Adoption - How Long is the Wait?

American Adoptions is involved in over 300 domestic adoptions each year and offers an average wait of 1-18 months. This estimated wait time is achieved by approximately 90 percent of our families. With some of the lowest average waiting times in adoption, it is no wonder why hundreds of families turn to American Adoptions each year to help realize their adoption dreams.

How is a waiting time determined?

When choosing a domestic adoption program families always want to know, "How long will we have to wait?" It comes down to four important principles:

1. Advertising
2. The number of adoptive families on the list compared to the annual number of adoptions where the professional located the birth parents
3. The adoption desires of the adoptive family
4. The desires of the birth parents

There are many wonderful adoption agencies and attorneys from whom families can choose to handle their adoption plan. However, it is also important to research any agency or program fully.

With that being said, families should not be misled by waiting time estimates provided by many adoption programs. A study conducted by 1-800-HomeStudy found that most adoption programs do not annually confirm their waiting times and that waiting time estimates are rarely tracked accurately.

How can we determine if the waiting time estimate is accurate?

In most cases, waiting time estimates are simply an adoption professional's best guess at an adoptive family's wait. It is important to note that many of these adoption professionals are not intentionally trying to mislead people. Rather, they just don't take the time to verify their waiting times. There is a way, however, for families to determine actual waiting times for the adoption programs they are considering:

Step one: Ask how much the adoption agency budgets for advertising to locate a pregnant mother.

Below is a chart to illustrate waiting time versus amount spent on advertisements:

Average amount spent on advertisements	Actual average waiting time	Percent of families that receive a placement
$2,000	Over five years	20%
$4,000	3-5 years	50%
$6,000	1-3 years	80%
$8,000	3-18 months	90-95%
$10,000	3-12 months	95-100%

Step two: Determine the number of adoptive families on an adoption professionals' list versus the annual number of adoptions where the professional located the birth parents.

Below is a chart to help illustrate this simple point:

Adoption professional	Total number of adoptive families on the list	Annual number of adoption where the professional located the birth parents	Total Annual number of all adoptions	Average wait
#1	200	100	125	2 years
#2	150	50	100	3 years
#3	150	300	400	1 years
#4	50	10	20	5 years

* It is important to clarify how many adoptions occurred whereby the professional located the birth parents. With many professionals, they estimate all adoptions, when in actuality they were only responsible in locating the birth parents in a percentage of the adoptions. This obviously can affect the accuracy of wait times.

When interviewing an adoption professional or agency, families can determine this ratio by asking these simple questions:

1. How many adoptive families do you currently have on your list?
2. What is your annual number of adoptions that you are involved in?
3. Of your annual adoption number, how many of those adoptions did your agency find the birth parents?
4. What is your average wait for an adoption?

Assuming the professional spends the proper amount on advertising; the family may then take the answer to Question 1 and divide it by the answer to Question 3, which will determine the actual wait time for this professional. Families may then compare that number with their estimated wait to determine accuracy of the waiting time.

Step three: Decide what is important to your family in your adoption plan.

Obviously, the more flexible a family is with their adoption plan, the more exposure they will receive to expectant mothers, thus reducing their waiting time.

For example, 65 out of every 100 birth mothers smoke during their pregnancy. Therefore, families not accepting of smoking preclude themselves from 65 percent of the adoption possibilities. It is best for families to discuss these facts with the adoption programs before paying a lot of money to join that program. Most adoption programs will be forthright and honest regarding how a family's openness or lack thereof might affect their wait. Also consider:

• Some adoption programs require different things from their prospective adoptive clients. For example, some adoption professionals only perform open adoptions, while some agencies only accept prospective adoptive families from certain religious backgrounds, etc.
• Agencies located in different regions of the United States will also encounter different types of birth mother requests. For example, Texas and Utah birth mothers are often more focused on religious preferences. Midwestern birth mothers are typically more interested in traditional middle class families. California birth mothers tend to be open to a wide array of adoptive families and religious preferences are more diminished.

Step four: Acknowledge that in most domestic adoptions today, the birth parents select the adoptive family. This factor does affect waiting times both positively and negatively.

This is the one element that neither the agency nor the adoptive family can control. Women choosing to place their babies for adoption do so for a variety of reasons, just as each woman has her own mental image of what an "ideal" family for her child is. This factor cannot be controlled and must be accepted by waiting families.