How to work with multiple adoption agencies

IAG 051 How To Work With Multiple Adoption Agencies

Duration Transcribed: 0:38:29

Intro: Welcome to the show. Here�s my dad.

Tim Elder: On this episode of the Infant Adoption Guide podcast, we talk about how to adopt with multiple adoption agencies and why you should.

Hey, everybody! Welcome back to another episode of the Infant Adoption Guide podcast. My name is Tim Elder. This is the podcast all about domestic infant adoption. And if you�re a faithful listener or this is your first time listening, welcome. Thank you for joining me. We always have fun on the show talking about infant adoption and I love the show today because I do love all the shows because we are talking about how to adopt and working with multiple adoption agencies. So we are going to get into the how, the what, the whys, the whens.

This is a pretty big topic because a lot of folks that just get started in the adoption process wonder what it�s like to work with adoption agencies and multiple ones. Some of you don�t even know you can work with multiple agencies or where to even start. So, some of you maybe have already been down the road on the adoption process and kind of gotten stuck. You�re waiting and just don�t know when it�s going to happen, this maybe a key for you to move forward, work with multiple agencies, and adopt faster. So that�s what we are covering in today�s episode. It�s pretty big.

So our guest on the show is Rebecca Gruenspan, a mom through Domestic Infant Adoption. And now, she is an adoption consultant, has been for five years. After she adopted her son in 2011, she really got pressured about adoption, sharing her story and helping others. And she used her personal experience with adoption in a nearly 20 years in a non-profit sector as a family therapist, a fund raiser, and event planner really to bring it all together and creates business as an adoption consultant. And she used to a consultant herself when she adopted so she knew what it was like to work with a consultant. So it�s really amazing and awesome that she has turned around and doing the same thing for others right now.

So let�s just get into the interview right now with Rebecca Gruenspan.

Hey! Welcome, Becca to the show. How are you doing today?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Thank you. I�m doing great. How are you?

Tim Elder: Hey, I�m doing great. Doing great. I�m so happy to have you back on the show. We had you on several episodes back and I�m so happy to have you back again because this is a great topic here, talking about multiple adoption agencies and how you can work with. And I think a lot of families really get stuck on this or maybe don�t know what they don�t know. When they�re first starting the adoption process, they are thinking, �OK, I need to find my local adoption agency.� And they start doing some research and they are like, �Who is the best agency here? Who can help me the most or fastest based on my budget?� And it becomes a whole ordeal of research.

And I remember going through that myself, kind of figuring out who do we work with and who do we trust? And there�s a lot of money. So much that goes involved in it. So I�m so happy that we are having this discussion because you not only absolutely can work with multiple adoption agencies but in my opinion and I think your opinion, you should. And we will get into that in a little bit. But I want first of all if you could just share a bit about yourself and what you do.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yes, and I�m so excited to be back. I had so much fun the first time. So, I am a single mom of an active 6-year-old first grade boy who blessed my life through adoption, Domestic Agency Adoption.

I�m a full-time entrepreneur working to help people realize their dreams. So I�m a Domestic Adoption Consultant full time, which helps guide people to build their family through adoption. And I�m also a health and wellness consultant part-time, helping people make healthier decisions. So when I help families adopt babies, I can send them healthy, toxin-free baby products.

Tim Elder: Nice.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And besides all that, I do my best to give back wherever I can because all these, Tim, are truly my passions in life and I feel really, really blessed to have figured out a way to support my life with my passions.

Tim Elder: Absolutely. How long have you been doing this full time, your adoption consulting business?

Rebecca Gruenspan: I�m in my 5th year.

Tim Elder: Nice. OK.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah.

Tim Elder: That�s very good. I know you�ve helped a lot of people. I subscribed to your newsletter and I see that all the time, people you helped. It�s very, very exciting that you share that with us. So that�s cool.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Thank you.

Tim Elder: By the way, just so you know, we will share this, your website later as well. But if you want to go and learn more about her and her services, it�s RGAdoptionConsulting.com. Thanks for coming back on the show.

