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What made you pick Abrazo?


LuvOurTexan

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We love Abrazo.  We went to our orientation in January of 1999.  They tell you that their average wait is 6 mths to a year and we were in disbelief.  But we couldn't have been proven wrong in a better way, our daughter was born in March of 1999 and we became PARENTS.  Just 2 months after orientation!  Abrazo is a very caring agency and even now, almost 2 years after placement they are still in touch.  One of the staff members called us before Christmas to let us know that she had spoke with our daughter's birth mom.  It amazes me how thoughtful they are and that to them, we are all part of their family.  We felt like we could trust Abrazo and they haven't let us down.  They are the best agency that we have found and we highly recommend them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Abrazo is an excellent agency. All of the staff are really caring in the situations of the adopting family as well as the birthparents. One of the staff was present when our daughter was born. If that tells you anything. I do not know of any other agency that would have done that. Their name says it all they EMBRACE you from the begining of your adotion plan to the end. They are a very great group of people. You will not be disapointed if you choose them as your agency.

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  • 2 months later...
Guest LISA J

Just a note to those considering adoption and Abrazo....<p>I may not be on the receiving end, but I feel like you should also have a different view of the "garden". I am a birthmom who placed in feb 1999, and after months of asking myself what i should do i came across their name and # in a friends home. ( she placed several years prior) I then called and got the warmest reponse possible. They didnt just "want the baby" like other agencies they cared. They wanted me to choose and decide the future of my child, not get "stuck" with a couple. The staff sent multiple profiles (letters and pictures put in a preview style form) of many many families..then I began the process...Once I got the family decided on all the staff at abrazo continued support and positive efforts. They continue this to day and support not only my plan but also my relationship with the family and Joshua who is now 2. So, any doubts you might have on the wonderful group of people that is Abrazo are surely unfounded. I hope you have nothing but joy in your search....thats what Abrazo gave me.

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  • 1 year later...

How did we choose Abrazo? I won't go into too much detail as to why we chose adoption (that's a different question I guess) - obviously we experienced infertility and got fed up with the feeling that we'll never be parents through infertility treatments and when we began discussing adoption, we just got this really good feeling (totally unlike the icky feeling in our stomachs that happened anytime we talked about in-vitro!!) so - after our 2nd unsuccessful IVF attempt (actually, the day I learned our pregnancy results were negative) - I contacted Abrazo.

So, why Abrazo? Well, we'd been discussing adoption since the beginning of our infertility treatments and I'd bought books and books and books all about adoption - domestic adoption, international adoption, resource books, etc. I'd been reading about it & researching it for awhile and was really anxious to get started but there was just something that pushed us to try IVF - at the time, I was afraid that if we didn't try IVF, I'd always wonder "What if" (hindsight - I would have gone the adoption route from the beginning - I can't even begin to describe how your life is so enriched when you "have" your child through adoption and I don't even give "having a biological child" a second thought (although I know everyone is different - this is just how we feel).

Anyway - my mom had mentioned to us after our 1st unsuccessful IVF attempt (that was in early 2001 - February 14th was when I learned the results of my negative pregnancy test...the day after my birth-daughter's 11th birthday & Lance had an unexpected trip come up so he was out of town (because he said he was so certain the test results would be positive) - one of the worst days in my life it was) that a really dear friend of hers had a daughter & son-in-law who had just recently adopted their baby son through an agency in San Antonio and that she was certain that this friend's daughter would be more than happy to talk to me if I wanted to hear all about it. We weren't ready yet for that though so I filed it away for later and "moved on" (basically worked bajllions of hours at work and got really into my job - thank goodness I had a fabulous staff of people working for me & a really, really fabulous manager and colleagues that made my job fun (oh how I miss our lunches - every day, my manager and the 2 other Accounting managers who were my colleagues & I would go somewhere for lunch and get our girl bonding in - ahhhh, those were some fun days)) and it was easy to really throw myself into it and sort of get the whole "baby obsession" off my mind.

