FAQ About Adopting

Abrazo is private, nonprofit 501c3 organization so the agency is funded solely through tax-deductible contributions and fees paid for services by adopting parents.

At Abrazo, we advocate for full-disclosure open adoptions. This means our adopting parents and prospective birthfamilies voluntarily exchange identifying information (ie., last names and addresses) prior to placement. They voluntarily engage in direct communication (phone calls, correspondence) throughout pregnancy and after ploacement. And they voluntarily continue direct contact (yes, including visits) throughout the adoptee’s life span, because that’s what any “forever family” does, when they’ve committing to being family forever. Abrazo only places children with adoptive parents who are committed to openness and prepared to enter into lifelong relationships with birthfamilies, to ensure that the children placed through this agency always have honest, age-appropriate information about their adoption and their families of origin, from Placement Day onwards.

Abrazo’s current staff all hold Master’s degrees in Counseling/Psychology, Social Work, Family Relations and/or Child Develelopment, as well as Bachelor’s degrees in related social service fields. Abrazo’s founder and director is Elizabeth Vanderwerf Jurenovich, who is a Licensed Child Placing Agency Administrator, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor with more than 35 years of experience in adoption, in and beyond Texas.

Childless couples at Abrazo generally wait 6-12 months or less for match or placement, while the average adoptive couples already parenting usually find the wait to be 12 months or more. Most birthparents who place at Abrazo prefer to place with couples who do not already have children, to ensure that the baby they place will be the family’s firstborn.

Abrazo places with adopting families from most states except New York (existing NY laws don’t permit out-of-state agencies to place in their state without maintaining an in-state office). Couples from out-of-state need to budget for 3-4 trips to Texas, in the course of Abrazo’s adoptions (for orientation, meeting prospective birthparents upon matching, placement, and finalization). Additional costs include having a Texas-approved out-of-state homestudy and post-placement reports done by a licensed agency within your state, FBI clearances, and travel, of course. (Void where prohibited.)

Abrazo requires that adopting parents be at least 25 years of age. While Abrazo doesn’t have an upper age limit, it is our prospective birthparents who choose their child’s adoptive family and few willingly consider couples over the age of 50 for infant placements.

Changes in immigration law now prohibit Abrazo from placing with adoptive families outside the US. Abrazo’s families must be US citizens and/or reside permanently in the U.S. for the duration of the 6-18 month post-placement supervisory period between time of placement and date of finalization.

Because of the extensive costs of putting on quality seminars, Abrazo’s orientation seminars are reserved for prospective clients who have already submitted completed inquiries and applications. Our Parents-of-Tomorrow weekends are held quarterly, by invitation only, in San Antonio. This has become a nationally-renowned event for prospective adoptive couples who plan on building their families through open adoption. All orientation attendees stay at the official host hotel during this event.

Abrazo’s full-service program is available only to those with no biological means of growing a family and are medically unable to conceive, because Abrazo’s placing parents are specifically seeking to place with families who have no other means of becoming parents. However, those who do not have infertility can still pursue designated adoptions at Abrazo (in which they engage in networking or marketing to located expectant parents willing to consider those who may be capable of homegrown pregnancies) as well as special needs adoptions.

All of our information for prospective adopters can be found on our website. The only information packets we mail out are print-outs of the form(s) found online.

Half (or more) of the children placed through Abrazo are of partial or full Hispanic heritage; those interested in adopting such children should be equally committed to embracing Hispanic culture so that Abrazo’s Hispanic children grow up to be familiar with and proud of their cultural roots.

The weekend orientation fee of $299 is due at the time the orientation registration request form is returned. The initial agency fee (pre-adoption education/training fee) and a $3k escrow deposit is due within 10 (ten) days of the close of orientation. Each family receives a cost estimate at the time a match is presented, and must make any necessary deposits to maintain the escrow account at a $3k balance each month of the match. The post-adoption agency fee and any remaining case expenses due are paid at time of placement. (Note: all fees paid are nonrefundable, and escrow monies used for case expenses may be lost should a placement plan fail.)

Abrazo’s fees are established on the basis of our services and not the race of the children we place.

Abrazo works with adoptive families of all faiths, as long as they are able to comply with agency policies and can ensure any child placed in their care will receive full access to quality healthcare. The majority of placing parents with whom the agency works do ask to match with Christian or Catholic couples, which can extend the waiting time for those of other faith backgrounds.

Childless adopting couples in their forties who are in good health and physically active generally do not find themselves at disadvantage in Abrazo’s program; however, those over 50 who are open only to infants are well-advised to expand their expectations.

The agency fee covers the agency’s casework and in-office staff counseling for each expectant parent and adopting couple from the point of admission through file closure, however, case expenses are additional and vary depending on case needs and available resources. In the event of a failed adoption plan, the adopting couple may lose any expense money already spent but they do not pay another pre-adoption education/training fee; this is applicable until placement occurs or the couple withdraws or otherwise becomes ineligible for services.

Abrazo offers adopting parents support through its Forum, through followup calls from their caseworker, through a private Facebook group, and via Camp Abrazo (held annually).

Those working with other agencies must complete all the same admissions and/or program requirements as every family within Abrazo’s program. Attendance at Abrazo’s Parents of Tomorrow orientation weekend is a mandatory prerequisite for all participants in the full-service placement program and enables our staff to assure our birthparents that we personally know all the families to whom we entrust children.