This topic is just so amazing. I think it�s going to help a lot of people. But I want to first just define it I guess like what does it mean? When a hopeful adopted family thinks about working with more than one adoption agencies, what does it mean or how does that work?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah, just that. People don�t have to limit themselves to just one agency, and a lot of people don�t know that. What some people don�t realize is that you can adopt outside of your own home state. Some agencies have a very large upfront fee of sometimes $10,000 to $20,000 shift to be an active family. Other agencies, many agencies, have very low or even no upfront fee. So you always have to get a home study done in your home state but beyond that, you have options.

Tim Elder: Yeah. And I think it does depend on your state too, right? The legalities of every state is a little bit different so you absolutely want to look at that as well.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Absolutely, although I don�t know any state � yes, there are certain legal issues that sometimes make it a little bit more difficult, New York probably being the most difficult.

Tim Elder: Yes, absolutely.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Right? And there are a couple of others too. But when there�s a will, there�s a way I guess. And I think that there is a way for people from every state to work with agencies outside of their home state.

Tim Elder: Yeah. Yeah. So somebody who is just listening to this and going, �Hey �� maybe they haven�t started the adoption process, they are just looking at agencies. Or maybe they have already been working with one agency and then they stopped. Nothing is happening for months or even years I�ve heard and they are going, �OK, what�s the benefit of working with more than one adoption agency? What�s in it for me?�

Rebecca Gruenspan: So yeah, people come to me in two different stages of their adoption journey. They either come to me right at the beginning before they even start or I also have a group of clients that will come to me after they�ve been waiting for a year or more thinking, �Well, there haven�t been a lot of activity. I need to spread my wings.�

So you gave a good example there. But I always say when it comes to working with multiple agencies, I give this example. So say you went, Tim, say you went to your financial planner and handed over $250,000 and said, �This is the money we have to invest.� Do you think that your financial planner would say, �Great! We�re going to put it all into this one stock.�

Tim Elder: No way! No way!

Rebecca Gruenspan: Never because it�s too risky and he would want to diversify your money to give you the most bang for your buck and to get you the most return on your investment, right?

Tim Elder: Right.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And I fully agree with that same approach especially in these times when the numbers of adoption as you know have been decreasing year over year or as people are waiting longer to even begin their adoption journey. So maybe they are a little bit older. So I might argue that it would make way more fun to spread your wings.

So by applying to let�s say, three or four agencies at once, you�re getting presented more situations, your profile is being shown to more expectant mothers and most likely you�ll get chosen faster than if you apply to just one agency.

Now, it�s not always that simple. There are factors and we�ve discussed some of them with state laws, but you need to sign up with agencies that can best serve you based on your criteria, right? And you want to know their statistics.

So for example, you probably don�t want to sign up with an agency who does let�s say, five to seven adoptions a year and they have a list of 20 or more families waiting because then you�re just a number on a longer list with very few adoptions and you may be waiting for years, right? That might not make the most sense.

So what I�m saying is that you need to do your homework, you need to ask questions, and you need to make the best decision.

And to your point right at the beginning, you said sometimes you don�t even know what you don�t know. Exactly right. Many people I work with, they don�t even know the right questions to ask when it comes to choosing the right agencies.

Tim Elder: Yeah.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And oftentimes, I have conversations with people that say, �I wish I would have known.� So �

Tim Elder: Yeah, understood that because it�s easy to say you�re going to work with multiple adoption agencies but how do you make that work? And you�re right, what questions do you ask them to know even which are the right ones to work with. If they all have upfront fees then obviously, you don�t want to work with all those adoption agencies because you don�t want to put all that money out there.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Right, if they have high fees, yeah.

Tim Elder: Yup. Well, I�ve heard one risk with working with multiple agencies is that you�d be selected by multiple social workers and multiple agencies and it will select you at the same time and then the family has to decide which adoption situation to turn down. I mean that could be extremely hard. What do you think about this and what are the risks out there for that?

