|
Testimonial from
2004:
Rachel and I had been
dreaming, praying, and hoping to become a family since
our marriage.
After several years of inviting a baby into our lives attempting
natural pregnancy, we
discovered that it was out of the question.
Imagining that there are
children in need of adoption, we quickly embraced the
idea. We spent
several months considering international adoption from various
regions, and met several
children who had been adopted by couples in our area.
We contacted lawyers,
produced letters of intent, and arranged for our home
study. We noticed
that agencies and internet-based adoption sources were
sophisticated marketers
and we decided to proceed cautiously.
It was our home study
social worker who suggested we remain patient and
consider domestic
adoption, and she referred us to someone who in turn
connected us with A
Loving Choice. Rachel had a good feeling about A Loving
Choice from the start,
and appreciated the rapport she developed with the
staff. The women
took our phone calls and answered our many questions. We
were pleased that they
were adoptive mothers, and after careful consideration
we decided to place our
trust in A Loving Choice.
They did a superb job
refining our profile to show prospective birthmoms, and despite a few nervous
moments here and there, we turned out to be one of
the fortunate couples
who were quickly matched.
During the months
leading up to the birth of our daughter Alana, the staff of
A Loving Choice were
skillful in being supportive of us and respectful towards
the wonderful
birthparents by whom we had been selected. Taking guidance
from A Loving Choice, we
established email contact with the birthmom and
readied ourselves for
the new arrival. The weeks we spent in the Midwest,
meeting Alana on the day
of her birth, staying with her at the hospital, and
arranging for the
legalities to be finalized are forever etched into my memory
as some of the most
wonderful days of our lives. We fell in love with Alana
the instant we laid eyes
on her.
The last year has been
wonderful, and we are exceedingly grateful to A Loving
Choice for the large
hand they had in Alana's adoption. I offer my unqualified
recommendation as to
their honesty and integrity, good intentions, and regard
for the delicacy of the
adoption process.
We are blessed with a
lovely, loving daughter whose bright eyes and sweet
disposition melts our
hearts daily. Of course there are late nights, diapers,
messes, tears and colds
and a runny nose now and again, but neither Rachel
nor I anticipated how
much we could love Alana . . . it's great to be a family.
Sincerely,
The Reese's
Testimonial from 2006:
We wanted to write to those of you who are
considering adoption. Adopting another family's child is a huge and emotional
step. It takes deep courage for
both the birth family and the adoptive family to
meet, learn, know and share a
child. We are blessed to have adopted two children.
We have a three year old AA/Cherokee boy (an open adoption) and our newest
blessing, a now 3 month
old AA/Indian blend baby girl. They are the joys of
our lives. We have also
fostered or medically hosted sixteen children
ranging in age from zero to
seventeen. We still pinch ourselves knowing that we
now have two beautiful children! We adopted our daughter through
A Loving Choice Adoption
in August 2006. It happened very quickly (within three weeks). For us, when God
wants a
child to be a member of your family nothing will
impede this process (so sit back
and enjoy this ride).
We spoke with Phyllis several times and met with our daughter's birthmother
within four days. Phyllis skillfully spoke with us
and the birthmother and supported us through this process. We couldn't have
asked for a better outcome or better guidance. We have been blessed to have an
open adoption. We wanted our daughter to know her birthmother, not know of her.
We feel like we have a new extended family.
We wanted to share the spiritual/ethical document that we created for our
families. Once the paper is signed the birth family
has no legal rights. We wanted
to make sure that our birthmother/family knew of
our intent, not legally withstanding. While this may not work for all families,
we hope that it may
provide a guideline for others. We put the minimum
intents:
This
spiritual/ethical document is written on behalf of Madeline. Madeline was
born to many people who love and care for her. It
is our intention that Madeline mature and develop a knowledge and experience of
her birth heritage. We,
Adam and Sarah, desire for Madeline to maintain
healthy ties with R, her birthmother, her son A, and grandmother Rh, as
determined by R. Healthy
ties are defined as mutually beneficial for
everyone (adoptive parents, birth
family and Madeline).
It is our intention that we (Adam and Sarah) will send photographs, letters,
and important milestones by US mail (and/or
including email) to R at an address determined by R. We would like to
provide this for R at a pace that is both reasonable and healthy for her
healing. At the signing of this, we will send her
this information every 4-6 weeks. If this pace is
too much, we will slow down.
R will just need to let us know by phone or mail.
