One act of kindness (or two acts, in this case) deserves another, so I wanted to elaborate on my conversation with Laura from Faithful Adoption Consultants and Shannon from Christian Adoption Consultants.

The reason I enjoyed my conversation with Laura is because she really wanted to hear about what wasn’t working in our adoption journey so far, for the purpose of making sure that if we worked with them they would go out of their way to make sure we never had those problems again. In reference to money and situations, she gave it to me straight: she would love to work with us, but would not in good conscience take our consultant fee right now since we do not have the budget for the situations they present. Even after she knew I couldn’t be a client right now, she continued to encourage me and give me all kinds of tips about how to round up additional monies. We had already done almost all of them, but I truly appreciated the sentiment. Laura is also a mother of six children, both biological and adopted, so girl knows what she’s talking about!

Info

Company: Faithful Adoption Consultants

Prospective Client Coordinator: Laura Olsen

Laura@faithfuladoptionconsultants.com

I happened to stumble across a beautifully written blog post by Shannon a couple of days ago. To my surprise, when I scrolled down further I discovered that she is a social worker by day, and an adoption consultant by night!  I sent her an inquiry email and she got right back to me. She even looked over the pdf copy of our adoption book and gave me very positive feedback. As a social worker, she couldn’t be more educated about the process…except she is, because she’s also a new adoptive mom herself thanks to CAC! She reached out to me by phone the following Monday to see how she could be of service. She wanted to hear where we had been, and what our expectations were currently for an amazing adoption experience from here on out. I could have cried. I didn’t know adoption workers existed that wanted to make the journey as easy as possible for hopeful adoptive parents. She too advised me not to pay the consulting fee right now, for the same reason as Laura. She suggested another plethora of ideas about how to come up with the extra money needed, and was rather shocked to hear we had already done them all!  She was caring, personable, and genuine, and when I had to cut our conversation short, she made herself available for the rest of the day to take my call when I was able to get back to her.

Info

Company: Christian Adoption Consultants

Adoption Consultant in Training: Shannon Wagoner (visit her blog here)

Shannon@Christianadoptionconsultants.com

To summarize, both consultants felt quite confident that for a family open to both gender and race, a match would happen “sooner rather than later.”  Both organizations only work with states that have very adoptive parent “friendly” laws, i.e., no waiting in angst for 45 days wondering if the baby you just had placed in your arms is going to be removed from them just as quickly.  They only have relationships with states that have time frames of 72 hours or less.

In the beginning, you may look at the consultant fee (which is very reasonable for both, by the way) and consider it an unnecessary additional expense.  Although we did not start out using a consultant, and realizing now that the hubs and I did much, if not all, of the grunt work ourselves, I would tell anyone starting out that they are worth the extra money.  Remember, consultants are not facilitators.  Facilitators are illegal in many states, consultants are not.

Please Note:  Neither Faithful Adoption Consultants nor Christian Adoptive Consultants asked me to write this review, endorse them in any way, or promote their services on my blog or otherwise.  I received no payment or goods or services for this review. It has been written without their knowledge.  I wrote it because I believe they represent adoption the way it should be done, and because Laura and Shannon operate within the adoption industry with the utmost integrity and care for their clients, and even just potential clients.  That deserves a shining blog post, at the very least!

To read the exciting saga of Borrowed Genes from the beginning, click here.

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