Louise Greenhill tried initially to adopt in the United States through the internet, but was unsuccessful.

As the debate rages over internet adoption rages, she warned of the perils involved in such a move when she spoke to BBC News 24

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Basically, we wanted to adopt a young baby and one as young as possible. It did not seem to be a possibility in the UK.

That caused us a lot of stress at that time.

There were babies up for adoption but we were a white couple.

The adoption agencies would not have considered a placement with us because the babies were of a different race.

When it came to the crunch, the case sounded very dicey ... we ended up in Texas with no baby

Louise Greenhill

So it took us overseas to carry on our search to adopt a baby and bring our family together.

I got my guidance from the overseas adoption helpline. They gave me quite a strict rundown on how you go about adopting from overseas.

The most crucial thing you do is have your home study done initially before you even thing about choosing the country.

Thorough investigation

Social services are the only agencies credited by the health services which can carry out home studies.

Until January of last year it was still legal for home studies to be done by an independent person and that is how we went about doing it.

We still had a very thorough investigation over six or seven visits and every aspect of our lives were investigated.

Going down the internet route is a very dangerous way to go.

It is possible to make anything look desirable on the internet.

Our initial situation when we wanted to go to the US was that we found an agency on the internet.

Wonderful website

There was no specific babies for adoption, but the agency had a wonderful looking website.

It seemed to be very dignified, very civilised and a very good way of doing things.

When we spoke to a woman at the agency, she seemed to know what she was talking about and she sounded very positive.

But when it came to the crunch of it, the case sounded very dicey.

We ended up in Texas with no baby.

My crucial advice is to investigate as much as you can. Never use an agency in the US without somebody giving you a good reference for that agency.

Use as many resources to find people who can help you because there are always people out there who can help.