So, flash ahead to 12/01 - we were transferred to Seattle - we settled in finally and were ready to give the IVF thing another go (after I'd taken an LSAT prep course (Law School Entrance Exam) and was all ready to apply to a law school in Dallas and just wait until I'm 40 to worry about the mommy thing because surely by then, technology will be so fabulous that you won't even need sperm & eggs any longer to get pregnant...then I realized that I couldn't wait that long - all I wanted, all I ever thought about was being a Mommy so forget Law School - we're going to try again!!) Didn't work.

On June 26th I didn't go to work so I could be home to find out my negative pregnancy test results (made the mistake of being at work on the day I learned I wasn't pregnant after my first IVF attempt). I already knew because I'd ordered these really sensitive tests off the internet and had been taking them almost from day 2 after the transfer. They called, told me the results - I wasn't surprised nor was I sad (frustrated & mad more than anything) and then, I called my mom and said, "can you please call your friend and find out what agency her daughter used - we're done with in-vitro".

She called right then and called me back and told me the name is "Abrazo" and they even have a website. I visited the website, visited the forum (my very first post ever on the Forum is under "Looking to Adopt" and the topic is "Baby Steps" and I did it July 1st). I submitted the pre-application sometime in the next few days (can't remember exactly when - may have even done it the very next day after talking to Lance) and the coolest person I'd ever met called me within a day or so of receiving it (it was Elizabeth) and we talked for a long time - she was so patient (we initially thought we would be more comfortable with a closed adoption or semi-open but Elizabeth explained to us what open adoption was and never tried to push us into it....she just discussed it so that we could be more available to exploring it (well, I wouldn't have it any other way now - except that our birthmother actually wanted a closed adoption which is just so hard for us to deal with but we totally respect her and her need to deal with her placement in how she feels is best so we are dealing with it...it's just so hard).

There was one reason & one reason alone why I made that first contact with Abrazo and that was because my mom's friend's daughter had adopted from Abrazo and had a great experience. That was a big deal for us. I personally was (still am) very non-trusting of adoption agencies (I wonder if it has to do with my experience with Gladney in Ft. Worth when I placed my daughter for adoption? Probably - yucky place!!) and just knowing that there was an agency out there who weren't evil and greedy baby-takers and just out to get lots of money from adoptive parents up front without ever placing a baby with them (okay, maybe I did have some fears about adoption...) was good enough for us and we wouldn't have considered any other agency (well, unless Abrazo didn't accept us).

Now - it's a totally different situation. I wouldn't consider any other agency other than Abrazo (and I strongly believe that noone else should consider any other agency other than Abrazo) because they're just soooooooooo wonderful and they treat everyone with respect and compassion and they're fair and honest and have huge amounts of integrity and they're into Adoption for the "right" reasons. And - they're quick! My goodness how many agencies do you know that place their babies as fast as Abrazo does? I mean, you read posts from Abrazo that said that one couple had to wait "a whole year" from Orientation before placement happened. It's described as though a year is an eternity (which to the couple, it seems like it but if you step back and look at other agencies - some people wait 2 years (minimum) and as long as 5 - 7 years before a baby is placed with them. There are so many other reasons but this post is long enough - I thought I'd just post a paragraph or two but I should have known better.

Hope to hear from others (didn't mean for this topic to need such lengthy detailed responses but hopefully y'all are getting used to how I post these days...ramble, ramble, ramble...I think it comes from a lack of sleep).

Have a great weekend!!

Lisa :P

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My husband and I had heard about Abrazo for a year before we finally decided to take the plunge and it was the best thing that we ever did!!!

We sent papers(& money) to another agency in our state, but somehow they informed us five months later that they lost our paperwork, but somehow they did not lose our money.(I'm not bitter or anything)

We knew a girl in our city who adopted a baby from Abrazo within 3 months of orientation. I just refused to believe that it could happen that quick for us, so we kept putting it off until this past May. We went to the May 2002 orientation and heard about how fast it took some couples to place with a baby. I, of course, still refuse to believe that I would have a baby within a year of that first meeting. As I am writing this I'm looking a beatiful picture of my little peanut princess, counting the minutes until I get off of work!!