We also will be willing to allow visits between R and Madeline every six
months provided that the relationship remains healthy. We realize that this
process can
be very overwhelming and if it is too much we can
slow it down. We (Adam, Sarah and R) will communicate by telephone or mail on
how and when to proceed.
If we (Adam, Sarah and R) have an issue which cannot be resolved by phone
or by mail, we agree to sit down face-to-face to
discuss it and try to find a
solution. If we cannot reach a reasonable
conclusion, we agree to bring in a third party (preferably a pastor or neutral
person) to resolve the issue in the best interest of Madeline. We agree to do
this prayerfully.
We also request that should anything happen to Adam or Sarah, that the
guardians/custodians of our children (currently Conner and Madeline) would also
abide by these requests.
What a joy to have so many people who love this precious child of God.
Sarah and Adam ______________________
T and W (guardians in the event of our death) ____________________
R _______________________________
Since the birth of our daughter, she has seen her birthmother and sibling
several times. There really isn't a politically correct open adoption language,
so we are creating it as we go. We check in with each other to make sure we are
both
doing okay and we continue to have open
communication. We know that our daughters best interest is served by having so
many people who cherish her.
She comes from a long line of determined,
intelligent, beautiful women and we rejoice that she will know her heritage.
Please consider using "A Loving Choice Adoption". Phyllis is competent, able,
loving and most of all, she prayerfully considers
the people who cross her path.
Adam and Sarah
"Our
children come through you, but not from you and though they are with
you,
they are sons and daughters of life's longing for itself." Kahill Gibran
Testimonial from
2002:
This is our testimonial
for A Loving Choice Adoption Services. Our appreciation
for them is everlasting. We are still amazed that we
have our daughters and
are so thankful to have had the opportunity to work with them.
We had talked about adopting another child, so our oldest
daughter would have
a sibling when we are no longer here. The attorney that
we had used for her
adoption called and told us that A Loving Choice was
looking for more adoptive
families. Needless
to say, we called and asked for the information immediately,
since it is rare to have
that many birthmothers! After talking with Gina and
looking the information over, we decided to go ahead with it.
Looking back, we
probably should have contacted a few of the references instead of going
entirely by
trust, but after talking to Gina we just felt that they were the ones we wanted
to work with.
We would advise keeping your 'master' profile handy, because
they called quite
frequently needing more to send out to prospective
birthmothers. We got quite
familiar with the personnel at Kinko's! They always got
our approval before
sending them out, and
respected our instinct if we were hesitant about a birth
mother, or her situation.
Phyllis called us in about four months with a prospective
birthmother. We felt
good about this situation and Phyllis did all the leg work on
getting an attorney
lined up in the state we were adopting from. Phyllis
called the birthmother and
us every week to keep us updated with each other. Our
little daughter had a
mind of her own and
decided to come six weeks early, which sent all of us in a
panic trying to get to
the hospital in time. During the drive there Phyllis would
call us on our cell phone and keep us posted as to what was
happening. Phyllis
first called us at 2:00 a.m. to tell us that the baby was on
the way, so she was
up most of the night with us too. It was wonderful to
have her keep us updated
since we had a six hour drive. We got there in time to
see our daughter right
after her birth.
One of our biggest concerns was support for the birthmother
through this whole
process and again after the birth. Phyllis was there
during the birth for our
birthmother and then
contacted her a few times after. We realize the decision
is a huge one for the birthmother and they have to have some
doubts afterwards
too. Knowing that
there was someone she could call for support after the
adoption made our
adoption feel more complete.
We are thankful that we found A Loving Choice, and hope
many more experience
the joy we have had through them. I don't think anyone
will find another adoption service that understands the concerns of BOTH the
birthmothers and adoptive
families, since they all have adopted children themselves.
We believe they can
understand all the joys, heartaches, and frustrations
birthmothers and adoptive
families go through.
We wish you the best of luck with your future adoption.
Even though it is quite
an emotional roller coaster at times, the joy you will feel
when you FINALLY get
to bring a baby home is worth it all.
Sincerely,
Erik & Deb
 
Testimonial from 2006:
It is most womens dream to find a great husband
and eventually start a family.
I like most women wanted just that. We were very
blessed to have a biological daughter in January of 1992. After her birth we
knew we wanted more children.
We started trying not long after the birth of
our daughter. After 10 years we
were still trying, with no success.
