Our Awful Experience with ANLC
We adopted through Adoption Network Law Center, located in Southern
California. If you Google "adoption", ANLC comes up on the first page
of results. We thought that was a good thing. We learned too late, that
although ANLC markets itself as an agency, it is really operated more
like a facilitator. What's the difference? In our case, the cost and
the services received. This is what Robyn has to say to prospective
adoptive parents who ask her about ANLC.
We heard glowing reports about ANLC. We signed with them in May 2005,
after extensive research. At the beginning, we had only wonderful
experiences with them. Our adoptive parent counselor was patient, gave
great feedback, guided us in our profile book and pictures (while
allowing us to make the final decisions). We had a potential match
before we were done with our home study. Then another, but the mom went
into labor early. Finally, we matched with a great young woman in
another state.
Then, the troubles began.
The "Birthmother Counselor" was very difficult to get a hold of. She
didn't answer email, nor was she ever available when we called. We were
not told that
our son's birthmom picked us, nor was she told that we had accepted the
match. We tried to call to verify with the agency, but couldn't talk to
her until 5pm the day after the meeting.
At first, S wanted to deliver in another state, because of the
requirements of her state's courts. However, S then decided to stay
in-state, but no one told us. When we finally got on the phone with
Counselor, she couldn't explain the situation to us very well.
The county in which S lived doesn't allow out-of-state adoptions. If S
didn't deliver in another county, we were not going to be able to adopt
our baby. While I was trying to understand what this meant, Counselor
said that another family she had worked with another family who had an
adoption fall through at the hospital, so, "see, your little problems
don't matter so much."
I am not kidding. That's what she said. I called her on it, and she
asked me to forget she ever said that. But how do you forget that?
S was having trouble getting records from her doctor. He was
anti-adoption, and even though S had signed a release form (of which
ANLC had a copy), we still didn't have a proof of pregnancy. We asked
Counselor to step up the legal efforts to get the records. We also gave
her our phone number, and said that if S asked for it, she could have
it.
S called later that day, and we ended up talking for a total of 5
hours. We found out that Counselor had called her and told her that if
we didn't have the medical records, then we might pull out of the
adoption. We NEVER said this! We were extremely angry. We also found
out that Counselor had been telling us one story and S another. I
reported Counselor to her supervisor and requested another counselor.
Counselor #2 never even gave us her last name or email address, and was
never available via phone. At this point, S and I were communicating
without the benefit (?) of ANLC.
Everything Counselor #2 said she would do, she didn't. The social
worker at the hospital never heard of us. S had to have an emergency
C-section, and we were in the hospital for 19+ hours with no idea of
what was happening. We were not allowed to go into the NICU, or even to
see our son. No one at the hospital knew the adoption protocol.
We called Counselor #2 at 3 in the morning, and asked her to call the
hospital social worker and the hospital nursery staff so that we could
see our son. When we asked what resources were available to us, she
told us, "Our own inner strength and our faith in God."
For this, we paid them $16,000.
Because S was exhausted from a badly managed labor and delivery, Jack
was alone in the NICU for at least the first 8 hours of his life,
when S woke up and asked to see him. He was then alone again for
another 12 hours. Counselor #2 never called the hospital social worker.
Instead, she called S in the morning, told her that she had to change
the hospital paperwork, and chewed her out over the phone. My husband
was there when she called.
Our lawyer was appalled by how ANLC worked, and even the California
ICPC (Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children) office was
suspicious of the fees ANLC charged. The ICPC work wasn't included in
the exorbitant fees, although the contract says it is, and we were
anxious to go home. ANLC wasn’t returning messages from the CA ICPC
office. ANLC wouldn't help us with the ICPC unless we gave them another
$1000. I finally lost it at one of the attorneys, told her how
everything was royally fouled up, and how our son spent his first night
in this world alone because of their mistakes. I told her we didn't
give them $16,000 for her to claim that the ICPC wasn't her job.
She did the work.
Our total cost was about $30,000. Had we been more careful, perhaps we
could have seen this coming. We asked and asked about “hidden fees” and
were told that almost everything was covered by the $16,000 we paid to
ANLC. All that ended up being covered was the advertising and match.
Everything else, we paid for out-of-pocket (except for the ICPC work I
mentioned).
I heard so many wonderful stories about ANLC. We knew it we be
expensive, but we thought that the number of adoptions they do, the
quick match time, and the legal and counseling resources were all worth
it. In the end, we wondered why we even bothered to use them, because
they did so little for us. They got us the match, and they let
everything else drop on the floor.
I've written about our experience in my Live Journal: http://rredhead.livejournal.com.
In the end, we did adopt our beautiful baby boy, and we love him so
very much. We thanked our adoptive parent counselor for helping us in
the beginning, but the people we were handed off to just didn't seem to
care.
Never in a million years would we use ANLC again. We love our son
dearly, and would not want another child over him. We figure that our
role now is to serve as an example to others and discourage them from
using ANLC.
Since the adoption, I have found many other people through the forums
at adoption.com who have had even worse experiences. It seems that
every time I share my story, the person sends me a message back telling
me that he/she has received lots of comments like mine. I have been
told about a birthmom who said that ANLC messed up the paperwork so
that she could have taken the baby back if she had wanted to. Another
birthmom who is active on the forums used ANLC to place her daughter,
and ANLC was not forthcoming with the proper legal information.
We are sometimes asked if we have any recommendations other than to
stay away from ANLC. I have compiled a list of
agency, attorney, and
facilitator recommendations from adoptive parents at the forums at adoption.com, and the
Yahoo! groups Transracial
Adoption and Placement and African-American
Domestic Adoption. We have not used these agencies (obviously) and
recommend that you RESEARCH,
RESEARCH, RESEARCH!