waiting until match, the second was after 16 months of waiting until match.

[trytobearunner34]

Well as I kind of predicted, DH is not on board at this point with investing additional money into a new adoption agency. Which, I suppose is ok since the agencies I have contacted with low up front fees are not taking new families for DIA.

DH suggested we finally do something with the adoption cards we had made a few months ago. I just so DREAD taking these around.

Sigh...this process sucks:(.