Working with an Adoption Consultant

Prior to presenting your adoptive family profile to one of our birth parents for a potential match, please take the time to read this introduction to our agency and how we work, as we are different than many adoption agencies in our philosophy and practice.

Adoption Consultants are a valued part of our adoption team

Our mission is to take care of your birth mother and attend to her every need. Because our agency philosophy and mission is centered on the needs of the birth parents, we feel that it is essential for the adoptive parents that work with us to utilize the services of an Adoption Consultant. Adoption Consultants are an essential and valued part of our adoption team. If your family is not currently working with a consultant, we will be happy to refer you to a reputable and professional Adoption Consultant. In order to work with our agency towards the placement of a child into your family, we require all adoptive families to obtain the services of an adoption consultant.

What does an Adoption Consultant do for you?

As an adoptive family, working with an Adoption Consultant provides you with numerous advantages. A qualified Adoption Consultant will provide you with the education, support and guidance that will assist you in making the best decisions for your family throughout the adoption process. A consultant is your personal adoption advocate. They are well-versed in each state’s adoption laws as well as the philosophies and reputations of the adoption agencies that they choose to work with, and will assist you in creating as many opportunities as possible for your family to receive your adoptive match and bring your child home.

Many Adoption Consultants do not just have the professional expertise to fulfill their roles; they often have personal experience in being a member of the adoption triad and can share with you their first-hand experiences in adoption. They can assist you in creating your family profile book, provide financial education regarding various tax credits and grants, and help in explaining the fees and costs for adoption-related services. You can rely on your consultant to answer questions regarding travel advice if you are completing an interstate adoption, discuss adoption-related issues with extended family and friends, and provide a ‘shoulder to lean on’ in general throughout your adoption journey.

Frequently Asked Questions When Working With A Consultant

What if we don’t have a consultant?

If you don’t already have a consultant we can refer you to one. We encourage every family to work with a consultant to help them find the child that was meant for their family.

Working with a consultant helps our agency communicate more effectively with you should questions arise throughout your adoption journey.

What exactly is a consultant?

A consultant is a unique concept in an adoption journey that combines advising, guiding and supporting a couple through the adoption process. They give your family and extended family counseling and training during your adoption journey. They can also be your “shoulder to lean on” with any questions or concerns you have.

Do you charge up-front fees to have our home study and profile on file at your agency?

No, we do not charge any fees to show the profiles of home study approved adoptive parents to our birth parents, nor do we keep a ‘waiting list’ of adoptive families that have paid us to find birth parents for them. Fees are only due once the adoptive family has accepted a match and completed our agency agreements and paperwork.

Our philosophy as an agency is that we are called to serve all of the clients that we are blessed to work with, but we do feel a special calling to work with our birth parents. We consider ourselves fortunate to work with a number of superior consultants and agencies who send us truly wonderful adoptive families, and they provide terrific adoption preparation as well as ongoing support to the adoptive family.

What else should we send besides our home study and profile?

Send a cover sheet with your parameters for your adoption. This would include: budget, level of openness, prenatal drug/alcohol exposure, mental illness of birth parents, ethnicity and if you are gender specific.

How will we know if we are going to be shown to a birth mother?

Prior to presenting your profile to a birth family, we present each consultant with a Birth Parent Information Sheet for Matching. Your consultant will forward this Matching Sheet to your family for review. If at that point you have any additional questions about the potential match, you can email Edna Brown.[email protected] or call her directly to ask questions..

What if our criterion does not match the birth mother completely?

We do share with our birth parents that they may have to compromise on their ‘wish list’ in order to be matched with the adoptive family that is truly meant for them. There are typically some requests on their wish list that are a priority to them and that they do not wish to compromise on. These will be listed in the Birth Parent Information Sheet for Matching available for the adoptive parents review prior to deciding to present their profile.

We want to be certain that these requests are acceptable to the prospective adoptive families prior to presenting those families as a potential match to our birth parents. One of our most important responsibilities and commitments to our birth parents is that we try our best not to present them profiles of families that will not move forward in a match with them if they are selected.

There is nothing harder than having a birth parent ‘fall in love’ with a family, only to have to explain to them later that the family will not be accepting the match. So we make every effort to make sure that potential adoptive families are completely on board with all that the birth parents are looking for prior to showing their profile.

Openness, including visits after placement, is becoming more frequent request from our birth parents. We ask that you only agree to the level of contact that you are absolutely comfortable with and able to maintain.

Can we present to other situations at the same time we are presenting with your agency?

We ask that the adoptive families NOT present their profile to other potential situations during the time that they are presenting to one of our birth parents (this is typically a three or four-day period). This commitment from the adoptive parents is required in order to present their profile to one of our birth parents.

Give us a call for more information

386-852-9098