A Child's Waiting, Any experience with A Child's Waiting Options

[hopefulangel]

Please tell me any good or bad experiences with A Child's Waiting

Thank you

Wanttoadoptnow

[wait4baby]

Please tell me any good or bad experiences with A Child's Waiting

Thank you

Wanttoadoptnow

We had a wonderful experience.....If you scroll down a little more on the agencies there is alot more info on them. Good luck!

[Shamrock]

We are working them currently. I am very pleased. Our first situation with them was a failed placement, but I felt very supported by them. The counselor for the emom for concern was the emom but she kept our hearts in mind also.

They try to personalize the matching process with your interests the expectant mothers. They encourage the emom to interview at least 2 or 3 families before matching (not a requirement but encouraged).

The only thing I do not like is that you are aware every time your lifebook is presented. I would rather get a call that says "You are matched or a mom wants to interview you."

Feel free to pm me if you have any additional questions.

Jody

[OzMom2003]

We signed on with them in the AA program. We got lots of potential matches but ended up adopting from a posting on this board. The agency itself is very nice; even though we didn't end up getting our children through them, they still supported us with counseling, answering questions, support groups, and information.

There have been two situations locally with ACW where the birthparents reclaimed. This is not the agency's fault. Ohio has a long time for birthparents to change their minds. Be sure to tell ACW that you are willing to travel out of state (other states have better laws than Ohio).

If your homestudy is written by ACW it will be very thorough. Ohio requires a lot more than most states so your homestudy will be accepted in most states.

The only 'complaint' that I have heard about ACW is not really a complaint. If you say you'll take a sibling group, ACW will call with all sizes of sibling groups!!! One family from here adopted 5 hispanic children and then got a call in 18 months for 3 Liberian children! Yes, they took them all and just bought a bigger van :-).
Another family that we run around with a lot got 2 girls from ACW from the foster care system. A Child's Waiting arranged for lots of counseling for the family and LOTS of activities (free weekends at waterparks) for the family to help them adjust.

The agency is very busy but the staff is as nice as they can be. No agency is perfect so just grin and be patient :-)

Katie in Ohio
Mom to three growing men (One from Michigan, adopted via Mother Goose Adoptions posted on ABC adopt; one from TN adopted via Adoption Advantage ... don't go there... and one private placement)

[kathydavid]

We would highly recommend A childs Waiting. We have a beautiful 3 month old baby girl we adopted through them. They are extremely ethical, professional, and truely concerned about the children, bparents, and familes involved. We had a couple of bad experiences with another agency (learned they were only out for money and themselves)and then came to A childs Waiting. They reassured us, listened to what we had been through explained why they were different and we just felt so comfortable. Within 4 weeks of sending our profile and going active we were in the hospital holding our baby girl.
If you want more info or specifics feel free to pm. We would definetly use them again and recommend them to anyone.
Kathy

[MichelleL11]

We are another very happy new family who worked through A Child's Waiting. We are now the proud parents of a beautiful AA little girl who we met at three days old. Our wait was only one month long. We were able to meet with her birthmother, birthgrandmother, and birthgreat-grandmother and are sending updates monthly.

Our little one is now 3 and 1/2 months old and is the light of our lives. Everything we've done with the agency has gone smoothly and we will be returning for finalization sometime in April.

The agency and their staff are very busy but we felt everything was handled in an efficient and ethical manner. We are definitely recommending them to other potential adoptive parents.

We were distressed to read of the issues with the birthmother in early January and truly believe that the press version of the story was rather slanted. I am confident there is much more to the story from the agency's side that was not reported.

If you have any specific questions I would be glad to answer them by PM.

MichelleL

[faithfulpair]

Please tell me any good or bad experiences with A Child's Waiting

Thank you

Wanttoadoptnow

[font=Georgia]
My husband and I did not adopt through A Child's Waiting, as we placed with another agency also in Ohio. The little communication we did have with ACW, was great! I highly recommend them. Someone responded to your posting about the long time birth parents have to change their minds in Ohio, and that is not correct.
After the birth of the baby, Birth parents have to wait 48 hours before signing permanent surrender documents. Afterwards, rights of the birth mother is irrevocable.

[Shamrock]

In Ohio, consent can not be taken to 72 hours after the birth for both parents.

[corlissj]

My husband and I adopted from A Child's Waiting after working with Catholic Charities for more than a year. We got an immediate match with ACW. We held a phone conference with our birthmother within 5 days of initial contact with ACW and was able to meet her in person within 2 weeks. Lisa (the birthmother counsellor at ACW) was very supportive of our birthmother and very professional in her facilitation of our meetings. About 5 weeks after first contacting ACW our son was born, ACW contacted upon our birthmother's last visit to her doctor to inform us that her membranes were stripped and she would soon have the baby. We met our baby the day after he was born, and Lisa's excellent and professional facilitation of the hospital interaction made it really comfortable for us to spend time with our baby and his birthmother in her hospital room. We were able to take our baby home before the 72 hours time expiration in Ohio. The waiting period ended on Monday at 10 am and on Monday at 1030 am Lisa called to tell us our birthmother had signed the paperwork. At noon on the same day Jennifer facilitated the signing of our final documents. It was an excellent experience. We will adopt again, god willing, and plan to entrust ACW to be the guardians of our emotional and loving journey.

My advise to you is to trust Jennifer and her team, they really made our journey one to remember.

Corliss

[hopefulangel]

What is the longest wait someone has waited with A Child's Waiting for a cc or cc/hispanic baby? How do we speed the process? Any help would be appreciated.

[OzMom2003]

Most of the families I know that have used ACW waited over 2 years for a CC baby and I have heard of very few CC/H babies placed by ACW. The babies of color and the older child programs result in RAPID placements and LOTS of calls!

Two separate families in our area matched for CC babies and after placement, had the birthfather refuse to consent and reclaim! Both families lost their babies to the birthdads.

Keep in mind that MANY adoptive placements are considered 'at risk' until the birthdad signs; this is NOT unusual. however, the two that have made the papers and the grapevines here were both white babies.

[m2c]

I know of a few situations. I think there are so many factors. Let me write about experiences I know of.

Us - We adopted an AA baby boy in a open adoption. We waited 4 months from the very first time we called for info.

We cradle cared a CC baby girl that was 6 months old completely healthy. The bmom selected a couple that had only been active for ONE week.

We cradled cared a AA newborn baby girl. She was placed with a AA couple. They had waited about two years.

Friends of ours have been waiting for a CC baby for two years.

I met a women online that wrote for info on ACW. They are an AA couple with 1 child. She called for info and was matched in two days. Our babies are only a couple days apart in age.

ACW does a lot of placements a year, but I think the average wait for a CC baby is about two years, and I think that is pretty standard across the board. Here are suggestions on speedingup the process.

*Have an open adoption
*Have a semi-open adoption
*Be open to drug and alchol use during pregnancy
*Be open to Bfamily medical and mental history that is not perfect
*Be open to wide range of birthfamily situation. Ex: baby concieved as result of rape, bmom in proson, bmom very young or old and other situations like that.
*open your age range
*be open to both genders
*consider a minority babies
*be flexable with birthmom expenses
*have a larger budget

All or any of those things COULD (not for sure) shorten your wait.

[Shamrock]

I pm'd you with our experience as we are still waiting for a placment.

[kathydavid]

I just wanted to add that our 4 week placement was a full caucasion baby girl.I posted earlier recommending the agency and did not list that info sorry!