Frequently Asked Questions

Hey There!

It’s been a while since we posted, so we’ve decided to put together an FAQ post. There are a lot of questions in this post that are difficult to answer for one reason or another, so we are going to answer them to the best of our knowledge. If we miss something you are curious about, please feel free to comment on this post or contact us directly. Some of these questions were addressed in our first post so forgive us for the repetition, but we can promise there is a lot of new information here.

Can we share this post/tell others that you want to adopt?

The short answer YES! Please do! :)

The long answer: Please feel free to share our blog posts on social media or with anyone who you feel might be interested in our journey. We covet prayers for our process, and word of mouth (or technology as it may be) is one of our biggest tools for prayer and finding our forever family, but we’ll share more about that later.

What made you consider adoption?

I, Laura Beth, am adopted. My parents did a great job at making this fact a positive one in my life. As I got older and started thinking about marriage and my future life, adoption was always something I saw as part of that. Before Mike and I got married we discussed adoption and both agreed it was something we were open to and wanted to pursue. When we reached the time in our marriage where we felt we wanted to grow our family, we found through time and tests that our option to have biological children would be through intensive fertility treatments. So we took a little time to pray and discuss our options and during that time we felt God calling us to pursue adoption. We couldn’t be more excited!

Why did you choose private adoption vs agency adoption?

We feel like private adoption is the direction God is calling us at this time. We are not opposed to agency adoption down the road if we feel God calling us in that direction.

What is the cost of Private Adoption?

The price of an independent, or private, adoption is not set in stone as much as an agency adoption or adoption from Foster Care might be. There are many factors that go into determining the price, such as what state the child is being adopted from (travel costs, additional attorney cost, and any unknown state costs), medical expenses related to the child (as determined by the attorney) and anything else that comes up that we don’t know about yet :) . The best estimate that we’ve been given for private (independent) adoption is in the range of $3,500-$14,000 give or take.

Are you pursuing domestic or international?

We are currently pursing domestic adoption.

Do you have any Adoption Preferences (i.e. gender, race/ethnicity, special needs)?

This is a question you see on all of the adoption paperwork you could ever find to fill out and almost everyone we have told about our desire to adopt has asked this in some form or fashion. Since it is such a common question, we thought we’d address the parts separately. We’ll start with the short and sweet answer for the straight forward people (ahem…Mike) and then elaborate for the people more like me. :)

Gender: Absolutely no preference whatsoever.

Race/Ethnicity: Nope! This question could be a little more difficult to decide on since there are several factors that go into this decision. A couple of factors being how would we approach raising a child of a different race/ethnicity and the challenges and questions we might face when they are young and they might face as they grow.

Special Needs: No and Yes… While we are not pursuing adopting a child with special needs, specifically, we feel like God has a child/children for us and He will help equip us for that child. We will prayerfully consider any opportunity and we have faith that God will make clear what our decision should be.

What age child(ren) are you wanting to adopt?

We are primarily seeking infant adoption but we are open to whatever possibilities God places in our path. This includes siblings, as well.

What kind of relationship do you want with the Biological parent(s)? (i.e. open/semi-open/closed)?

We are open to any relationship we come to an agreement with the birth mom/parents about. Research shows the benefits for having an open or at least semi-open adoption with the birth mom/parents, although from personal experience we have seen that a closed adoption can turn out well, too.

How will you find a child / How can family, friends, others help us find a child to love?

Our main resource is word of mouth. In the state of Texas it is not legal to independently advertise that you want to adopt a child. So basically we are telling anyone and everyone we can about our desire to adopt and hoping we will be put in contact with a birth mom who chooses to make an adoption plan for her child. And yes it can be done! My parents were connected with me through a truck driver they met randomly one evening. :) So keep your ears open, and please feel free to share.

What is the timeline for bringing home a child?

Anywhere from 2 days to infinity, haha. A child is legally able to be taken home as soon as 48 hours after birth. The adoption is finalized at about the 6 month mark after the initial papers are signed. So our timeline is determined by when we find or are found by a birth mom who wishes to make an adoption plan.

How can we pray for you?

Our strongest desire is prayer for everyone involved in this process: the birth parents, their families, the child, attorney, home study caseworker, our families, and any others that may become involved. Other prayers would include God placing a child in our lives, the means to complete the adoption, and for Mike and I to have patience and the ability to discern Gods direction during this process.

Thank you, as always, for reading our blog!  We promise they won’t always be this long ;).

With love,

Mike and LB Compton