Adoption Consultants

A lot was going on this past fall, and as a consequence I've fallen WAY behind on posting here. I have so many ideas for posts and they're just piling up! My New Year's resolution is to post more regularly on here, so we'll see how long that lasts. ;)

Once we finished our home study, we started looking for an adoption consultant. This is sort of a new niche in the adoption field, and they're becoming very popular. What exactly is an adoption consultant? Well, they're like a wedding planner for adoptions. Which is just funny to me, because I never in a million years even considered hiring a wedding planner when I got married. But, then again, weddings are much more commonplace, and there aren't a lot of confusing legal issues with getting married-it's pretty straight forward. In any rate, a consultant works as a middle man between you and an agency or attorney. Basically, you discuss with your consultant what kind of child you would like to adopt (domestic/international, girl/boy, ethnicity, age, etc.), as well as your adoption budget, and your consultant starts screening adoption situations for you. They have connections with many agencies and attorneys across the country, and are constantly getting adoption situations. When they hear of one that matches what you have discussed with them, they will call and present you with a potential situation. If you agree to the situation, your profile is submitted to the original agency/attorney, and the birthmom will then view your profile, along with several others. What really appealed to me about an adoption consultant is that you are not locked into one specific agency or attorney until a match is made. It really expands your potential exposure to birthmoms, which helps you bring your child home faster. Consultants also offer a range of services such as help creating/editing your adoption profile, adoption classes, opportunities to talk to financial advisors, and even birthmoms who have already been through the adoption process. Not every consultant offers the same services, of course, so do your research and pick the one that works best for you and your budget. An average adoption consultant cost is $2,500-$3,000.

Our social worker gave us a list of three consultants that she had worked with and recommended, and we pretty much just researched those three. We narrowed it down to two, but in the end decided to go with A Step Ahead Adoption. Although they are based in Colorado, they have consultants in many states, including one just a half hour from our house, which is wonderful. One step closer to our baby!