Rebecca Gruenspan: So yeah, technically, you could. It really doesn�t happen often that you get chosen for two situations at one time. But I have had that situation happened. Many agencies will really encourage you to only present your profile to one situation at a time. But some agencies don�t tell you that they are presenting your profile unless you�ve been matched. So it really could happen even if you weren�t presenting to two agencies at once. And really, you have to make that decision for yourself.

But even if you don�t think that you are, you could be presented at an agency who presents to the expectant mother first. So it could end up that you get chosen by two situations. So in that case, the family would have to decide which feels better to them and turn the other down, which are difficult situations mostly for the expectant mom who pours her heart into choosing the right family for her child but hopefully, it was �second� maybe. And oftentimes, I do hear that there are, that she was having a hard time choosing between two. So hopefully, if one has to turn them down, they have another choice.

The only other thing that�s a big difference and again, not so much a risk but you have to remain in the state where the baby is born until you get cleared from the state where the baby is born as well as your home state. So that process is called interstate compact and it can usually take one to two weeks. So that process begins once the baby is released from the hospital. It�s actually a really nice time to bond with your baby without people knocking at your door wanting to hold the baby and spend time with you and you getting used to each other. So that�s a really nice time.

So, a couple of potential risks.

Tim Elder: Yeah, I would have to agree with that interstate compact. All three of our adoptions where intrastate so we had to go to a different state to adopt our babies and all three of them were perfect times to have that time at least a week, some of them were two, that we got to just spend bonding with the baby and just having that time. Alone time with them is really, really cool.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah, it�s nice. I remember my father said, �When are you getting out of that jail? When can you bring your baby home?� And I said, �You know, I�m not so quick to leave. I�m having a great time.� It�s bonding without other people involved.

Tim Elder: Yeah. The only limitation there is you can�t leave the state. We were in one situation where we were kind of on a border, right on the border of one state from another and so we had to make sure, OK, legally, we cannot cross those state lines so we didn�t and it was OK.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And in those situations, you want to make sure that you are in a fun city, right?

Tim Elder: Yeah, right. Exactly. Yup. Yup. So anyway, so let�s move on here. Some agencies we�ve heard do not allow for adoptive families to work with other agencies at the same time. Have you heard of that? And why would that be?

Rebecca Gruenspan: I have heard of that. I�m not really sure. The agencies that I have networked and partnered with all have the feeling that they know their clients want to adopt the baby as quickly as possible and they are supportive of them applying to multiple agencies if that helps them in the long run. I�m not sure. Perhaps other agencies don�t encourage this may just want to walk through the entire process with their clients and maybe that�s what they value and do more handholding themselves. I�m just guessing.

I�ve spoken with agencies in my area actually about lowering their upfront fees to make it more affordable for their families to apply elsewhere as well. And while they don�t have a problem with the multiple agency approach, their higher upfront fees are the only way that they can see to cover all their costs.

So, there are just different approaches with every agency. And every agency is different and does things their own way.

Tim Elder: Do you find that some agency, it�s a matter of like the size of agency, if they�re a smaller one that they offer � are they more open to multiple agencies or maybe they have the smaller ones offer � have less upfront fees or the larger ones have less upfront fees?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah. I�ve worked with different size agencies and I don�t really see that being a factor necessarily. I tend to work mostly with agencies that are a little bit larger and do higher volume in their placement so maybe it�s also that they are � yeah, I don�t know.

Tim Elder: Yeah, I know it�s kind of all over the place and it really does depend on your state because some states have just a lot adoption agencies and some like mine, our population sparse, we don�t have as many or they�re just smaller.

So some agencies actually have warned folks and I guess I kind of see this that are maybe too expensive or too costly to work with more than one agency. Maybe they try to scare people away from working with more than one. I don�t know. But most agencies have application fees and other fees that are required to work with them. And like we talked about, some of them are paid up front.

So, let�s talk about cost. Will it cost families more to work with multiple adoption agencies? Why or why not?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah, perhaps it will. I tell my clients � so it�s interesting. When people come to me and I say, �What have you heard as far as the range for adoption?� And they will throw out a number. But I�m never really sure if that includes everything. Is that just the agency adoption fee, working with the agency, or does that include the home study and the post placement and the finalization fee and the travel involved, right?