Had it not been for the WONDERFUL staff at Abrazo and the reputation that follows them, it would just be an ordinary Friday night at the Merritt household!  :D

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Our journey began with the never-ending infertility tests and treatments that never worked for us.  And like Lisa, looking  back now we wonder why on earth we went to such lengths to try to have a biological child when adoption was staring us in the face.  Anyways, while we were going through testing and treatments my mom was traveling a lot for work.  One night she came home from Dallas and said I've got a card for you.  While on the plane she met this wonderful lady who was traveling alone with a baby and all this baby stuff.  My mom being the talker that she is (we tease she can learn a stranger's life story in 10 minutes flat) started a conversation and found out this woman was not a "mommy" but was the coordinator of an adoption agency.  Yes, Abrazo's very own Elizabeth!  Well, my mom took her card and brought it home to me knowing how much my husband and I wanted a family.  Sounds like fate, right?  Well, at that time we still had hope of conceiving so I thanked my mom and put the card away in my desk.

A year or so later after another attempt to get pregnant that turned out negative we decided that's it.  We're done.  This was in April of 1998.  We enjoyed the summer, got back on our feet and started thinking about adoption seriously.  Around September I started contacting agencies in our area (SanAntonio, Tx.).  I got tons of information and after weeding through it we decided to start with looking into the state's Foster/Adoption program.  We sat through half of their orientation meeting and at the break we left.  This obviously was not for us.  So then we registered for another agencies orientation (one that was reccommended by friends that had successfully adopted through).  We left their orientation thinking we may never have children.  We would be one of 80 families waiting to adopt.  About that time I remembered the card my mom had given me and thought why not?  So I called Abrazo, received their preliminary packet and filled it out and returned it.  A few days later I get a phone call from someone from Abrazo encouraging us to get our application that we had just received in the mail turned in.  Now we didn't even know if we were going to go forward or not, so I was very hesitant.  But, later that evening I got a phone call from Elizabeth.  She was so kind and encouraging and I was totally impressed that she had taken the time to call me at home in the evening.  This was the beginning of November 1998 and she wanted us to fill out that 20 page application and return it so we could attend orientation the following weekend.  I kept telling her we would just wait until the January orientation.  And I will never forget what she said.  She told us we could have a baby by then.  I didn't really believe her, but the idea of it even being possible was just too good to say no.  So I stayed up late all week getting the ap done and taking pictures and sent it in and we went to orientation November 14-16th.  We were so touched by the whole weekend.  We just knew we had finally found the answer to our prayers to build our family.  

Two weeks after orientation we talked to our son's birthmom for the first time.  We were matched by Christmas and Jacob was born on May 3, 1999.  Had we waited until January orientation we wouldn't have met our son's birthmom and we wouldn't have our perfect little boy!  

It was Elizabeth's optimism, encouragement and personal attention that brought us to Abrazo in 1998 and it was Elizabeth and her dedicated staff that brought us back for our second journey!

God Bless you Abrazo Gals for all you do to bring families together!

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ok time for a birthmom's side...

