This depends on what type of adoption you are interested in and/or how open you are to any unique birth parent issues. It also depends on how many attorneys and/or agencies with whom you work. If you want to do it on your own, i.e. locate a birth parent, and are aggressive with a networking/marketing/advertising campaign, you could save a substantial amount of money, and you should locate 1 to 2 birth parent leads within 6 to 12 months.