Adoption Agency Ratings

Lora W

Catholic Charities in Bpt handles domestic and China adoptions only. We used them in 2005 to adopt our daughter from China. I went to a workshop and came back with my mind made up! I was pretty naive, I never researched any other agencies. Thankfully, everything went smoothly.

Our SW was great.....very caring & sweet (she is no longer working there). This is a very small agency with only the director and 1 SW for the China program.

My only complaints: need more adoptive parent education/training....addressing the possibilities. We were told that our child could have developmental delays but would most likely catch up quickly. After the fact, having done so much research in the past 3 years, I feel that agencies need to educate parents more on the emotional effects of the adoption, orphanage care etc on the child. Our daughter was traumatized by her removal from her caregiver and we are still seeing the effects, 3 years later. The training we recvd prior to adopting consisted of one workshop dealing with the issues you'll face raising a child of another race. It was great, but that was it.

They do the 2 follow up visits required by the CCAA, and have a few parties/get togethers per year - a Christmas party & a Chinese New Year celebration. I think more programs should be offered - guest speakers/workshops on the issues adoptees face, etc. Of course they can charge a fee to cover the costs of these programs.

The advantage to using a local agency is that most likely you will live near other families that you travel with, and your child will be able to maintain a connection & friendship with another child from the same orphanage.

All in all a good agency but if we decided to adopt again I think I would use someone else.