Hi, First of all congrats on wanting to adopt! We hired our own social worker to do the homestudy beacuse we were working with an atty. doing independent adoption. Alot cheaper! but….. if you are going to use an agency for the adoption alot of them will require you to do the homestudy through them. I don’t know the laws in NV but an adoption atty in you state would know what to do, give one a call.
Good Luck!

Here are some listings for places that do home studies in Las Vegas ~
Standard Listings for Home Studies in Nevada
Business Name   Location   Phone
Adoption Alliance Nevada   Las Vegas, NV   (702) 968-1986
Adoption Agencies • Adoption Attorneys • Home Studies   Upgrade my listing
Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada   Las Vegas, NV   (702) 385-3351
Adoption Agencies • Home Studies   Upgrade my listing
Catholic Community Services of Northern Nevada   Reno, NV   (775) 322-4491
Adoption Agencies • Home Studies   Upgrade my listing
Jewish Family Service Agency   Las Vegas, NV   (702) 732-0304
Adoption Agencies • Home Studies   Upgrade my listing
New Hope Child and Family Agency   Seattle, WA   (800) 228-3150
Adoption Agencies • Home Studies • International Adoption   Upgrade my listing

You do not have to use them to do the adoption but you CAN just get the homestudy through them…Check the laws in your state though~ just google “adoption laws, Nevada”

good luck! and best wishes.

I wanted to clarify what another person already said: if you are going to go through an agency at any point they will usually require that you do your homestudy through them.

We made this mistake and choose what we thought was an adoption agency to do our homestudy. Turns out it was just this one woman, working out of her house, who was licensed to do home studies but nothing else. Once our home study was complete and it was time for us to start meeting birthmothers this social worker had absolutely no connections to any. She often worked with families doing international adoptions where you need a home study as part of your dossier, but don’t need to find birthfamilies. We ended up working with a different adoption agency and in order for them to do the placement with us they charged us an extra 3000 dollars!! The only reason we had to paid this extra money was because we hadn’t done the home study, worth about 1000 dollars, through them. It’s totally a scam, but since all of these adoption agencies are privately run they can do whatever they want.

If I was you I would research exactly what method you will use to meet birthfamilies first. Will you use an atty, a agency, or try to find them through direct advertising? Once you decide where the baby will come from THEN get your home study. And if you choose an agency you will want to get your homestudy done through the same agency.

Good luck!!
Amanda

To start, please let me clarify that I am not contradicting the advice of Samsmommy or Amanda, I think it is solid advice. I just want to share our experience, which was a bit different.

We started with international adoption, and used a small agency in our state (Kentucky) to provide the home-study. Eventually, we decided to pursue a domestic adoption (the wait for a Chinese adoption just kept growing ) and again turned to our home-study agency, whom we really liked. They were more than happy to counsel us and convert our international home-study to domestic, but they did let us know that because they are such a small agency (in a somewhat remote location) it would be best for us to contact other agencies to serve as our placement agency. They gave us a list of suggested agencies/lawyers, all national or out-of state, and we did contact 3-4 that fit our parameters. All of the agencies that we contacted knew we had a completed home-study in the state of KY, and all were willing to accept our home-study though completed by a separate agency (two agencies explained they would charge a small fee to ‘transfer’ the home-study, but this fee was as low as $100 in both cases). Ultimately we went with a lawyer/agency in Ohio and did pay the $100 fee to ‘transfer’ our home-study.

Having read Amanda’s story, I now realize that we may just have stumbled into a good situation vis a vis our agencies and their willingness to work together.

If you adopt thru social services there is not a fee.  In fact when a child is placed with you they will receive and adoption assistance until they are 18 years old…they also pay the attorney’s fees and have state medicaid . good luck on your plans ...they will be calling you Mama very soon!  Cynthia

If you want to do independent, or private adoption, I think it would really help to get connected to a network to help you learn the ropes. There is a lot you can learn from people who have done this before you.

I’m not familiar with Vegas, but the one in our area (DC) is called Families for Private Adoption. You might be able to find some useful info on their website, since you are just beginning.

http://ffpa.org/

If you want to do independent, or private adoption, I think it would really help to get connected to a network to help you learn the ropes. There is a lot you can learn from people who have done this before you.

I’m not familiar with Vegas, but the one in our area (DC) is called Families for Private Adoption. You might be able to find some useful info on their website, since you are just beginning.

http://ffpa.org/

I agree with the advice that you need to really research thoroughly how you plan on carrying out the entire adoption before you hire anybody. There are many routes you can take and they all have pros and cons.  Do your homework.