So when somebody tells you what the cost is, you have to make sure that they are telling you everything. So I tell my clients to expect to pay somewhere between $38,000 and $50,000 all in when all is said and done. Meaning, all the things I just talked about as well as the consultant, agency travel, post placement, attorney fees, home study, all of that.

Whereas, another agency with higher upfront fees may end up being about $10,000 less. I really haven�t seen it skew too much less than that, maybe 10 to 15. So you really have to weigh the tradeoffs. So in this case, maybe it�s time versus money, right? So with some agencies with higher fee, maybe you will be waiting one to three years versus the multiple agency approach which my goal is always less than a year. And oftentimes, I�m seeing that 3 to 9 months.

So, you have to decide what�s worth it for you, what�s most important to you and what you can afford. So most of the agencies that I see with low upfront fees and I guess it goes to your question before about smaller versus larger agencies, most of the agencies I work with again, have higher number of placements per year. And what I see is that agencies don�t want families to be waiting on their list for too long.

So the shorter they have families on their list, the happier that family is going to be because likely, they are on there for a short time because they have adopted their baby, right? And they are never really worried about, the agencies that I�ve talked to, they are never worried about finding that family for an adoption situation or having enough families because there are always families out there for adoption situation.

And so for this reason among others, agencies like to have relationship with consultants because if they don�t have the right family on their list at any given time then they know who to reach out to to find them.

Does that make sense?

Tim Elder: Yeah, absolutely. And I think families that work with consultants like you, actually get more education before they even go to an agency and the agency will embrace those families even more because they are less education that they need to do with those families. They come to them already knowing what�s going on and they happen to be educated.

Rebecca Gruenspan: You hit on a really [0:18:41] [Dear Air]. I have asked � so when I vet my agencies, one question I always ask them is, what makes a good family to work with? And across the board, they say, �An educated one. We would love it.� And they all say, �We love it when our families are working with consultants because they come to us already knowing about the process and they don�t need as much handholding.

And we know that they have somebody else there supporting them. So they love that because they are pulled so much with birth mothers and answering a lot of questions all the time from other families.

Tim Elder: Yeah. It would be nice to have agencies only have to focus on the expectant moms out there because there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I mean I don�t think � well, this is my opinion. My perception is I don�t know if there�s a whole lot of women that are out there going, �Eep! I know exactly what I�m going to do. I�m going to make an adoption paper on our baby and who is going to help me?� It�s mostly, �I don�t know if this is what I want to do. But I want to talk to somebody about it and see if this is even possible for me.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And that�s really the agency�s main focus with their expectant mothers because like I said before, without expectant mothers, they don�t have adoptions, right?

Tim Elder: Yup. Right.

Rebecca Gruenspan: They will always find the family.

Tim Elder: Yup.

Rebecca Gruenspan: So their focus is really on the expectant mothers and the birth mothers.

Tim Elder: Which is another important reason in my mind and I think you agree that you need to work with multiple adoption agencies because there are always more families that want to adopt than there are children or especially newborns available to be adopted.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah.

Tim Elder: So getting you out there amongst multiple adoption agencies especially if you can broaden that across the country, the better chance you have of adopting faster. But like you said, you have to take into account your budget because it is expensive.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Absolutely.

Tim Elder: All right. So let�s just talk about � OK, say, hopeful adoptive parents are just thinking about this and going, �Hey, this might be something we should do here.� What�s the first step for them? What do they do first?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Well, if you are talking about just working with multiple agencies �

Tim Elder: Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca Gruenspan: So reach out to best agencies to sign up with when you are trying to understand which state have the best laws. How to find which agencies have low upfront fees? What questions to ask the agency to determine if they are a good fit? That could take you months of research and a lot of frustration, right? The internet, there�s so much information out there and it�s overwhelming. So what many people don�t know is that adoption consultants have done all that legwork for you already, which is what I alluded to before. So if you are able to work with an adoption consultant, you are tapping into their network, their relationship, and their information.

