Now that we’re a couple months into our second adoption process, I can say that not all agencies are created equal. In our case, I can’t qualify one as better than the other…yet. They’re just different. Our first agency has been around for 60 plus years. They’ve been doing international adoptions for over 30 years. In some ways, they still operate like it was 30 years ago. There was a lot of paper and not a lot of technology. This wasn’t a deal-breaker for us but was a little inconvenient as a family who thrives on technology. Our current agency is much more technology orientated which, in this case, also makes us feel a lot more connected to them. There are weekly e-updates, frequent blog announcements, and monthly conference calls. Our current agency is also larger so we have a family coordinator who only works with families in the Ethiopia program. This means that she knows our process inside and out. For Ty’s adoption, we had one social worker all the way through which was great but she worked with families in all the international programs and sometimes was a little fuzzy on the details.
The biggest difference has been faith. Our current agency is much more faith-oriented than our first agency and it makes all the difference in the world to know that our agency staff is on the same page as us from a faith perspective. I’m so thankful for the AWAA staff workers we’ve gotten to know through Welcoming Angels and now our adoption.
For more things to think about when choosing an agency, check out the list at Grafted Families.
Wishing you lots of luck. I would not have thought that different agencies would be so different.