I have more questions and probably will forever since it seems like the info out there is just so overwhelming.

Dh and I are still trying to decide between international and domestic. DH is really more settled on international because there is typically no birth parent contact or worry and once their ours their ours. I'm a little concerned about it because through more research it seems some of the programs through different agencies for Russia don't allow any chronic medical conditions. I'm perfectly able to parent but they won't even allow people with diabetes to parent and my illness is super rare and hard to understand so I worry about that hurting our chances. DH also hates the idea of making a portfolio, dear birth mom letters, etc. and having to advertise ourselves to birth parents. I admit that's a little hard for me too. I feel like it'll just be so hard to decide which is best for us.

So to my questions. To adopt internationally do you have to go with a Hague Accredited agency? Some agencies say they're accredited in some other way and I don't know if that matters really. Also, if an agency is not a full service agency does that mean that there are some things that they don't offer, like attorneys? Is it best to just go ahead and choose a full service agency so that all of your needs are addressed by the same people? It seems to me it could be a concern if too many different groups get involved in the process.

I'm trying to narrow it down to a few agencies for each and am thinking of requesting an information packet from them all so that we can sit down and look at them together to decide what's best for us and who to contact for interviews. Also, I've noticed a lot of websites don't really say what they are...they don't specify if they're licensed or not or if they're a marketing agency or if they're a facilitator or what. Can I assume if they don't say that they're licensed that they must not be?

And does anyone have any suggestions for agencies for either international or domestic? I don't know if we're allowed to put names of them on here but if we can't I'd love a PM. There are a few I'm looking at and I'm not sure whether or not to trust them. I certainly don't want to get in a bad situation and lose a lot of money because I'm naive about the process or something. Anyway, that sums it up for now. Thanks in advance!