So my advice would be to work with an adoption consultant from the beginning. And there are adoption consultants all over the country so finding the one that you feel you have a good connection with and you click with is important. You have to trust that person. But if that�s not something you�d like to do and it�s not in your budget, there are a number of fantastic Facebook groups with thousands of people in them who have a wealth of knowledge if you just � and in fact, Tim, I think you�re the administrator of one of them.

Tim Elder: Yup.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Domestic Adoption Support Network.

Tim Elder: Yup.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Is that right?

Tim Elder: That�s right.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Right. So that among a couple of others have thousands of people in it. And following those groups and asking questions could very well lead you down the right path. Asking questions, people have a wealth of knowledge.

Now, that said, with all those people, everyone has different and sometimes very strong opinions. So unless you know all of the variables, I would really caution anyone to follow the path of somebody else until you know that it�s also a good path for you, right? Meaning, if somebody else�s path sounds good, were they also looking for the same things you were looking for? Do they also have the same budget as you? When did they adopt? Was it five years ago or was it just within the last year? All those things make a huge difference because last year in the adoption world is very different than right now.

Tim Elder: Yeah, it�s changing a lot. Yeah.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yes.

Tim Elder: Especially with the internet, with social media, there�s a lot of that stuff that�s really having an impact on adoption.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah.

Tim Elder: Yeah, it�s good.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And I�ll also mention that if you do work with an adoption consultant, it doesn�t matter where you are located because we all work over the phone with our clients. So, adoption consultants tend to work with families all over the country so it�s not totally necessary to find one in your own backyard.

Tim Elder: That�s a good point.

Rebecca Gruenspan: It�s always nice if we like to meet the babies once you bring them home. And we like it when you are in our backyard but it�s not necessary. It�s really who you click with the most and who you feel like you can trust.

Tim Elder: Yeah. That�s a good point because I think � and especially with us when we were starting out, it was a hard decision to make going, �Hey, how do I know I am going to work and trust with these people that I�ve never met, I have not seen, I�ve only talked to them over the phone and I�m going put down a lot of money here to work with them and that feels really, really risky.�

And I think that�s why a lot of people like I want to meet and shake the hands and talk � look into the eyes of the people that are going to help me. And so that�s why they go to a local adoption agency. And I get that because like you said, you need to feel comfortable with the person. You need to trust the person. Very hard to do if you are only talking with them over the phone but I still would recommend doing that because I think you could, depending on where you are and your situation, you could limit yourself by only working with a local adoption agency.

And like you said previously, you really need to know their statistics. What does that mean? How many families are there waiting? How many adoptions do they do per year? You need to figure those things out to know, OK, if I only work with this local adoption agency down the street, I can be waiting five years. And it�s not acceptable to me.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Right.

Tim Elder: Then you have to get out of your comfort zone a little bit and talk with an adoption consultant like yourself, agencies you feel comfortable with them and that really comes down to asking the right questions and just having them available to talk with you.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Right. And one thing I thought about when you were talking, for some people, time might be OK. Maybe they are starting the process now and they are OK if it takes two to three years.

Tim Elder: Right.

Rebecca Gruenspan: But I would also make sure that those people know that time and money go hand in hand either way you look at it because the longer you wait, you have to continue to update your home study as well, which also can cause money. And some agencies have term limit so you may have to pay another fee again. So you just have to make sure you know what all the information is.

Tim Elder: Yup. And it gets hectic. I mean redoing your � I mean for us, redoing your background checks, your fingerprints, not to mention your profile, if you do your profile or if it has been a year, you better be updating your profile, maybe even less. You should be updating your profile and pictures and other things. So it can be yeah, daunting tasks as you go along and it takes a lot of time.

So regarding your profiles, if you don�t know what a parent profile is, it�s book so to speak of several pages, maybe, I don�t know, up to 20 pages or so depending on what the agency�s preferences are. But it�s a book that you create pages about you, your life, and describing what a child�s life would be like in your family. So that�s kind of a simple way to put what a parent profile is. And we�ve had other podcasts done on what those are and how to effectively create.

