When my husband and I began to explore adoption as a<br >way of building our family， I pictured a simple， straightfor-<br >ward process. I knew it could take a year or more from the<br >time we signed on with an agency until we had our baby and<br >that there would be plenty of frustrations along the way. But<br >if we were patient， I thought， one day the magic phone call<br >would come from our agency telling us "your baby is ready<br >for you." My mental picture couldn t have been further from<br >the way it really happened -- or usually happens.<br > Two years after we started， we were indeed adoptive<br >parents， but of a baby adopted independently from Brazil，<br >without agency help. While we were thrilled with the final<br >results， we found ourselves following many aggravating，<br >expensive， and unnecessary dead ends before we got there.<br >Although we sought and received help from a succession of<br >agencies， in the end we found our baby through networking<br >with other adoptive parents. Over the two years， I frequently<br >drew on my legal and advocacy experience to help us out， and<br >I often wondered how adoptive parents managed who didn t<br >have my background.<br >xix<br >