Adoption Center of Choice in Orem, Utah

My husband and I have been working with the adoption center of choice. I have been very impressed with them. We have put our names in with a lot of agencies and I am most impressed with them so far. If you are in Utah they have a meeting on Oct. 16th and it is awesome. We just went to one last week and it was one of the neatest adoption things that we have done in a long time. If you want to know more about the meeting email me at Mfg81pup@aol.com. I can also give you phone numbers of people who have adopted through them. Tate:D

Tate, My husband and I live in Pa and have been researching the Adoption Center of Choice, I see you have had some dealings with this agency. Have you personally adopted from them? We would appreciate any imput or Email address' of people who would be willing to "speak" about their experiences. Thank you Donna

Yes, my husband and I just adopted through the adoption center of choice. We are very please with our experience with them. It went very fast and they were always up front and honest. If you have any more questions or would like to talk email me at mfg81pup@aol.com

My husband and I worked with the Adoption Center of Choice. We are now the proud parents of two beautiful babies. We had a great experience. We contacted the agency in April and our little girl was born in June and due to a special circumstance our little boy was born in July.

Wow that is wonderful about your two Children from The Adoption Center of Choice, What a blessing!! How long was your profile available until you were chosen? Best Wishes Donna

Two are Fun, I'm sorry I didn't read your time-line on your post very carefully. It sounds like your wait was very short. Are you from the Utah area, Or out of state? Would you use this agency again? Thanks Donna

Your right our time was really short. Ours was kind of a freak case I guess. We were only with ACC for two weeks when we got a baby. Our baby was one left at hospital and not one where our profile was chosen and we would have waited for the baby to be born. Yes I would use ACC again to adopt. I'm sorry did you adopt from them? Would you use them again? Mindy :)

We are from Utah. And I would use them again in an instant. We were lucky to get two babies so quickly and close in age. If I can answer any questions feel free to let me know. Like I said we turned our profile in on 4/7/03 and within a few months our family was complete.

Donna L. I am sorry. I forgot to include my e-mail address on my last post. Feel free to contact me with any questions. ms4ver@yahoo.com

We have used the Adoption Center of Choice for 2 adoptions. The benefits of this agency are that they have short (sometimes very short) wait times and I really believe they take excellent care of their birthmothers. However, the downside of this agency is that they seem to be driven totally by profit rather than by a genuine interest to help their clients. In both of our adoptions, we found them to be somewhat less than forthright about their fees and unwilling to discuss exactly how they arrive at their fees. Despite their fee agreement that you sign, they tend to tack on additional fees at the end (once they even added on thousands of dollars that they didn't tell us about until we were about to leave Utah with our new baby; when we complained, they threatened to place her with another family). The staff is friendly enough but was extremely bad at communicating with us which led to a high level of frustration. In one instance, it took 5 weeks for us to get an answer to a simple question because it had to go through their management committee. They do bring in birthmoms from out of state (and we ourselves are out of state as well), however we never felt like our birthmother was coerced in any way. Yes, they use Utah's liberal adoption laws to their advantage, but we did not feel that they exploit their birthmothers. They have a high placement rate for birthmoms who come to live at their facility, but a very low placement rate for birthmoms who don't. Personally, we would not use them again. We only adopted a 2nd child from them because it was a sibling of our first child and the birthmother really wanted them to be raised together. Bottom line is, if you're in a hurry to adopt and don't mind spending extra money, this may be a good place for you to explore. However, please be aware going in that they are a for-profit agency and they act like it. Also, do not expect a high level of communication from them.

[Edited To Remove Agency/Facilitator/fee based services Recommendations or comments] Please remember that comments about agencies or other fee based services made after 2/10/2004 MUST be made via Private Message.

Mammadog, Will you email me since your post was deleted??? I want to read what you wrote. allyrn@hotmail.com (that's "r" "n") Thanks, JEL

Mammadog, Please email me with you post of 5/11/04. We are interested in adopting from the adoption center of choice and i'm curious to know what you wrote. My email address is almar901@yahoo.com. thanks so much... Lynn

The Adoption Center of Choice/A Heart of Gold Being very familiar with this agency, my asociation now exceeds a year, I happen to know that they are non-profit and do not make any money off of adoption, except if you count paying the utility bills and the rent on the building. The director nor the owner have made it rich off this agency and the only reason it is still standing is because they have a very strong desire to help others, and if you ever met the director, she is the kindest, most saintly women you'll ever meet. She may not be an executive from Wall Street, but she has a heart of gold and has sepnt many a sleepless night on the phone with women in crisis and worrying about the clients she serves.The reason the fees are high is because they have come in contact with birth moms who dishonestly "intend" to place a child and just use them for the assistance they provide. Unfortunatly every agency encounters these individuals and it is because of them that drives the costs up, since the agency is not reimbursed in any way for the assistance they provide to these "women in need." If everyone can get the word out that adoption agencies are not there to be abused, they are only here and hopefully here to stay because there are families and women who have a heart string connecting them and through the agency they are brought together. I would also like to add that the reason women who come to Utah are more likely to place, is because they are more serious about their decision to place. Those unwilling to travel to Utah to be in contact with the agency on a regular basis, usually have some underlying doubts as to whether or not they will go through with it. In regards to the additional fees that come up which I assume are medical and legal fees, since those are the only additional fees that would be collected:The fees cannot be anticipated until the birth mom has delivered, namely because no one can know what her medical fees are until she has been released from the hospital,and even then sometimes medical bills can surface weeks later. I'm sure anyone who has ever had a baby can atest to that! Also the agency does not know what the legal fees are until the family has been matched witha birth mom, and depending on what state she is in, the legal fees vary. The agency cannot place a child with a family if they are unwilling to pay the medical and legal fees. I can see how they would have to choose another family in those instances, because they could not expect a birth mom to pay medical bills for a child she placed for adoption through an act of love, when her arms are empty. I really feel that the general public can tend to be uneducated about how adoption really works and can look at it in a negative light. If they spent one day at an adoption agency they would understand the sacrifice, patience and compassion the staff excercise on a hourly basis. So please try to be more understanding about the whole process, it takes a lot more than you think to do everything right to make an adoption legal and safe for all parties.

I'm wondering what you guys see that we don't experience down in the Dixie end of the state. I've never eard a word of any of this stuff...wow There are relatively few adoptions handled down here but the ones I've heard of were either private or through LDS services. From what I'm reading, LDS won't work with parents who are not sealed in the temple, and then makes them wait 12mos, no matter how long they've been legally married. Fee's aren't my issue with them. I'd call the state and ask about this agency. People up here, in govt., are more helpful than typical.