family options red bank

Yes we have! My husband and I are currently in portfolio with Family Options in Red Bank.The readers digest condensed version is:I was recommended through a social worker I work with.She gave me a list of 6-8 different agencies. I called all of them and wittled the list down to 2-->Family Options and the Golden Cradle in Cherry Hill. My husband and I attended a meeting at FO and I received info by mail for GC. After line by line and price by price and saw what each one of them offered we decided to go with FO. We filled out preliminary paperwork with a picture of us and then filled out more paperwork I affectionately call the novel :D . At the same time our fingerprints were being checked out. We subsequently had our home study and started the portfolio process. The portfolio consists of pictures of you and your family and the birthparent letter.This is what perspective birthparents look at to decide who they place their child with. We placed our portfolio with the agency in Febuary. We started the whole process last April and finished this Febuary. The agency said they place between 15-18 children a year and there are usually 20-22 couples in portfolio. The shortest time a couple waited was 2 weeks and the longest was 2 1/2 years. Diane runs the agency and she has adopted twice. The agency handles domestic adoptions(within New Jersey) and I believe either Korea or China. Everyone has been very nice and helpful there. Well,so much for the reader's digest condensed version of the story. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Lori

Thanks so much for posting a response. I just went to FO's meeting and will be signing up with them Dec or Jan. It would be nice to know somene who is going through the same thing! My e-mail address is sharonvm@aol.com, please feel free to write.

NJsharon-We are attending their Nov. meeting. I have filled out all of the beginning paperwork and hope to hand it in that evening. It looks like we will go with them if we like what they say that night. I'm also looking at Adoption Law Network. I hope we can exchange experiences soon. email me at: mikesgirl8277@aol.com Janice

:) Hello NJSharon: My husband and I went to Rutger's this past Saturday for an adoption conference. We met the owners of Family Options and were very impressed with them. They made us feel very comfortable compared to the other representatives there. We are 99% sure that we will go with them due to their location, professionalism and kindness. It's nice to know that you and others will be/are using Family Options. What did you find out at their first meeting? Most likely we will be contacting them shortly. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Good luck and wish you all the best! :)

They really seemed great to us too. They have a few different adoption avenues, identified, where you the couple locate a birthmother, and of course one where the birthmother chooses you from a profile. You don't pay until youeither have been chosen, or you have identified a birthmother. I really like this option. Good luck. Sharon

Sharon- I tried to email you directly over the weekend but it came back to me. We have our appt. tonight. I like somethings I've read and then others I'm not sure about. I have a list of questions to ask, which I'll do tonight. I'm not planning on doing any networking myself, so I'll definately be in the category of unidentified adoption. It costs more, but I know I won't be able to do all that is involved in networking myself. I did put together our scrapbook this weekend and I'm bringing it along. I hear the fingerprinting takes the longest. I hope because I'm a teacher and was fingerprinted for teaching that they will count, plus DH has his on file for registered handguns. Maybe this will eliminate a step???????????????? Janice

Hey all, My wife and I went to Family Options October info seminar in the same week we went to three info seminars from different agencies and I liked Family Options the best. We met Steve & Diane (the owners) at the Rutgers conference and we found them to be very personable and friendly. As of now, we're most likely going with them, unless we find an agency at the APC conference on the 16th that we absolutely love. Just my .02 cents! Peace, Gary . . .