American Adoptions

We have loved everything about working with American Adoptions. From the moment we called to get information, to the day we finalized and beyond, AA supported us through it all. They were so knowledgable, which was great because we has A LOT of questions. Our little girl is now a year and a half old, and not a day goes by that we aren't thankful for AA and their partnership in making us a family.

American Adoptions changed our life. Not only do we have 2 BEAUTIFUL children (if I may say so myself) but the experience from beginning to end could not have been more positive. First, their staff is top notch. From the people that helped with our application process – to the social workers that represented us and our birth mother – we felt nothing but support. They were available to us every time we reached out and truly became part of our family during a sometime stressful and overwhelming time. We felt taken care of – and once our children were born, felt our birth mother was supported too. Adopting can be scary – and I felt that our wonderful team was behind us, our children and our birth mother. There is A LOT of paperwork (of course) but the online resources were extremely helpful and our social workers answered questions and always willing to offer advice. If you are considering adoption – look no further – make the call – you won’t regret it!

Our experience with American Adoptions was excellent. My wife and I adopted our two girls through American and found the staff to be supportive, well-prepared, and thoroughly enjoyable when engaging with us. They made a nerve-wracking time for prospective adoptive parents much easier to get through and from talking with the birth parents of our girls, it seems American Adoptions is equally supportive trying to ensure everyone involved reaches the best outcomes possible.

We adopted our three boys with the help of American Adoptions. Each of the three adoptions were so unique, but American Adoptions was always by our side throughout the process. The love and care they show for the child, birth mom and adoptive parents is amazing! We feel so blessed to have used American Adoption and would definitely recommend them.

We chose American Adoptions as our placing agency after doing a home study with a small local agency. We made this decision in large part because they were among the largest nationwide adoption agencies, emphasized openness and birth parent support in their materials, and found their average wait times to be among the shortest of agencies that we had considered.

I will highlight a few aspects in detail, but the general takeaway is that our adoption experience was overwhelmingly positive.

In a variety of ways, American's strength is in its size. They operate out of most US States and thus appear able to provide more adoption opportunities than smaller agencies. I would guess that their size has also led to the standardization of their procedures. Their online materials, although requiring a significant commitment of thought, time, and attention on the part of the prospective adoptive parent, provide exhaustive information and guidance about the adoption process and a wide variety of related issues (e.g. openness vs. closedness of adoptions, relationships with birth parents, issues around the impact of adoption on each member of the triad, prenatal exposure etc.)

Similarly, in our interactions with admin staff and also our worker, Emily, we were consistently given a clear description of what was happening at each stage of the process, what to expect next, and the implications of choices we made. In sum, as much as the adoption process is one rife with uncertainty, there seemed to be regular attempts to mitigate this.

Like most big agencies, we were required to self-produce a video (that they professionally edited) and a lot of written material and images as a way to introduce ourselves to prospective birth parents. As much as this process often feels uncomfortable, we were happy with the resulting media, which ended up both feeling well-made and professional but also genuine in capturing us as people.

Because so much of the adoption experience is the waiting, there were periods where we didn't hear much from Emily. She was really up front about this and also willing to check in with us more if we wanted. We ended up seeking out local support groups for waiting families during the period (which I'd recommend). Our wait from activation to match was about six months, but this is markedly less than their average and certainly less than I am hearing from other folks who have recently adopted or are still waiting. I think this relatively short time is probably an exception rather than a rule, especially in 2022.

When we did match and accept our opportunity Emily and the birth parent specialist sprung into action and were available essentially 24 hours a day if we needed them. They were amazingly professional and effective, but also amazingly kind. Our son's birth mother chose us very late in her pregnancy, so we kind of had to drop everything in our lives and hop on a plane and go. Emily was so reassuring and centering, gently explaining what would happen and helping us to manage the anxiety of such a sudden and dramatic life change. She did an amazing job of helping us understand everything while acknowledging, honoring, and processing the transformative life change that was occurring for us, for our son, and for his birth parents.

In sum, as one might imagine, becoming a parent through adoption carries with it all of the extremes. It is demanding, constantly challenging, and complex, but it has also been indescribably wonderful and meaningful in ways that I cannot begin to put into words. We feel immensely fortunate that we chose American to guide us through this process.