How Do Your Client Families Achieve Adoption?
ASAA was established in 1999 , during that time, we have built a relationship with 40+ different adoption providers (agencies and attorneys) who have the legal authority to place a child for adoption. Due to our unique working relationship, these 40+ adoption providers allow our client families to have a profile shown to a prospective birth parent(s) at no legal or financial obligation. If the adoptive client family should be selected by the birth parent(s) and accept the “match,” then and only then do they make a financial and legal commitment to that adoption provider. Prior to a “match” our client families are able to wait on their financial or legal commitments and have a greater opportunity to view information from a variety of agencies and attorneys.
What Is An Adoption Consultant?
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, from start through finalization. Consultants are your adoption advocates throughout the process. 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, discussing adoption-related issues with extended family and friends, and providing a ‘shoulder to lean on’ in general throughout your adoption journey. (This information is reprinted with the permission of Adoption & Family Support Center, FL)
What Services Are Provided by Adoption Consultants?
When a prospective family enrolls with ASA they are assigned a personal adoption consultant. Typically the adoptive family is allowed to select the consultant with whom they would like to work, but if unsure, the company’s president will assist the adoptive family with the best choice of a consultant. Your consultant is responsible for guiding you through the adoption process from the point you enter our service plan. If you are completely new to adoption, your consultant begins with home study agency referrals, adoption education and profile development assistance. If you come to us as a “professional referral” from an agency, social worker or attorney, your consultant picks up with your adoption plan at whatever point you enter our services. We stay with your family from that unique beginning point through placement with your adoption provider and finalization.
Our service package includes: adoption home study referral, adoption education & parenting education, personal adoption guidance & support, ancillary adoption services (i.e., legal, financial, child development, birth parent communication), profile design assistance, networking/adoption provider referrals, and post adoption support. We have documented that we spend 60-100 hours per client family with our adoption consulting services.
Do You Advertise and Do Direct Matching with Birth Parents?
No … we view that as adoption facilitation and that is not part of our service package. Instead, we reach out to the 40+ adoption providers with whom we have built personal and professional relationships. They let us know about prospective birth parent(s) and we then refer the adoptive family to that provider if they wish to submit a profile for consideration.
What Education Do You Provide?
We have partnered with a service, eAdopt, to give our client families a private electronic portal for the most current adoption and parenting information. Currently (2020) we have over 80 documents of valuable educational information we share with each client family. Some states have education requirements. If the adoptive family resides in a state where adoption and parenting education hours are required, we will validate your hours of education, provide a certificate of completion and a print out of the dated, completed topics.
Do You Work With Families From All the US States?
Currently (2020) we cannot work with families who are residents of NJ, NM, or NY.
Do You Work with Adoption Providers in all US States?
We have built relationships with adoption providers in the most “adoption friendly” states of the US. That is not to say we won’t work with every state that permits our services, but most of our client families prefer to take placement
through agencies/attorneys in states that have adoption regulations favorable to an irrevocable placement.
Do You Require a Specific Level of Adoption Communication?
No we do not have a requirement of closed, semi-open or open. We have a very diverse view of adoption communication. We believe that the adoption communication between an adoptive family and a birth family should be mutually beneficial and often that cannot be defined pre-match. We do educate our adoptive families on their various ways both families communicate with one another pre-birth and post-placement. All of our consultants come with a variety of their own experiences in closed, semi-open and open adoption communication.
Is There a Requirement of Faith, Race, or Marital Status?
We work with all types of families from single persons, married couples (traditional and same sex), domestic partnerships and common law couples. We accept all faiths and races.
Our guiding principal is your family is able to successfully complete a home study and provide a stable home with unconditional love for a child/children. We do request you have a brief phone interview with the president of our organization to assess if your priorities match our service abilities. We do request if you are a couple that you have been together at least 1 year (partnership or marriage) before applying to our program.
How Do We/I Budget for An Adoption?
Since we are unsure of where and through whom you will adopt, we suggest you plan on a minimum of $35,000 for an adoption placement. That fee will be paid to the “placing” entity (agency or attorney) from whom you receive your adopted child. Some adoptions are less than $35K and some more, so planning for your budget to be at least $35K is helpful.
How Long Do You Work With Your Client Families?
We ask everyone to sign a Fee Service Agreement that binds us to our client families for 1 year from signing on with our services. If the family becomes dissatisfied, they may disengage any time during that year but no refund is offered. At the conclusion of the 1-year mark, if the family is not matched or placed and wishes to continue, there is a $500 reactivation fee that is valid for an additional two years of service.