Late november 1998, I was preg and had taken several months to decide i wanted to place.. so i began with talkin to several friends who had placed.. and got everything from "closed" horror stories to "open" tragedies.. so i made a few more calls and by the power of guidance ended up on the phone with the receptionist at an agency in San Antonio.... That was April.. and i am soooooo glad shes still with us. I talked with her and immidiately found a connection.. she had been down the same road i was on.. this was a unique quality of abrazo.. since none of the other agencies had B-moms on staff. Then i spoke to the other gals there... some have gone, some have stayed. To my surprise the decision became less of a burden every min on the phone with them! I agreed to go through them and the torando hasnt stopped... I was overnighted profiles( a stack of atleast 10!;) and then phone calls were arranged with a few families... oh joy, at last i had "found" the perfect ones, this was the first weekend of December... i was due in Feb. Then after lots of hours connecting they chose to match with someone else due to a lack of health info on the fathers side. This was a set back.. and quite dissappointing.... but i am a firm believer that ever sunshiny day must be preceeded with a lil dreariness. So, more profiles and calls... again i thought i found them.. and again they chose to match with someone else that was the week of Christmas...and then the first week of Jan 1999... again i made a call to Abrazo and said i need more profiles.. i dont feel the connection with any of the ones i have seen... They quickly said we only have a few that you havent seen... i wanted them that day.. so the fax machine at work rang... and as i stood peering into the printer i began to see black blobs where the pics should be and a winding lil letter through the middle. I didnt even wait for the printer to finish the first page and i was calling abrazo demanding a phonecall from these people! I KNEW THEY WERE IT BEFORE THE 1ST PAGE EVEN FINISHED! so a 3 hour phone call later i was paging the my birthmom coordinator.. I wanted them... I had to HAVE them! couldnt stand it... so paperwork and many many calls later i had a family i KNEW was the right one! We fit together like a lost peice of a puzzle had been found... I placed my son with them in Feb that year and to this day praise God that we get along so well! we are a family in every sense of the word.. they may live hundreds of miles away but every day they are with me!

thank you abrazo.. and to those gals that were there then kudos to you for dealing with a histerical woman in need of "more profiles" and to April.. you are the best..(and do your homework!;)

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Okay Ya'll are gonna laugh when you hear the truth of my story...Obviously I was pregnant...I was actually due to deliver in 2 weeks, and I had finally come to terms with the idea that I could not parent my unborn child at that moment in my life, and my only option was Adoption, although as of that time I had only vaguely heard of open-adoptions, and  was petrified of closed, of the not knowing I did it right for my baby..So out comes the phone book...and low and behold if Abrazo was not one of the first numbers..LOL ;) I skipped right over the generic name AAA adoptions etc...Abrazo was the first in my mind(some genious picked a very beautiful and fitting name for an agency, and had the forethought to make sure it was at the beginning of the alphabet!!;) go figure ;)

 So to make a long story short, I had fully expected to have to spend all day on the phone making those horrible calls, and speaking with strangers, and telling them I couldn't raise my child..and hearing the attitudes of contempt, but mercifully I was spared, because who should answer the phone but an angel named Elizabeth!!!!and as most of you know Elizabeth, you know the rest was history!!!  :p

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  • 3 months later...

Thanks Lisa for bringing this subject to the top!! :-)

Well, as most of you know I was working with IAC (Independant Adoption Center) when I matched with my triplets AP's after I found out I would be staying in Texas (instead of transfering to Germany)  We found out we would need to have a Texas Agency.  So we had found one in Austin (I was in Killeen).  I met with her a couple times got the relinquishments signed etc.  At 20 weeks, I was in the hospital on bedrest, about 23 weeks, that Agency worker Pooped out, and quit the job!! OMG what did we do now.  After looking at a couple other perspective agencies (which proved to be a living #### even after we started working with Abrazo).  Finally, IAC knew of Abrazo.  Elizabeth came to meet me in the hospital the next day!! (and she brought me Taco Bell)!!  So we decided to work with Abrazo.  Would you know luck would have it, and I would go into preterm labor 5 days later and be transfered to San Antonio for the next 12 weeks??  :-).  I knew no one, but the Abrazo gals would visit me at LEAST once a week which was great! and they were such a good support for me!!

So this is how I ended up with Abrazo.  By fate it seems, but a WONDERFUL Experience.

-Angel

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest jill white

We are Jill, Greg, and Nick White.  We adopted Nick 3 years ago.   We looked at other agencies in the Dallas area, they were not for us.    Anyway,  we eventually joined a "support group".  I do not like that name,  basically it was several couples who go together and have a dinner and help each other through the process.  There are about 10 couples,  most have 2 children through Abrazo.  I HIGHLY recommend you get started. I would not bother looking at any other agencies.  Elizabeth and the Abrazo team are the best to work with.  

Today I decided to post because I feel so blessed to be a mom. Several Mother's Days went by with great depression over not being a mom.  I would get going.  Two things that take time.  

