I was speaking to an adoptive couple recently about their methods of basically letting birth mothers, friends, family know they want to adopt. Some of their methods include word of mouth, Pass along cards, websites, and blogs. Some of these couples are utilizing these tools as their sole source of being considered by a birth mother and others are supplementing the work of their professional adoption service provider such as an adoption agency, attorney, or facilitator with it.
I think it's a great way to spread the word about their desire to adopt. One of the great things is it's relatively low in cost for the most part and certainly when you consider what adoption professionals charge for their services. One of the drawbacks I feel is the potential for scam artist who understand the adoptive process and language and use that against a prospective couple for their own monetary gain and can leave an already emotional charged situation a painful memory. Now that's not to say that many couples are not contacted through these means and are placed with a baby through their own efforts. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you just put yourself out there and make it known to your community.
But it brings me to my mindset today. When a couple decides to work with an adoption professional they are basically contracting with that professional to put them in front of birth mothers. So it is very important that families understand that all adoption professionals are not alike in providing this key service.
An adoption service is only as good as the birth mother pool in which they work. Birth mother pools come in many sizes. In order for a couple to know how effectively their family profile will be shown to expectant birth mothers they need to know three things, 1 how many birth mothers are in your ACTIVE pool, 2. How many ACTIVE and PENDING families are currently working with that service provider 3. What are the fees needed to be included in those numbers.
If an agency for instance has 100 active birth mothers in their pool that might sound good at face value. But if the active and pending number of families is 4 to 5 times that number you can expect that every birth mother they are working with will have 20+ profiles to consider before making their decision as to who they would like to have a conference call. This can and does increases your wait time and decreases your chances of being chosen. But if an agency is working with 100 birth mothers and their active and pending list of families is 100 to 120 you can see what a difference that could make for any adoptive couple.
Most professional services do charge a application or registration fee to you in order to help with home study review, file creation and access to their birth mother pool. There is nothing new about this practice since it does cost money to provide these services. These fees can range from $400 to $1000 in most cases. If your contracted with the right agency your money is well spent.
The Adoption Center of Choice where I work recently did a brief study of a couple who had not been match with a birth mother in two years. They wanted to find out why and what could be done better for that couple. Their research found that they had been presented to over 50 different birth mothers in that time. Now while that may or may not be the case for every family working with us, it was for them. ACC's conclusion was to consider all factors and most likely make some rather dramatic changes to their family profile. What startled me was the number 50. In two years their profile had been considered by a very large number of birth mothers.
So going back to what it is a couple contracting for with a adoption service professional, does anyone remember? To put your family profile in front of birth mothers. 50 sounds like that part of the puzzle is being accomplished. I don't know if pass along cards and the other admirable self promoting advertising can come close to that number. What stops all families from doing this? Well it's number three on our list, fees.
Private adoption can run upwards of $35,000 and that is not something everybody can afford. Even if that is within your budget paying an application fee or registration fee to a service provider who cannot put in front of many birth birth mothers is a waste of your time and money.
So why you may ask am I thinking about such things on a Friday morning? I'll tell you. We have come up with a new idea. What if you could reap all of the benefits of an active and vibrant birth mother pool and not have to worry about any upfront fees? What if you could be in front of 25 birth mothers in one year and not pay a penny? Would you be interested?
We have such a pool of anxious birth mothers all across the country. We love our birth mothers and we go above and beyond when it comes to providing them quality services. We have a need for new families and we realize in this economy we should do something to help you. So to that end we are offering this as a free service for the month of December.
Here are some recent averages from our birth mother program
What would you say is the average # of new BM calls a week/a day we are getting? 50-60
How many new BM packets are going out a week? 20
In Utah 20 the rest out of state.
Active families 50 - Pending Families 40
Open to Caucasian Placement 75 % - Open to Biracial 20% - less than 5% Open to African American
I am excited about this and I wanted to share it with you. I am sure you have some questions about this program, I know I would. So give me a call and I can explain it in greater detail.
Have a great weekend,
Dave Williams
Adoptive Family Specialist
The Adoption Center of Choice
801-473-9350