We had always talked about adoption, but had
never gone forward with that process. After the 10 year wait we decided to go
forward. We contacted and attorney, had a home study done, and began to market
ourselves. We sent out hundreds of letters to doctors, lawyers and just about
everyone in the south
east. We had numerous phone calls, but nothing
concrete. We had sent one of
the letters to Dr. Reese, who had previously
adopted through A Loving Choice.
Dr. Reese gave us a phone call and told us all
about A Loving Choice. I immediately gave Phyllis a call. That got
the ball rolling. After about 6 months we received a
call from Phyllis that a birth mother had chosen
us. The phone call of all phone
calls. That call was in January. Addison Dawn
was born on March 24th. Phyllis was great. She called me, the birthmother, and
kept me in touch every step of the
way. You always hear of someone who has adopted,
but the processes and the experiences are like none other. A Loving Choice
makes that process easier.
The ups and downs are there, make no mistake
about it. But Phyllis did a great
job helping us on that rollercoaster. Thank you
Phyllis..
Sincerely,
Kevin and Stacey
Testimonial from 2005:
We heard about A
Loving Choice through an acquaintance at our church. She
was contracted with them and had been called about an adoption
situation. She wasn't in a position to take a child, but thought it might work
for us. Hesitantly,
I called the Loving Choice number and asked for information. We
were extremely nervous about doing a private adoption and I wasn't ready to
commit to anything. Our daughter, Madellyn, had been adopted through an agency
and this avenue seemed scary.
The process was explained thoroughly to me and they offered to send me more
information. The next morning I received an email from Phyllis. She had a
specific adoption situation that she thought might work for our family. She
needed to
know if we would be interested as soon as possible. We made some inquiries
about A
Loving Choice and then I called Phyllis and we spoke for a long time about
ALCAS' role in a private adoption, fees and the process. Phyllis was so genuine
and seemed
to truly understand our concerns and reservations. She, too, was
an adoptive parent and was able to relate to our current
situation. After speaking with her we decided to put a profile in for the
birthmother she had talked to us about. Things happened very quickly and before
we knew it, Phyllis was calling
us to give us the GOOD NEWS! The birthmother had chosen our
family.
The next two months went by in a blur. Phyllis was in contact with us regularly,
updating us on what was happening with the birthmother and the baby. She
walked us through
the process of finding an attorney out of state, corresponding with the
birthmother and the anxiety we were feeling. As the due date came
closer, Deanna called us to give us some information about the
hospital we would
be going to. Her child had been born there and she had extremely
helpful information on places to stay, plus what to expect from the hospital
personnel,
to the location of the nursery. All that information came in handy when the day
finally arrived. Phyllis was in constant contact with us as we went to the
hospital and after the birth.
Thank you, Phyllis, and everyone at A Loving Choice for helping us grow our
family. Our baby girl, Rebekah, is a blessing to all of us. Her big sister
thinks she hangs
the moon. Her mom and dad think she is a precious gift from God.
Jill, Al, Madellyn and Rebekah
Finding Jase
Testimonial from 2005:
629 days ~ that is how long our adoption journey took us this
time! We found
A Loving Choice on the internet and when we called to get more
information
about their programs we were fortunate enough to speak with Phyllis and
immediately felt at home with her! She gave us the information we needed and
a few days
after our initial conversation she called us to see if we have any other
questions. We were so surprised because no other adoption professional had
taken the
time to do that. We were sold on the idea of teaming with A Loving
Choice and began preparing our family portfolio for
distribution.
Our adoption journey was a tough one and we had a couple of
heartaches along
the way. There were times when we felt emotionally exhausted, but
Phyllis and Becky were always there helping us get back on the road to finding
our next child. They were great about calling us with new situations when they
came along, and sometimes they just called to say "keep your head up, we're
gonna make this work!"
Finally, in September Becky called us with information about a
five month old baby boy and we all held our breath and waited! A couple of weeks
later we got the
call that the baby would be placed with us. We were in shock that
it was finally happening and our heads were spinning with excitement! Jase
Nathaniel came
home September 27, 2005, and our family officially grew by two
feet!
In the end it was well worth the wait because he is perfect,
and was perfect for
our family. We will never be able to say thank you enough to the
ladies at A
Loving Choice for helping us grow our family by one more. Without their support
and help Jase
might not be with us and life just wouldn't be as fun! If you are looking for
people who care about you and your adoption journey, then look no further,
because you have found them at A Loving Choice!!
