we’re a part of the FAC family

“Alabama Adoption Agencies” was the first thing I typed into Google when we were considering adoption. I had no idea what the next step was, but I figured this was a good thing to search for first. I came across a few, dug around their website and narrowed it down to one. I also had two ladies in my life who adopted so I casually messaged them asking who they used to adopt their children. They both answered with the same agency (the one I had my eye on), but one of them said if they adopted again, they’d probably choose someone else. I asked several questions and she was kind enough to answer each one. She told me if they adopted again, they’d probably go through this consulting firm a friend of hers works at now. She shared their name – Faithful Adoption Consultants – and I was intrigued.

The next evening, I spent a good hour+ poking around their website. I’m not exaggerating when I say I read every single word – even the staff bios.

I scheduled a call and, to my surprise, it was able to be scheduled for the next morning.

Aaron & I were both able to be on that call and it was a beautiful half hour of sharing our story, why adoption was of interest to us and getting several questions answered along with some next steps we needed to take if we were interested in continuing with them.

We hung up and Aaron immediately said, “I love them. I think we should use them! I have such a peace about it.” I was glad he said this because I felt the exact same way.

Why did you pick FAC?

There are so many reasons we chose them, but let me give you a few –

We chose FAC because a Christian-based agency was extremely important to us. FAC’s standards are incredibly high to be accepted and we were really glad for that.

We also were intrigued by their timeline. Most agencies estimate 2-4years before you get a child (because you only have access to the birth mothers that seek out adoption through that agency), whereas FAC works with dozens of agencies across the country, so their average wait time is 9-12months. Because our biological children are so close in age, we would like to continue that string so the shorter wait time was great to us.

We also loved FAC’s family feel. They treat you like family and even host retreats for their community (families who have adopted through them) where we can meet other families who have walked this road.

But what really sold us on them was that they hold your hand and walk with you every step in this process. They offer advice, counsel and mentoring – even after the adoption is finalized. They’re available for us to reach out to when we hit a roadblock, need guidance on how to navigate a situation and so much more. We’re so excited to have this life-long support!

You found them in January but you just signed with them in May…. why’d you wait so long?

From reading why we chose them, you can imagine this is a lot more than a normal agency offers. FAC requires $4,200 after you’ve been accepted, and we had to raise the money. Selling merch, our first yard sale, the egg my yard event and other random donations / fundraisers provided us to pay for it.

Once we had the money, we finished up the application paperwork.

After we emailed it (Monday, 5.9.22), we had to wait a week to find out if we had been accepted or not.

Thankfully, exactly a week after we had submitted it, on Monday, 5.16.22, we received the email that

we had been accepted! 😀

We immediately signed some more papers and emailed + mailed them to their office.

So, what’s your next step?

Paperwork. And apparently, a lot of it! Haha.

We received a couple emails from the Document Dude telling us what they needed for us to continue. This part of the process is very strict due to the legal aspects involved. There will be lots of documents and clearances to gather, and a long list of to-dos. It helps avoid issues during the matching, placement, and finalization stages, which is a time we definitely want to go as smooth as possible.

We were told “now get ready for the real crazy to begin!” so, I guess we’re going to strap on our rollercoaster harnesses, sit back, and see what happens. Hands up! 😉

If you want to look more into Faithful Adoption Consultants, you can check out their website HERE or find them on Instagram.