During your interview with an adoption agency, be on the lookout for red flags. If a potential agency does any of the following things, it’s a sign that they don’t have your or the child’s best interest in mind.
- They don’t require parental pre-adoption education.
- They don’t provide humanitarian aid in the countries where they work.
- They require the bulk of your payment before services are provided.
- They aren’t readily available by phone or don’t return your phone calls promptly.
- They offer to “hold” a child for you while you get your paperwork ready.
- They are hesitant to give you their financial statements.
- They discourage you from getting an independent medical review of the referral or match.
- They downplay potential problems with the child. They say things like, “Love will take care of everything.”
- They create a sense of urgency. “If you don’t decide by today or tomorrow, you’ll lose out.” (Of course, it is reasonable to ask you to decide within a week or so.)
- They promise waiting times or costs that sound too good to be true. When things sound too good to be true, they usually are.
- They don’t provide birth mother counseling or post-adoption services such as family counseling.
Do you have a list of licensed agencies in Utah and Louisiana?
Hi Susan,
Thanks for asking. We have a resource called “Find a Professional” (linked here) that might be of some help. It’s not as specific as those two states but hopefully, it gives you a starting point.
Thanks for stopping by to read!
Always Hope Pregnancy Center of Michigan is an extremely fraudulent ‘agency’. It consists of only one woman who controls everything- the adoption, the pre adoption, choosing families, she wants to be in the delivery room when the mother gives birth, and she claims that she is the ‘counselor’ after post adoption. I was completely coerced into choosing the family I did for my child. This family has turned out to be an absolute nightmare, as the adoptive mother calls me names such as ‘asshole’, and the ‘madonna that birthed the child’, the adoptive parents blame and shame me constantly, push me aside, discount things I am trying to communicate to them. The adoption ‘specialist’ Tara lied to me about what my Sons living situation would be like, and so did the adoptive parents. Tara told me that the adoptive dad has a daughter from another marriage, but that she’s ‘never around’, and that she lives a few hours away and that they only see her once or twice a month. Turns out, the daughter is at their home %50 of the time, and only lives 15 minutes away from the adoptive family when at her mothers home. This is just one example of the multiple dishonest, manipulative things I was told by this adoption ‘agency’. The Tara woman constantly claims to be ‘super busy’ and spreads herself WAY too thin, and then uses ‘how busy she is’ to gain pity for her wrong doings and fraud.
Thanks for that feedback. I’m sorry for your terrible experience. There’s a group on Facebook dedicated to giving honest reviews of agencies to help other families and birth parents avoid heartbreak like you are describing. Maybe you can connect there with others who might have been through what you’ve been through: http://ow.ly/fs4b30feYH4
Suzan – are you aware she’s now being investigated by the FBI? They’re asking anyone who had any dealings with her to contact them. {edited to remove personal contact info}