Abrazo is able to occasionally place with single parents with documented infertility and/or an interest in designated or special needs adoptions, but most birthparents in Abrazo’s program are specifically seeking childless couples, as their own reason for not parenting typically has to do with a desire to have their baby to grow up in a two-parent home.

Abrazo places children with qualified couples with documented medical infertility conditions who have been legally-married for more than a year, who live in any state except New York.

Abrazo has no formal restrictions on adoptive family size but finds most birthparents are reluctant to select large families, for fear that the child they place will get less attention than they would in a home with one child or less.

Changes in an adoptive family’s primary residence in the course of the adoption process require costly homestudy revisions and additional criminal clearances but do not otherwise hamper the process.

There is no conflict of interest in pursuing a variety of options simultaneously. It is not permissible, however, to take placement of children from multiple sources simultaneously. Therefore, applicants would necessarily forfeit further services and any fee/s paid to Abrazo, if they match and/or receive placement of a child via any source other than Abrazo.

Abrazo’s family services staff completes out-of-state homestudy audits and/or ICPC filings for couples who have been accepted into our program; the fee for such services is $550, payable upon submission of the out-of-state homestudy.

It’s not necessary, unless you choose to do so for your own purposes. Adopting parents hire a (Bexar County) family lawyer of their choice 6-18 months after placement, to handle the finalization of their adoption once the agency has cleared the file for finalization. Other than that, however, there is no need to hire a private or out-of-state attorney, as all the initial legal work is handled by the agency’s attorney.

Abrazo generally advises adopting parents to wait until after orientation to begin the homestudy process, so adopters avoid incurring costs until they have been accepted into the program. Any time adoptive applicants from outside Texas join Abrazo’s program, they hire a licensed agency in their home locale to complete their homestudy and accept responsibility for all post-placement supervisory visits. The costs of such services are negotiated and paid directly by the adopting parents to their chosen homestudy agency; this expense is not included in the agency fees collected by Abrazo (regardless of whether the adopting family lives in Texas.)

Sorry, no; your homestudy worker needs to personally contact references for your homestudy, and those who write references on your behalf would need to send you copies directly if you wish to review them.

Abrazo strongly discourages inflexible gender preferences, as the majority of birthparents with whom we work do not have gender confirmation prior to matching, and even when they do, sonograms are not always necessarily accurate.

Abrazo’s physical forms are provided to adopting parents upon completion of orientation weekend.

Parents placing multiples through Abrazo choose their babies’ new family out of all eligible couples in our Parents-in-Waiting program that have indicated an interest in being considered for siblings. The placement of multiples sometimes entails increased case expenses as necessary for twin or triplet care and 12 months post-placement case supervision, however, only one agency fee is incurred whenever siblings are placed simultaneously.

Abrazo was founded by the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, and is staffed by women of faith. However, the agency is not affiliated with any specific church denomination and welcomes people of all faiths.

All of Abrazo’s waiting adoptive families deposit a minimum of $3k in escrow to be used towards case expenses, regardless of the age of the child being sought. Expenses paid out of escrow include such line items as cradle care, staff travel, birthparent support, medical care for mother and/or child, birthparent transportation (ie., cabs), legal fees and court costs for termination of birthparents’ rights, overnight deliveries and courier costs, etc.

Texas law does not currently recognize legally-enforceable post-placement contact agreements, to our regret, so we take every precaution to advise birthparents to consider entrusting their precious children only to those whom they have every reason (ie., last name, permanent address, etc.) to trust. Openness is the gift that all parents (birthparents and adoptive parents) join together to give their children, so adoptees grow up with knowledge of and access to both families throughout their lifetime.

The average case costs in Abrazo’s full-service program run approximately $31-35k (including the agency fee, assuming medical costs are covered by insurance or Medicaid.) The average costs of Abrazo’s designated cases typically fall between $27-32k (including agency fee, assuming there is full Medicaid/insurance coverage.) Abrazo’s special needs cases usually cost $24-29k, on average, if full Medicaid/insurance coverage applies.) Warning: if Medicaid/insurance is unavailable or denied for any reason, the average hospital bills for a healthy (vaginal) delivery and 2 day stay for mom and baby run about $15k or more, costs borne by the adopting couple as of placement.

The families pictured online on Abrazo’s website are all approved graduates of our Parents of Tomorrow orientation weekends, who have approved homestudies on file with our agency, have signed releases to have their profiles posted, and are ready for immediate placement.

Abrazo’s special needs program applies to single children of any age or any race who are over the age of five, sibling groups of more than three being placed together, and children with noncorrectible disabilities known to the agency at time of placement. Special needs cases are supervised for 12-18 months after placement.

At Abrazo, we place primarily newborns and infants, although we do occasionally handle placements of toddlers and school-age children upon birthparent request. All of the placements done at Abrazo are voluntary, and do not involve children under state foster care. Placements of children over 6 months of age do require extended post-placement case supervision (minimum 12 months.)

Please be advised that Hispanics are of the Caucasian race and therefore, children of Anglo-Hispanic descent are not actually biracial. (Children of biracial ancestry would be Anglo/African-American or African-American/Hispanic, for example.)

Certainly. You can find willing references anytime by posting a request on Abrazo’s Forum (see also the United States of Adoption thread to find alumni living in your locale.)