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What made you pick Abrazo?


LuvOurTexan

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After being signed on with a local agency for nearly a year with no activity, we started considering other options. We joined a group at church that gave support to couples who were in adoption or foster programs. When we became friends with the leaders and another young couple, they extended an invitation for us to all get together for lunch on Valentines Day. We sat down after eating and I just poured out the problems and frustrations we were having. This agency wasn't placing many babies at all, yet they kept adding family after family onto their roster. The wait time was 3+ years and that felt like forever to me. In talking through solutions to our problem, a friend mentioned that her social worker had mentioned an agency called Abrazo once who was doing "everything you keep saying you think you agency should be doing."

I came straight home and checked out Abrazo. You'll notice under my avatar that I joined the forum that day. The rest was history. The forum won me over instantly. I already had such a wealth of information, such a huge amount of support, access to reading other people's testimonies through their Joyous Journeys (what a HUGE resource to prospective parents), and just seeing how active Elizabeth was on the forum (this told me we'd have a much more hands-on experience than we'd previously had). I heard that a local church once hosted Abrazo for their annual adoption day learning seminar, so I reached out to them and they put me in touch with a Memphis family who had successfully adopted through them. Then I reached out to forum members and Suebee was nice enough to have dinner with me and Steven and mwalker reached out and was my email and phone pal through the journey. We went to a MAMS gathering and met other Memphis couples. All of this was happening during our application process and I can't stress enough how important it is for Abrazo to have loyal advocates out there supporting them... I know it certainly gave us faith to move fully forward (and quickly!!) We turned in our application in February, were invited to the April/May orientation (which turned us into 'Tweeners), and Oliver was born in September - just 7 months after the first time we heard about them and 4 months after officially signing on. Wow.

I knew Abrazo would lead us to our baby and they most certainly did. After two sticky situations, we got a call on a Thursday that we were being considered for a baby due to be born on Monday. We found out Friday, hit the road and were there at the hospital for Oliver's birth on Monday afternoon. Having the chance to spend time with his birth mom and show her respect and love during those days - with Angela's help - made us huge fans of Abrazo. We're forever grateful! :)

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