My {Grace Filled} Mess: In Their Own Words: Why I Recommend an Adoption Consultant

Natalie and her husband Loren are parents to two beautiful boys. Both miracles through adoption and biology, only five months apart. You can read more of those beginnings here to their previous family. Natalie recently shared her thoughts on why the chose to work with me as their adoption consultant...

We’ve been asked by quite a few people about the route we chose to grow our family through adoption. There are a few ways to adopt babies and children, but this was the route we chose. It’s not better or worse than the other ways, it is simply an avenue and it is the direction we chose to go.

After reading through countless reviews raving about Christian Adoption Consultants (CAC), we decided we wanted to explore further. I contacted Susan VanSyckle after spending countless hours scrolling through her blog (My {Grace Filled} Mess) every night. On her blog, I discovered so many beautiful families who had hired her and had grown their family via domestic adoption. I read adoption story after adoption story and ached for our picture and story to be shared on her site. I wanted to have my heart cracked open wide by adoption.

We still weren’t convinced that we wanted to spend what seems now the “spare change” we had saved for adoption to hire her. What if its a hoax? So I began emailing her and asking her questions and finally, after about 3-5 months of emails, we hired her!

I highly recommend hiring an adoption consultant, specifically (of course!) Susan. Why?

The average wait time is less than 2 years. This was one of our biggest reasons. From hiring Susan to having our son placed in our arms was 8 months.

They network with quality, ethical, trustworthy agencies across the nation (and the world, if you hire an international adoption consultant). This means you get a list of all of the agencies you can apply to as well as receive discounts on applications. Each state is different in their laws regarding adoption and CAC refers their clients to agencies in adoption friendly states. Adoption Friendly for both the birth family and the adoptive family.

Susan would also send us “expectant mom situations” via email that were not with agencies we were active with.

At signing on with them, you receive a book of resources. This book/binder is filled with safe loans/grants available to you, family profile book suggestions, appropriate adoption language, tips about speaking to expectant mothers/families and birth mothers/families, travel tips, etc. Susan sent me a list of home study agencies I could use locally.

We loved the idea of having an increasingly low chance of experiencing adoption fraud. I would often send her questions about some situations I saw available and she would help us navigate warning signs. We had a lot of confidence with that backing and knowledge.

One of our favorite and surprise parts of being a client of Susan’s was being added to her secret/private/closed Facebook group of all of her clients. This Facebook group has provided friends for a lifetime who understand the journey you are walking through. They understand your heart. They experience similar situations. They know the heaviness of the wait, of unhealthy relationships, of transracial adoption, of so many aspects.

I have asked countless questions in that group regarding substance exposure, developmental, openness in adoption, family relationships, how to respond to different things, preparing for our home study, fundraising, and a lot of “is this normal?” questions, etc.

We hired Susan as our adoption consultant and we would do it ten times over. We highly recommend hiring an adoption consultant if you’re choosing to adopt an infant domestically.