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Adoption
Thoughts on using an adoption consultant?
Hi all. We have friends (2 different couples) who both used the same adoption consultant and both had really good experiences. In hindsight, one of the couples feels they probably could have done as well just applying to several agencies on their own. Does anyone have thoughts about this topic in general? And, we're in GA, in case anyone has feedback about a specific adoption consultant (or agency) experience. Thanks!
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Re: Thoughts on using an adoption consultant?
We used Christian Adoption Consultants and I can't imagine getting through all of it without my consultant. She was awesome and I loved having someone to talk to who could give me the ins and outs of each agency.
Also- you tend to match faster using a consultant. They have relationships with so many agencies.
PM if you have any specific questions. Good luck.
We are in Georgia also! I'll PM you with our agency name.
Best decision we made.
In full disclosure, it was an extra $1700, but it also meant that we had $0 in application fees, because the agencies they partner with waive application fees allowing you to apply to multiple places.
And it's important to remember that consultant is not a facilitator and they do not find babies. They just walk you through the process. Our consultant was the person I called to ask about situations, because she's seen it all and could be objective.
And if we hadn't hired a consultant, we probably would've just applied to local agencies, because I never would have known that we could do otherwise.
A consultant means knowledge and new avenues, which can result in faster matches. They are not baby finders.
We used one out of GA and we were extremely pleased. It was $2500 well spent in my book. We were matched with a (n already born) baby boy 4 weeks after we signed with the consultant.
Like Ms B said, some consultants do facilitate adoptions from other agencies who don't have someone that matches the BM criteria in their pool of waiting prospective parents. However, it's my understanding that a true facilitator (at least the legal definition in GA) is someone who advertises and recruits potential BM. My consultant did not, as it's illegal in GA.
Amy and a few others on this board used the same consultant.
We used Gloria Hawk/Adoption Advice and Guidance in Georgia and couldn't be happier. The expense was small compared to the entire cost of adopting. They meet with the couple to help identify goals and priorities. Then they recommend three adoption resources (agency or lawyer) for the couple to work with - and you can work with all three. They also have really great guidance for doing your profile book, and several peope (including a former birth mother) review your profile and give feedback. However, where the real value comes in is that the consultants also receive information on adoption situations all over the country, so you are not limited to the situations through the agencies or lawyers you choose to sign up with.
We matched in about 7 weeks and had a baby in our arms 8 weeks after signing up with our consultant. We hadn't even finished our home study or attended the second meeting with the consultant to find out which agencies she recommended we work with.
I highly recommend using a consultant, and since you are in GA, definitely consider Gloria Hawk. If one of your priorities is adopting quickly and can afford it, I think a consultant is the way to go.
History of IF and 2.5 years TTC. The day we were to start our first IUI we received a call that changed our lives forever and 10 month old Olivia joined our family. Shortly thereafter we got a surprise BFP and baby 2 is due July 5, 2012
We loved our consultant. After we had taken a break and tried IVF, we then called the consultant back and told them we wanted to work with them again and try to adopt. They called us 2 weeks later about a baby that was already born and the consultant picked us (BM didn't want to choose). We wouldn't have Ben if not for them. Send me a PM if you want.
I read this board a lot and have gained great info but rarely post. we're waiting to see if we are selected by a local agency in their annual "drawing" of families to work with in the next year. If not picked, we'll explore other avenues - maybe a consultant.
So my question - why would agencies ever need to work with a consultant to place a child? It seems every agency I have talked to has lots of waiting families. Do the consultants usually step in only in cases when it is a special needs child or there are signifcant risk factors?
There are some small agencies who actually don't have many waiting families at a given time, or sometimes it's a very quick placement (baby already born or very soon. Or the adoption is out of the price range of their waiting families due to birth mother expenses. In our situation, LO is biracial and the agency didn't have enough couples open to biracial children to show the birth mom. Some birth mothers have very specific criteria for adoptive parents and just aren't happy with any of the families working with the agency.
This is one of the questions we had. I also didn't want to "jump in line" in front of families who were just with that agency.
With the consultant we used, I still did all the work. All the applications, all the communicating with the agencies. Once we applied we were just like every other couple already in that agency's "book," so to speak. The agency didn't work with the consultant; the agency worked with US. We were only with that agency because of the consultant. Does that make sense?
Yes, our consultant lists available situations on her blog, but it's not done as "baby finding," it's done because she culls all the agencies websites and consolidates all the information in one place for her clients. So if I saw a situation we'd be interested in, I asked her which agency it was with, and then called that agency myself and said we wanted to be presented. And if we weren't yet active with that agency, the benefit of working with the consultant is that I could've called that agency and said: "We're a homestudy-ready couple working with Consultant, and we're interested in situation X, can I overnight you our profile?" (In theory; I never actually did this because we got matched/placed so quickly.)
I agree that it was the best decision we ever made. We used Adoption Information Services out of Georgia. (AIS is how they are typically known) They do both services, have direct placements as well as recommend agencies. We used them to help us find the right agencies. We were homestudy ready when we met with them (we had a failed match and bad fallout with a previous consultant when we went to them). Our timeline:
March 20th - first meeting in person
March 27th - received agency list
March 30th - chose three agencies to apply to
April 3 - contacted agency about a situation on their website
April 4- profile shown to BM
April 5 - chosen
April 20th - across the country in delivery room with H
For us, the $1500 or so we spent with them was so worth it. We feel like it saved us enormous amounts of time researching agencies that would fit our requirements. We also believe that it allowed us to get our profile shown for H before they had even confirmed all our paperwork (we knew it was our son, as weird as that was) because the agency knew AIS had already been working with us and the quick placement allowed us to get in under the wire for the tax credit. We would not/did not receive it the next year. We did not use AIS second time around because there obviously was no need. We did not have to pay any application fees with the three agencies we went active with that week.
Hi! We are in GA and were matched last week with a birthmom who is due 3 weeks from today...and we used a Christian consultant.
We were scheduled to officially go active with her in January but we actually went active with her a week before January even started...a week or two after our homestudy was officially complete. We really didn't understand a lot about consultants at first but man oh man, I am so thankful we decided to use one! We are so pleased with ours and I have referred several people to her.
Feel free to email me at maryme10 at yahoo dot com if you would like more information...I'm really bad about checking my pms on the message board.
I will tell you what I love about my consultant is that her heart is definitely in the right place. She is an adoptive mom herself so she knows the entire process. The purpose of the consultant is to really be there for the adoptive parents. Our consultant only works with 5 clients at a time so you are able to get matched super fast.