1.  Call a social worker who can begin a home study, this takes a few visits.  

2.  Gather all the great photos of you and your husband doing fun things, (you will have to do what is called a profile).  If you get started you could probably be a mom by next year, or sooner!!!!  

Jill, Greg, and Nick (in waiting for number 2)!!!!

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I found this topic and decided to revive it again since we have so many new forumites.

We found Abrazo back in 1995 (I think).  We had decided we wanted children and the infertility stuff just seen like a gigantic hurdle.  We contacted Abrazo and they sent all their information on open adoption and the whole concept scared us to death... we backed away.  3 years later I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy via the wonders of medical magic.  When they placed the little guy in my arms, I then understood how adoptions needed to be open.  I thought to myself, "what if I were not in a place to be his mom.... could I place him in the care of others and not know where he was or how much I loved him?"   3 years later we contacted Abrazo again and attended an orientation weekend.  3 months later we were in the Abrazo offices to meet our new son.  Our adoption did not start completely open, as our son's birthmom needed a couple of months before she was ready to talk and/or meet us.  Over the last year and a half we have developed a friendship with our son's birthmom.  In retrospect I would not have changed a thing.  I think we needed to make that journey back to adoption.  I can honestly say that when my son was placed in my arms in the offices of Abrazo, I had the same overwhelming feeling that I felt when they place my older son in my arms in the delivery room.  My only regret is that I am not a few years younger... my two little boys have more energy than I do and at the end of the day I am ready for a nap and they are still blowing and going!!!!! :p

Jeannie

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  • 1 year later...

When we got married we planned to have children - lots of children. At the time we thought we would have "some" children through biology and "some" children by adoption. So like Lisa - having children was our first choice. It didn't really matter to us how we got them -

But as you all know, life throws a lot of curves sometimes. And within 2 years of being married it wasn't clear if I would live to see our 3rd anniversary, much less have any children. By our fourth anniversary things were looking up for me health-wise and while our ability to reproduce biologically was questionable we were all set to adopt a baby. We were there in the delivery room, and we were there when the birth parents got married 2 weeks later so they could raise their child together.

By our 10th anniversary I would have told you, had you asked, that we were childless by choice. You would not have heard my inner grumbling at the nerve of the people who asked such personal questions. You wouldn't have heard my private ranting at God wondering why the tired-looking woman at the store had 6 children and I didn't even have one. I would have told you we were happy for the opportunity to travel, to be totally spontaneous, to focus on our careers - and after a while I could hardly hear the little voice inside me that was saying "your child is still out there, somewhere." I didn't want to hear it. It was much too painful.

By our 18th anniversary my biological clock was ticking so loudly my husband couldn't hear anything else - and just to be sure we would have no regrets, no longing looks at what might have been - we decided to get on the "Modern Science Fertility Thrill Ride" - and we learned what we needed to know - that we still wanted, no LONGED for children - more than anything else in the world.

By our 19th anniversary we were waiting for our passports to arrive, waiting for the date of our first home study visit, planning our trip to Russia - since there was no hope of a 40 yr old couple adopting an infant here in the USA. And one day our passports arrived in the mail - and set us on the journey of a lifetime -

That morning started the same way as many others - I picked up the mail but then I drove to the infertility doctor's office to be with my dearest friend while she underwent yet another IUI (her husband had left earlier that morning for an out of town assignment, and we joked about how funny it would be to tell her child the two of us were together at the moment of conception). Since this had been my physician too, we were all talking and laughing and I mentioned the arrival of our passports and our purpose in getting them - and (God bless him) he asked if there was a special reason we wanted to go to Russia - because we didn't have to go that far - and he proceeded to tell us about Abrazo and his (several) patients who had learned it wasn't "a matter of if, but when."

Two months before our 20th anniversary we were sitting in a home in Memphis - at a Parent's of Tomorrow weekend, meeting the wonderful Abrazo team who have since become our dear friends, and hearing the words, "You are officially expecting a baby!" As many of you know, we were matched within the week and took placement exactly 14 daysafter meeting Elizabeth and Holly for the first time.