So agencies have different requirements for families to create and share their parent profiles. How does that work when you have multiple agencies and maybe even conflicting requirements about creating and sharing your profiles?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah, great question. Well, I have luckily found that among the agencies I�ve worked with, all but one don�t care how the profile is created whether it�s Shutterfly or Mixbook or Canva or something on your computer or publisher or whatever. Most don�t care what format it�s in. However, most do want a PDF version.

And when sending your physical book, they prefer soft cover but they will work with anything. And the one agency that I do have that wants your profile is done in a very specific way and we will have it created for you for a low fee. I help my clients through that process so that they don�t really have to deal with it too much. After creating your profile, they don�t want to look at it again until they are chosen. So that really hasn�t been an issue luckily.

Tim Elder: Well, that�s great. Yeah, I can see it being an issue but maybe the agencies are becoming more open to create what you will and do what you think is best and we will share it and maybe give you some pointers and tips along the way.

And you mentioned the PDF version. For those who may not know what PDF means, it basically means you�re saving it as a soft copy so it�s a file that you can share over email or over the internet in various ways, social media, that folks can just pull up and read on their computer or their phone or their tablet.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah.

Tim Elder: So what stories can you share? So say, you have had some adoptive families that you�ve worked with that have successfully adopted using multiple agencies. It sounds like most of your families probably do these multiple agencies. What stories can you share with us that people have had success?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Wow! I have lots of them because they�re from all my clients. You just never know what an agency will be looking for and when. Much of it is luck and timing, being at the right place and the right time. I�ve literally had families matched in a day because they sent their profiles to the right agency at the right time.

Tim Elder: Wow!

Rebecca Gruenspan: I have also clients that perhaps developed a great relationship with one of their agencies, totally thinking that that�s where they would adopt because they kept receiving a lot of situations and then all of a sudden they get a call from another that they haven�t heard from in months and that�s the one.

So it�s very much is a timing game. And every agency ebbs and flows at different times. So to be at the right place at the right time is key. And I�ve had clients who probably presented their profile 20 times. No joke. I mean they were getting so discouraged and they responded to every situation they were sent from many different agencies until they were finally picked. And that whole process took only like four months. They were getting a ton of situations sent to them but if they hadn�t chosen multiple agencies, who knows if they would still be waiting because they weren�t getting a ton of situations from one agency, they were getting a ton from all the different agencies that they applied to.

So I think it�s much you never know what�s going to come up where and when. So to be at different places at the same time is only going to work to your benefit.

Tim Elder: Yeah, I could see that. I�m sure � I know there are folks that just went, �Hey, we work with our local agency and we only waited two months and we adopted.� I�m sure that�s the case but I think if you are able to and I don�t think there�s any way to do this, but if you are able to statistically look at it and say, families that only work with one agency versus families that work with multiple adoption agencies, I think statistically you would see folks that work with multiples probably are going to adopt faster just based on the numbers.

Like you said, if you are getting your name out there and multiple people are sharing your name out there, you�re going to get picked faster. Do you agree?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Right.

Tim Elder: OK.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah. I agree. I agree with it that�s why a lot of people call me up and said they�ve been waiting for a year with one agency and most of those calls start with, �I had no idea I could apply to more than one,� or, �I had no idea I had other options,� or, �I didn�t have to adopt here locally.�

Tim Elder: Yeah. Do you � I see this in the Facebook groups because like you said before, a lot of strong opinions get shared and it�s really crazy I think because you could have one agency that somebody absolutely loves. I mean you work with them more than one time and have fast adoptions. Everything went great and then somebody else said, �I would never work with that adoption agency. They were horrible.� It�s hard to wrap your brain around that.

And I would caution anybody that does go into Facebook groups and went, �Hey, what do you know about this adoption agency?� And you will get all those opinions and then what do you do with them? How do you do � what do you recommend to those people?

Rebecca Gruenspan: So I say that I don�t discourage people from looking on the internet because I think it� good. But we have to remember that adoption is a very emotional process.

Tim Elder: Absolutely.

