Adoption Facilitator?

Question

I was wondering if anyone has had experience working with an adoption facilitator. My husband and I are considering adoption through a facilitator in California. We have heard good and bad stories about both facilitators and agencies...just would like to know what other people have experienced. Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't know much about adoption facilitation myself.  However, I was considering working with a facilitator in California as well.  I wonder if it is the same person.  Anyway, the facilitator I was considering sent me a list of references.  Maybe you could ask for references from the person you would like to use.

Answer 2

We have worked with a facilitator who I would highly recommend.   Be sure to look around and see how fees compare from one to another.  There are some who you can tell are in it for profit, others who are in it for the child.   Good Luck!

Answer 3

My beef with facilitators (and it is big) is that they do not provide any services to birthmothers face to face -- which of course, means -- no counseling!!  When a birthmother works with an agency, they are required to provide counseling on an on-going basis.  Agencies have to provide certain services and are regulated and overseen by a licensing board.  Facilitators are not, and are actually illegal in some states.

I cannot imagine feeling good about the birthmother of my child having received no adoption counseling.

Answer 4

We considered a facilitator and eventually chose an agency instead.  The facilitator, besides being extremely expensive and open-ended in some of the expenses, seemed to be telling us everything we wanted to hear.  This was wonderful at first (We work very fast, you'll have a healthy baby very soon, you're the type of adoptive parents who are very appealing to the birth mothers we work with...) and then when we came down from cloud 9 enough to think about it, we realized the agency's answers were more realistic (It sometimes takes years, some of our babies have drug problems, you're older parents so you might not be chosen as fast as some of the younger couples...) and their costs were more reasonable.  We went with the agency.  Our child--healthy, smart, athletic, beautiful--is in elementary school now.