Adoption Consultants, Inc.
Birth Parent Line:
1-800-605-4588
(1-800-605-4LUV)
Adoptive Parents:
(818) 766-2222
Testimonials
Click on the links below to read about each families unique and special experience adopting through
Adoption Consultants, Inc.!
Adoption Consultants, Inc.
E-mail: info@adoptionconsultantsinc.com
April 18, 2008
My husband and I found out about Adoption Consultants, Inc. and Cathy Mantell through a friend of ours who had used Adoption Consultants, Inc. services and were extremely pleased with the overall process. They had adopted their first child through Cathy and had returned for their second adoption and were already matched and waiting for their second baby to be born. Based on our friend’s high recommendations and the conversations that we subsequently had with Cathy we decided to use Cathy's services. We chose Cathy over 3 other adoption facilities, mainly due to her high opinion of the birthmothers, especially compared to some of the other companies we spoke with. We felt that Cathy has great relationships with birthmother's both pre placement and post, and you can tell she respects the extremely hard decisions they are making and validates their feelings. We had our initial call with Cathy and I felt at ease, as she really does walk you through ONE step at a time because there is a lot that goes into the process, and it can feel overwhelming. She was very thorough in answering our questions and put us in touch with all the right people we needed if it was outside her expertise or dealt with legal concerns. As we were getting anxious about possible issues that might come up, she would always reassure us “not to worry,” we will deal with any issues as they arise. It really was a smooth process.
Once we got our initial paperwork filled out, we were both anxious and excited about the road ahead. We were amazed at how many situations that had been presented to us in just 2 weeks! Cathy is very professional with her information. She presents all the information in a way that doesn’t persuade your decisions, but fully educates you on the both the positive and the negative possibilities of each situation. There is a lot that goes into a perfect match!
The day we sent in our paperwork in May, 2007 to the day our son Dahnovan was born went by very fast! We matched with our birthmother July 2nd and Dahnovan was born July 21st, so as you can imagine it was a whirlwind to be finally planning for the birth of our son! Cathy arranged a conference call with our birthmother so we could "meet" her for the first time. We were truly very nervous and didn't know what to expect. She was a wonderful person and although we were all nervous, we had a very nice talk. As the days went on we talked quite a bit, and really got to know her and some of her wishes for Dahnovan. This is so important, because we now have so much we can share with Dahnovan to the questions he may have regarding his birthmother.
We found out at the hospital the night Dahnovan was born that Cathy truly is available at "all" hours!! There was some confusion with the hospital staff as to who was going to keep Dahnovan. Because we weren’t sure if the birth father might be difficult about the adoption, we made the decision to use an adoption attorney Cathy works with that specializes in defusing potentially difficult birth father situations. We also had an agency who was taking care of the birthmother’s termination of rights. Our attorney’s office was afraid our birthmother might deliver before our agency had had a chance to send their hospital letter, so they sent one out which actually wasn’t accurate. Our agency then also sent one, so the hospital now had two letters with different information. Because it was a weekend the regular social worker wasn’t in the hospital staff were completely confused as to how to proceed so they would only allow us into the nursery with supervised visits. We got very nervous and we needed to call Cathy for advice on how to straighten this all out. It was late on a Saturday night and we were hesitant to call, but we felt we really needed help. We called Cathy and, as usual, had no problem reaching her. She told us not to worry at all, and that she would walk us through who to talk to at the hospital, what we needed to do and how to do it. She then quickly wrote up a very detailed hospital letter of her own and faxed it off to the hospital, clearing up any confusion regarding the previously letters they had received from the attorney and agency, and she clearly and succinctly instruct them how to proceed forward based on the birthmother’s desires. Between Cathy’s phone calls with us and the hospital staff, her fax letter and our conversations with the hospital staff, Cathy got us back on track and everything was all easily sorted out with her assistance and quick intervention. From then on it was smooth sailing and the hospital staff were just wonderful to us!
I had the great pleasure of being in the delivery room with the birthmother for the birth of our son, not only holding him for the first time but to be able to experience his birth were some powerful emotions that I had never experienced before! Cathy drove down to the hospital to meet our new son and she also spent time with our birthmother to make sure she was doing well emotionally with the placement. I know Cathy and our birthmother also kept in contact for some time after the placement as well. It was reassuring for us to hear from Cathy how our birthmother was doing emotionally with the placement after leaving the hospital.
We were very happy with the services and the support we received from Cathy and Adoption Consultants, Inc. through our entire adoption journey with her. We would definitely recommend Cathy and her company to any one wanting to adopt. She’s very knowledgeable, she’s very thorough and was always very accessible. She always kept us up to date with any new information and stayed on top of everything, and if any issues came up, she always knew exactly how to address them. We can see why our friends so strongly recommended Cathy to us.
I was always the one reading other families stories like this and thought that is nice, but it will never happen for us. It always seemed "too good to be true." Well, Dahnovan will be 9 months old April 21, 2008! Meeting his birthmother was truly the best thing that could have ever happened to us, and that was only made possible through Cathy and Adoption Consultants, Inc. We truly are forever indebted to you Cathy!!!
All our love and respect!
Leah and Ryan
Cedar Falls, Iowa
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