Rebecca Gruenspan: And so, when anything goes wrong and it could be just a legit fall through where the birth mother has a change of heart, right? She has that legal right and it may have nothing to do with the agency at all. The agency may have done everything right. But if she changes her mind and adoptive family is really upset about that, they might decide they want to say something negative about the agency. That kind of happens all the time because it�s such an emotionally charged journey and people get very reactive.

So when you are looking at information online, unless you are seeing the same complaint over and over and over again, you�re always going to see a complaint about every agency out there. And you are always going to see good. So that�s where I think that the statistics and the numbers really speak more than what people are saying online. If they have 50 successful adoptions in a year and 3 failures, well, their numbers are speaking to their success, right? So, it�s just a word of caution but I also think it�s good to look.

Tim Elder: Yeah. Well, I think we have answered a lot of great questions here and hopefully we�ve given the folks here a lot to think about when it comes to working with multiple adoption agencies. You and I both agree it�s the right way to go at least at this point in time in the adoption world and I think if folks want to get a hold of you, I think it would be great to hear more about what you can do for them when it comes to consulting. So, how can folks get a hold of you? How can they contact you?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Well, they can, you mentioned my website at the beginning which is www.RGAdoption.consulting.com. RG is for Rebecca Gruenspan which is my name. RGAdoptionConsulting.com where I have some great folks thinking about adoption including � I would encourage people to go to my Frequently Asked Question section and see a whole video where you can actually go to the place that may answer your specific question.

You can also sign up for a free 30-minute consultation directly from my site where I walk you through how I support my clients every step of the way and answer any adoption questions you might have.

If nothing else, I just want people to know their options and to get off the phone getting some really � some solid information so that they have a direction to go.

I also have a very active Facebook page which is RG Adoption Consulting. And you can find me on Instagram and Twitter as well.

Tim Elder: I have all those links in the show notes so you don�t have to, if you are driving yourself and you try to write the stuff down, don�t worry about it. You can go to the show notes of the InfantAdoptionGuide.com and you can get it off of there. And you can actually click on the links and it will just take you right there too.

So one thing I love about your page, I just have to say this, I love how you share your success stories of folks that have adopted. Great pictures on there. You can read about their stories. Just really cool to see the smiling faces of the families on there that are holding little babies. That�s just very inspiring. And I think it would provide some hope to those who maybe struggling just starting out or maybe they are struggling that they haven�t been able to adopt and maybe they have been waiting for a long time.

And check out her website and give her a call. The 30-minute free consultation, I don�t think you will be disappointed. Becca is very good at what she does.

So you go by Becca. Just want to make sure folks, they�ve heard Rebecca and they�ve heard Becca, right? You go by either one?

Rebecca Gruenspan: Yeah, I do. I go by Becca.

Tim Elder: OK. Very good. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today. You�ve done a great job sharing a bunch of information. And we will talk to you again soon I�m sure.

Rebecca Gruenspan: Great. I hope it�s helpful. Thank you.

Tim Elder: Very much. Thank you.

All right. Great interview with Rebecca Gruenspan. She did an amazing job sharing with us all the information about how to adopt with multiple adoption agencies and I just hope you got a lot out of that. I know I did. I really hope you go over to her website, RGAdoptionConsulting.com and check out all the different things she has. She has an About page there. You can read more about her story. She has a Frequently Asked Questions page. She has a Congratulations page about the folks that have already adopted. You can read their success stories. She has a Services page. You can see what she actually offers and how to get a hold of her.

She actually has a blog as well which I�ve been honored to help provide some articles for.

And as a reminder, she will offer you a free 30-minute consultation just to talk about your situation and if maybe she would be a fit to help you with your adoption plans. So I highly recommend going over there, RGAdoptionConsulting.com, and Rebecca will be sure to help you there.

And all these links will be in the show notes at InfantAdoptionGuide.com/51. And while you are there, the Infant Adoption Guide, go to, you will see all over the page, but you could go to InfantAdoptionGuide.com/Welcome, get my 4 free adoption books that will really help you on your adoption journey. I hope you will go take a look at that and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes if you would. Leave me a review and I would surely appreciate it. Until next time, God bless you on your adoption journey.

Outro: Thanks for listening to my dad.