Picking Our Agency, Part 3: Open Adoption & Family Services

See also:

Picking Our Agency, Part 1: The Adoption Fair

Picking Our Agency, Part 2: Amara Parenting

Hey everyone!  Brian here and I'm finally making my first post on the blog.  Andy's been doing a great job so far.  We both hope that all of our posts are not only fun and interesting to read but also provide a good window into the process of adoption!

Taking another step forward in our process, it's time to review our next milestone: the info session at Open Adoption & Family Services.  This info session took place on Jan 10th in their Seattle office and was led by Lisa who is the Office Manager & Outreach Coordinator.

It was great to be able to learn more about another agency that was much different from Amara.  While Amara focuses primarily on foster-to-adopt, Open Adopt does infant adoptions.  During the info session, we learned a lot of things about Open Adopt.  Here are a few the highlights:

• Started in 1985
• Located in Oregon and Washington
• Provide support for pregnant mothers and adoptive families both short-term and long-term
• Place 38-60 infants every year (Over 1,200 since 1985)
• Similar adoption timeline to Amara (6 months of preparations + Avg 14 months of waiting)

While many elements of the process are similar for both Open Adopt and Amara, there were some unique differences due to Open Adopt being a different agency and their focus on infants. For Open Adopt, the birthparents are automatically involved from the start and select the adoptive parents.  Selecting the adoptive parents usually occurs when the birthmother is in her third trimester.

Overall, both Andy and I really enjoyed this info session.  We had already heard some of the basic information about Open Adopt from several sources, and  Lisa did a great job answering all of the questions that we had.  She was an adoptive mom herself which also provided some great personal perspectives.  As we left the office that night, we knew we had a pretty big decision to make. 

Coming Soon: The Decision!