Some people have compared life and/or marriage to riding a rollercoaster and I agree. Some coasters are a wilder ride than others and ours has certainly had its share of loop-de-loops and breathtaking drops. I love rollercoasters. I love the unpredictability of the first-time ride, the unexpected turns, the thrill that comes from not knowing exactly what is around the next corner -- and yet, knowing that whatever it is you will be okay, because the Engineer that designed it wants you to arrive safely in one piece at the end of your ride. And it is all worth it, the long wait standing in line, the stomach churning fear you feel as the coaster starts up, the agonizing wait as you slowly climb to the top of the hill, the abrupt change in direction you didn't quite see coming. It's all worth it for that one split second at the top of the hill, when time stands still and the track drops out from under you, and takes your breath away -- and that's what happened on the 7th of March 1997; time stood still and the world dropped away. I held my daughter for the first time - and even now, eight years later, the memory leaves me smiling and breathless.

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  • 2 months later...

I found Abrazo through the yellow pages. Since I worked as a nurse at one time in a Hospital, I knew the Social Worker's pretty well. Along with contacting Abrazo through the phone book, one of my Social Worker friends highly recommended their services. So here we are!

Claudia

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Well, Mickey and I had planned for years on adopting from either China or Korea. Then our cousin's Chris and Melissa Merritt adopted from Abrazo in November 2002. Melissa encouraged me to go to Abrazo's website and familiarize myself with them. I did but it just didn't click with me. I think that I had in my mind that we were supposed to adopt from China, so it was hard for anything else to appeal.

Fast forward to December 26, 2004...dinner at my in-laws home. Chris and Melissa joined us there for supper. Melissa and I started talking about adoption. She asked if we were still planning on adopting. I told her we were. The plan was to start paperwork this summer for China. Melissa asked if I had ever checked out the Abrazo website. I told her that I had right after they adopted Grace Ann. She asked me what I thought of it. I told her it just didn't click. She asked me to look one last time. Again, she gave me the website, and I told her I would look one last time.

That night we traveled to my parents house to spend the night. I got on my Mom's computer and looked up Abrazo. Well, I am embarrassed to say that I ended up staying on the computer the rest of the night! My parents were a little disgusted that I came home for the holidays and then spent most of my visit with them on the computer. rolleyes.gif

This time it did "click". Something about it just drew me in. I was almost mad because I thought we had our plans laid for years...and this just disrupted everything we had planned on. I also dreaded telling Mickey about my change of heart! I was afraid he would be unhappy with me. For years we have bought little kimonos, sesame street chop sticks, Asian dolls, etc. I knew he would just choke me about this new idea! blink.gif

I approached him about it a day or so later. He was not happy. sad.gif It wasn't much of a surprise as I figured this would be his reaction.

Through much prayer and meditation we decided to fill out our Abrazo paperwork. It really was just a gut feeling I had. I couldn't explain it. We had never planned on a domestic adoption...we had never planned on having a newborn, etc.

I now know why Melissa was at that Christmas dinner, why she was so persistent that I look at the Abrazo website just one more time, why I followed through by going back to the website once at my parent's home, why my head was turned and my heart was touched, why Mickey came around after some deep discussion, why we filled out our paperwork ASAP and went to the March '05 orientation...God is in control, He has perfect timing, and He has never made a mistake.

The "why" is named Makayla Joy. She was the pot of gold at the end of our rainbow! smile.gif

God does work in mysterious ways, and I couldn't be more happy about that!!!

Elaine

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I do not feel that we found Abrazo but they found us! Long before we began discussing adoption, I was playing around on the internet and stumbled on thier site. I think I read every bit of information on thier website including the forum that night. Well I bookmarked it and went back to it every now and again. Fastforward about a year and my husband and I started talking about adopting. I have a really dear friend of mine that adopted from an agency in our area everything she told me about the agency sounded good. We decided to go with them and they sent us the initial paperwork. We quickly filled it out but for some reason we did not mail it. We allow a few weeks to pass by to think things through when I felt I recieved the sign to go with Abrazo. I was watching Doug and Jennifer's story on Adoption Stories and heard the name Abrazo. I starting yelling for my husband to come see and I told him this was the agency that I was talking about. I of course ran to the computer and pulled up their site and began reading. I told my husband to take a look and tell me what he thinks. He was sold!!! I called the next day and got the ball rolling and rest is history!!

