Review by royalin71 submitted on September, 8, 2010 at 12:12 PM
Adoption Details:
Child's Age: 0y 7m
Start Date: Apr 2008
Status: Finalized
Completion Date: Jul 2009
Time Until Placement: 15 months
Type: Open, Domestic, Interstate
Special Needs: No
Child from Florida, United States
Pros: The IAC is well-known and if it weren't for the resources they put into marketing, we would not have connected with our son's birthmother.
Cons: There were a number of times when the IAC dropped the ball on getting things done in a timely manner, handled situations with our birthmother insensitively, and just generally were not focused on providing good service. The IAC also has a high staff turnover rate, which indicates some organizational instability—possibly some management issues—and caused some problems and frustrations throughout our adoption process.
Reviews: With this experience behind us now, and being as fair-minded as I can muster given a bad experience with the IAC, I think they are probably just overloaded with work and were primarily focused on getting adoptions done—perhaps don’t have time for providing good service.
Our recommendation to potential adoptive parents is to do your research before handing over many thousands of dollars to an agency that will guide you through one of the most difficult (but ultimately joyous) experiences you may have in your life. Read reviews, meet the staff of different agencies, ask them the difficult questions, and feel confident that you are making the best decision. We think you would be making a mistake by going with the IAC. However, if you ultimately decide that the IAC is the best agency for you, we hope your experience with them will be better than ours was.
Review by guest submitted on September, 3, 2010 at 04:27 PM
Adoption Details:
Child's Age: 0y 0m
Start Date: Nov 2005
Status: Finalized
Completion Date: May 2006
Time Until Placement: 6 months
Type: Open, Domestic, Interstate
Special Needs: No
Child from San Luis Obispo, California, United States
Pros: The IAC staff were professional, warm and empathetic. They guided us superbly, ready to listen while we waited or when worries arose. We are not a typical family: my husband is 20 years younger than me; my oldest child is my bio daughter and I was a single mom (by choice) at the time of her birth 24 years ago; we already had two children when we adopted this last time; my children are 9 and 11 years apart, with a big age spread; our middle child was also adopted at birth so we weren't a "childless couple". We learned from the IAC that it might mean that we'd wait a little longer than other families due to the above issues and we appreaciated their candor. Still, we did adopt and were able to fulfill our dreams of a third child. The caring and sincere support, accuracy in information, marketing and guidance of the IAC were deeply appreciated--and impressive.
Cons: We really had few to no problems. There were a few times that we didn't hear what we wanted to hear ("this expectant mom may not complete her adoption plan", for example, after a "match meeting") and then we found out a month later that the IAC was right -- and it helped so much in the long run to be prepared. This isn't really a "con", but there were times that I wasn't content in-the-moment and then realized how much I needed to hear the issues raised ahead of time. Last, waiting is simply very hard and hurts emotionally. Sometimes we felt we weren't in the loop as much as we'd have liked about what else we could do, needing support, etc. We then found that if we'd call for help, we'd get a lot. I've now provided that feedback to the IAC and they are more proactive on the egroup online, as well as providing more intrusive contact to waiting families.
Reviews: We adopted in 1997 via the IAC (before the internet was very active) and waited only 9 months; we returned a number of years later BECAUSE of who the IAC was and the support/services they provided. This was intentional because we felt secure and well-guided by the IAC. I would recommend the IAC to any waiting adoptive parent or parents as a superb, professional organization.
Review by saransp submitted on August, 9, 2010 at 05:08 PM
Adoption Details:
Child's Age: 0y 0m
Start Date: Jun 2005
Status: Finalized
Completion Date: May 2008
Time Until Placement: 35 months
Type: Open, Domestic, Intrastate
Special Needs: No
Child from California, United States
Pros: From start to finish we loved working with the IAC. IAC staff supported us and often went out fo there way to help us (our conselor even left Costco once to take our call on a Saturday!).
We had one match that didn't work out and the IAC were supportive and understanding. We were presented with options and never felt judged for our choices.
They worked hard to make sure our son's birthmohter was getting the medical and living benefits she was intitaled to. Counselors checked in her weekly and weekly after our sons birth.
There have been many changes at IAC over the last three years but under new leadership IAC now looks after their clients and birthfamilies even more than before. We have no hesitiation recommeding them and hope to go back and start our second adoption with them very soon.
Cons: Very early on we had some slight communication problems but following a quick email to make sure we were all on the same page everything went very smoothly.
Reviews: Good luck with your adoption journey. It is worth every step!
Review by dissatisfied submitted on July, 30, 2010 at 10:28 AM
Adoption Details:
Child's Age: 0y 0m
Start Date: Mar 2008
Status: Finalized
Type: Open, Domestic, Interstate
Special Needs: No
Child from Florida, United States
Pros: 1.) The IAC puts a lot of resources into advertising for birthmothers and has a national reach.
2.) The IAC stands behind its committment to an open adoption.
3.) The homestudy process went smoothly (though outsourced to a contract social worker).
Cons: 1.) There was a lot of staff turnover while we worked with the IAC, resulting in slow communication and new staff who rarely knew the answers to questions. It also raises questions about why there is so much turnover.
2.) Very slow to return phone calls and answer questions, especially at critical moments during the adoption process.
3.) Provided little to no counseling for our child's birthmother and talked disrepectfully about her. The IAC was basically non-existent during and immediately after our child's birth, the time when support to a birthmother is most critical.
4.) Our child's birthmother went into labor early and the IAC was nowhere to be found to provide any guidance to us when this happened.
5.) Provided us with outdated paperwork and information about the adoption process.
6.) Did not take situation with our child's birthfather seriously, which could have prevented the adoption from happening. (Fortunately, we were able to finalize with a legally sound adoption, through the help of a second agency.)
7.) Did not keep scheduled appointments with us.
8.) Dismissed any concerns that we brought to their attention and took no responsibility for the poor services provided to us and our son's birthmother.
Reviews: Overall, our experience with the IAC was disappointing and we do not recommend them to any adoptive parents who aren’t very familiar with adoption laws and the adoption process. If you are someone who knows the ins and outs of the adoption process, the IAC might be fine – they have a wide national reach for finding birthmothers. However, if you are new to the adoption process and don’t have your own knoweldgeable attorney that you trust, we recommend that you find a different agency.
The IAC was likely a great agency at one time. Unfortunately, they have grown at a rate that is out of sync with their internal capacity and have become an adoption factory of sorts. They appear to care much more about increasing their client base than providing quality services to adoptive parents or birthparents. For our next adoption, we will work with a smaller agency that values quality of service over quantity of clients.
