Adoption Wait Times: 2 Factors That Impact Your Wait
No one wants to join an agency only to feel indefinitely stuck on a waitlist. It is one of the most common frustrations for hopeful parents, and it is a challenge that requires transparency.
There are 2 things that directly impact your wait:
- Web traffic to show Marketing and outreach to find pregnant moms.
- The number of waiting families vs. the number of annual completed adoptions.
Think of adoption like a grocery store. If you walk into a store with a "fast checkout" sign but see a long line and only one register open, the wait is going to be long.
Adoption works exactly the same way. The "registers" are the connections to expectant mothers, and "opening more lanes" means actively reaching those mothers through consistent marketing across channels like Google, YouTube, and TikTok.
Why Web Traffic Indicates Investment in Marketing
Marketing is the engine that drives adoption opportunities. If an agency isn’t investing in marketing outreach to find opportunities, families will wait.
- Web Traffic is the Best Indicator: The clearest way to compare an agency's reach is through its web traffic. Higher web traffic directly correlates with a shorter wait.
- The Cost of Opportunity: If web traffic is low, it often signals that the agency is not investing enough in marketing to generate opportunities for the families on their list. Quality marketing is an investment—costing roughly $20,000 to $30,000 per successful adoption—but it is essential to ensuring you aren't waiting for a connection that never arrives.
As you can see here, the range of web traffic among the top agencies varies significantly, and those who are able to show a higher amount of monthly web traffic are better equipped to bring you adoption opportunities.
If an agency cannot verify its web traffic, it’s a red flag that your wait might be much longer than what’s advertised.
Too Many Waiting Families and Not Enough Completed Adoptions
Every agency has a waiting list, but how they balance that list directly affects your wait time. Some agencies sign up too many families while providing estimates that do not match reality.
How to spot it:
Ask these two questions to determine if an agency is being transparent:
- "How many families are currently on your waiting list?"
- "How many adoptions do you complete per year?"
Example: If an agency has 210 families on their list but only completes 70 adoptions per year, the math results in a three-year wait. If they promised you a one-year timeline, that is a red flag.
If the families on the list outnumber annual adoptions by two or three times, you’re going to wait and may never get a good opportunity to adopt.
How American Adoptions Does It Different
Finding quality adoption opportunities is the cornerstone of preventing families from waiting years to adopt. Without marketing and outreach, how can a family expect to adopt within a reasonable period of time?
- We are committed to finding pregnant moms so that our families have numerous opportunities to build their family.
- We carefully manage our list so that the number of families we work with at any given time never far outpaces the number of adoptions completed each year.
These two efforts are designed to keep our wait times consistent and give you the best chance for success.
Ready to Learn More About a Successful Adoption?
We're happy to go through wait times in more detail with you, so please reach out online below to connect with a specialist.
We also encourage you to explore the 3 additional keys to a successful adoption:
Disclaimer
Information available through these links is the sole property of the companies and organizations listed therein. American Adoptions provides this information as a courtesy and is in no way responsible for its content or accuracy.