I am so happy that I am on this journey and I can't wait to hold one precious little boy in about four months. We have made several wonderful friends through Abrazo and one terrific new family member, our birthmother! I will forever be grateful!!

Angie biggrin.gifbiggrin.gifbiggrin.gif

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Jeez Elaine,

I feel like our adoption story is fairly similar to yours. My husband and I were "set" on adopting from China or Kazakstahn when I heard about Abrazo through a patient I was taking care of at work. My patient had a brother who was adopted from Korea 18 years ago; we were talking about international vs. domestic adoption and she strongly recommended I look into Abrazo, as she had a cousin who adopted a daughter several years ago (must've been soon after Abrazo began). I was pretty leary and I knew my husband would also have a fit that I was looking into something "new" when we already had a tentative plan! Needless to say, he wasn't thrilled...BUT, after much prayer and writing out a pros/cons list, we decided that Abrazo was for us. Once we decided on Abrazo it felt like a huge weight had been lifted and within a month of attending orientation little Miss Amaya Michelle was in our arms. We feel so blessed and are excited to see the rest of God's plan unfold for Maya's future sibling(s).

Cath

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I was looking into adoption but, I was having little luck in finding and agency that would work with a single parent adoption. My good friend had adopted through abrazo and contiually sung their praises. I had looked in places like new york, pennsylvania, north carolina... you name it. When my friend told me about abrazo in Texas...I gave them a call. Elizabeth and the staff were so nice and positive. I knew that they were the agency for me.

Thankfull always,

Sabrina

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We had been working with an adoption agency in Tulsa (where we were living at the time). We signed on with them in March of 2003 knowing that we were moving in July of that year back to FL. We asked them multiple times before doing all the paperwork if they would still work with us when we moved. THey assured us that yes they would keep showing our profile etc. Well the job I was leaving was being filled by another lady who had asked me many questions about adoption. Lo and behold she went to Abrazo's orientation and was placed before our agency in Tulsa even showed our profile.

Jay and I were both nervous about open adoption at first but after talking to her about it and then talking with Abrazo about it I just kept getting more and more drawn towards Abrazo. So January of 2004 we went to Orientation and in April our beautiful son Shane was placed with us smile.gif

(It was funny the agency in Tulsa said they hadn't shown our profile because the birthmothers they were working with were having biracial babies (I KNOW we said we would accept biracial babies!) and look at my beautiful caucasian-african american son smile.gif Not that I am a proud mom or anything)

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  • 3 weeks later...

By working with Abrazo you have chosen, what i consider the best agency. speaking as a birth mom, they have really taken care of me in ways, well i dont even think they know they have. they really do care about both birth parents and adoptive parents. they also pray and want the most ultimate, loving, repectful relationship for both sides. as a birth mom im glad i did not go with another agency, and become one of the cattle to be processed through. ive seen many birth moms from months, even yrs, come back to group. they really care. they care about both sides, and in the "situation" that is the utmost importance. you are in good hands, let them guide you and your heart will burst. there is no other explanation.

breadandwater

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  • 4 weeks later...

We're glad you found Abrazo... now tell us who we have to thank for that! smile.gif

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When we were ready to start our 2nd adoption, I did an internet search & came up w/ a list of agency in the Texas area. We don't live in Texas, but liked what we read about Abrazo & the counseling they do for the birthparents.

THat is pretty much it in a nut shell...an internet search.

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I was working in a dental office and we had just hired a new hygienist. We began to talk about her children and I told her we were thinking about adopting. Her sister in laws sister blink.gif had just adopted from Abrazo and she said I think it was in less than 6 months. I made the call and the rest is history...... smile.gif

Edited by stennison
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