Adoption Advocates, Inc.

We are a same-sex couple who adopted two children through AAI. The oldest is almost 6, the youngest almost 2. We had one prior placement that fell through at the last minute. Everyone at AAI was and continues to be wonderful, most especially Rory. After our first child, there was never any question but that we would use them again. It's a stressful process, but they made it as painless as possible.

We adopted our oldest son from AAI and still can not talk about the agency without feeling a tremendous amount of relief that we chose them. Aside from the fact that our son is the love of our lives, we feel so peaceful knowing what an ethical agency AAI is. While we appreciated how fairly the waiting parents are treated, it was equally important to us that the agency holds as it's highest priority the treatment of it's birth mothers. Our birthmother expressed to us how helpful the agency was to her and how supportive they were of her during and after what was obviously a difficult time. AAI is a smaller agency and so personal, caring and skilled attention is the standard for all parties involved.

We worked with a different, very well known agency for our second adoption as we wanted to adopt internationally. While things were fine overall and we have our precious child, the experience can in no way compare to that of our experience with AAI. With AAI, calls were returned immediately (and were often placed by them to us), we always spoke with the same person, nothing ever differed from what we were originally promised and our child and his birth family were treated with the respect they deserve. We even called AAI and a social worker affiliated with them several times for guidance during our second adoption.

We have referred multiple couples to AAI, three of whom now have their babies at home with them. As we have learned, the road to adoption can be a very difficult one to navigate, but with AAI by your side, you can be sure that the rules will be followed, you and your child's birth family will be treated with the utmost care and respect and that you are dealing with a team of professionals who are deeply dedicated to building families through the gift of adoption.

When we began our adoption journey, we heard from a couple of sources that Adoption Advocates was the gold standard for adoption in Austin, and our experience completely backs that up. They care about everyone involved in the adoption process -- adoptive families, birth parents (moms, dads, their families) and adoptees. They do a lot of education about adoption, and in particular open adoption. We started our own journey with their free quarterly class and learned all about the process -- the emotional issues, the legal issues, how to address concerns that adoptees might have years from now. Adoption Advocates really wants what's best for everyone involved, both in the short term and in the very long term. As an adoptive parent, I know that if I have questions about anything adoption related, I can call Rory, Erin or anyone on staff and take as much time as I need, and I could call at any time during the process. I could call now, or I could call in ten years and they would treat me kindly and professionally, respecting my needs and assisting in any way they could. We were very happy we chose Adoption Advocates as our agency and would heartily recommend them to anyone else looking for an adoption agency.

AAI can be trusted. We are recommending Rory, Erin, Kelsey and the rest of the AAI staff to some friends who are hoping to adopt, which is the highest compliment we can pay.

Our match and placement had some ups and downs as is often the case. AAI staff members were always honest and straightforward with us. We were treated with respect. More importantly, I believe that our child's birth family was as well. AAI staff never pushed us to make choices that might have been in the best interests of their organization. Instead, we worked together to sort through our circumstances. Their experience and professionalism was valuable, and our opinions mattered.

Rory, Erin and Kelsey called us. Sometimes with new information about our situation and sometimes just to let us know that there was nothing new. Both were appreciated! Unlike many other organizations that we've worked with, they responded quickly to our calls and texts and never treated us as though we were bothersome.

We have two amazing additions to our family thanks to AAI. We're thankful for their service to our family and recommend them highly.