Experience with Adoptions Together?

[Anonymous]

We are considering adoption and attended an info session with this agency. Any thoughts on pros and cons of using them versus another agency? People in this forum have suggested agencies with low upfront fees, but we don't have a sense of what that means in practice. It sounds like they work closely with local birth mothers and they have been around for a long time, which are appealing factors to us. That said, we don't know much about this process and welcome any insight. Thank you in advance!

[Anonymous]

Yes! My kid is 7.5 now, so I'm not sure how things have changed, but we had a very positive experience. We also attend their family conferences/picnics and support groups.

[Anonymous]

are you looking into domestic infant adoption or one of their other programs? they are all quite different.

[Anonymous]

For us, it came down to Adoptions Together or Barker. Lots of good things to say about AT, although we did end up going with Barker (and couldn't be happier with that decision - they were AMAZING).

[Anonymous]

Barker was terrible. I've heard mixed things about adoption together. Better to do a local home study and use a bigger out of state agency.

[Anonymous]

We had a great experience with AT domestic infant adoption 6+ years ago.

[Anonymous]

OP--thanks for responses thus far. We're interested in domestic infant adoption. For those who used them, what did you like in particular? Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

I have adopted two children through the AT Domestic Infant Program (2008-2012). I have two friends who have also adopted children with AT - one who has one child and the second who had 2 adoptions. We are all single moms and had great experiences. One of the things that I particularly liked about AT was their complete openness to working with non-traditional families. They are also very professional and detail oriented. They were very good about communications and updates. The folks I worked with both times were happy to give out as much hand-holding as needed. I could not speak more highly of the agency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have adopted two children through the AT Domestic Infant Program (2008-2012). I have two friends who have also adopted children with AT - one who has one child and the second who had 2 adoptions. We are all single moms and had great experiences. One of the things that I particularly liked about AT was their complete openness to working with non-traditional families. They are also very professional and detail oriented. They were very good about communications and updates. The folks I worked with both times were happy to give out as much hand-holding as needed. I could not speak more highly of the agency.

OP here -- thanks for sharing your experience, that is helpful!

[Anonymous]

We adopted through AT in 2006. Was an awesome experience. We are a 2 mom household. Surprisingly, the whole process took a total of 6 months. Started paperwork in July, brought son home in January.

[Anonymous]

We used them for our home study only (international adoption through other agency), and they did a fine job.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they have gotten better. They offered us one terribly ill child who had many bouts with cancer at age 4 and one severely mentally ill child who was adopted by "the next person". A lifetime of problems. Not what we wanted in our lives

[Anonymous]

They have different programs. The domestic infant program would not likely have 4 year olds or kids who were diagnosed with severe mental illness...because that =/= infant.

They do have a program for older, waiting, kids. I am in it now, awaiting a match. All the kids in the program have survived trauma--usually repeated and severe. Not surprisingly, it has an effect on the kids. But they still need homes, and "a lifetime of problems" is not the summary I would use to describe any of them.

[Anonymous]

We also adopted through AT and were happy with the process. We did domestic infant adoption and now have a happy healthy 4yo DD. I liked the fact that they were very responsive to questions, Quick to answer emails or phone calls etc. You never felt like you were bothering someone.
We also turned down the first couple of babies we were told about, the first one because of extensive medical needs and the 2nd one because it was out of state and we would have had to pay another agencies fees ( an additional $10,000). We were happy to go out of state but didnt like paying 2 agencies for one placement.
We didn't feel that we then wouldnt be considered for another baby though. We started the process in March of 2011 and finished all our paperwork in Nov 2011. Our DD came home to us July 2012. So a total time of about 16 mos.
We are a 2 Mom family if that matters.