Amy, Daniel, Ryanne, and Jase Smith
Testimonial from 2002:
Our names are Jim and Michelle Wisor. We spent two years researching adoption
and the different agencies and facilitators available. The State agencies had an
average wait of five years and many of the licensed agencies we contacted were
very "cold" and not very helpful. We thought we had selected an agency and got
scared when it changed hands so we began our search again. As luck would have
it we
contacted A Loving Choice. In January of 2002 we spoke with Phyllis and she
mailed us some information about their services. After reviewing the
information, we liked what we saw but had a few questions. On January 23,
Phyllis called us before we had the opportunity to call her. She was checking to
see if we received the information and to tell me about a birthmother in our
state. Excitedly, we
quickly put together our book and federal expressed them to A
Loving Choice.
The following day, Phyllis called again and said that there was
another birthmother in North Dakota and suggested we hurry and put another book
together.
On January 28, 2002, Phyllis called us to tell us that we were selected by the
birthmother in North Dakota. Such a rush of emotion came over us. Our home
study had
just begun and we had already been selected. With the grace of God
and so many special people, i.e., Phyllis, Gina, social
workers, and our attorneys,
our home study was completed in record time. We left the
following week for
North Dakota. We were there for 30 days, and spent each day with
our birth-
mother. It was a time we will never forget, and we developed such a special
relationship with her. On February 18, 2002, our beautiful daughter was brought
home. We were present during her birth and Michelle even got to cut the
umbilical cord!
During our "short" time working with A Loving Choice, we wanted for nothing.
Phyllis
called us at home and in North Dakota daily. She was always there as a wonderful
support system. She shared her own experiences with us and helped ease our
nerves in trying times. Phyllis contacted social workers and attorneys
for us and did the
initial leg work. She found us a fabulous attorney who was interested in us and
our needs.
We highly recommend Phyllis, Gina, and A Loving Choice. Without them we would
not be
blessed with our beautiful daughter, the light of our lives. We always received
honest, loving support and guidance from them. We still hear from Phyllis
wanting to make sure we are doing well. We tell everyone we know about A Loving
Choice and when we are ready to give our daughter a brother or sister, we will
definitely work with them again.
We know that this is a very difficult time for you. For that reason alone, A
Loving Choice is the perfect solution. They are people like us. They have gone
through the same emotional roller coaster ride you have. They can understand you
and your desire to complete your family.
Best of luck to you. You will be in our prayers.
Jim & Michelle Wisor
Testimonial from 2002:
This is long overdue, but as you can imagine, our lives have
been a little busy lately!!!
No words can express the appreciation we have for your help in finding Zachary.
He has
definitely made our lives complete.
Thank you for always being there for us, and for "holding our hands" throughout
this process.
With all the bad things we've been through, we can't help but wonder if it
wasn't God's plan to help us find you. Gina, Thank you for being a true
professional and helping us through, what was at first a very awkward situation.
Phyllis, we miss talking with you every week!! You were so very patient with us
and we
appreciate it. We were so scared and I sometimes still wonder if we
believe that it truly happened, even though Zach is right here
in front of us. You
will always hold a very special place in our hearts.
Our experience was wonderful and was far more than we ever expected.
God Bless you All!
Shane, Pam & Zachary Royer
Testimonial from 2001:
I believe that the universe brings us together when we let it
do its work.
Working with A Loving Choice has clearly been one of the most rewarding
experiences of our life. I cannot speak highly enough of our entire experience
with A Loving
Choice . . . before, during, and after our adoption. If I had to pick
one thing to talk
about, it would be the level of trust and honesty that A Loving
Choice displayed.
When there were possible opportunities for discussions with birth mothers, the
staff at ALC discussed the ups and downs of each situation with us. From ALC,
we received
more than we were promised. We received verbal support and compassion during a
most difficult time. We received support in how to prepare
our biography, how to talk to our birth mother, what we might
expect to hear,
what we might expect to feel, whom to contact about certain
topics.
Gina Brown is and always will be one of my heroes, a woman that I hold in very
high esteem.
She started a business that operates from the heart. I will be
forever grateful to her and A Loving Choice Adoption Service.
Sincerely,
Karen Cortis
PS. Even now, there are times when our eyes well up with tears. These are tears
of joy from the blessing we have with our son. Call me and
I'll tell you more!
Testimonial from 2003:
Dear Phyllis,
How are you doing? I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to write to you, but
we've been so busy since we've gotten home with our new little girl, Avery
Lauryn. She
is doing great and she's a sweetheart! Avery had her one month checkup yesterday
and she is now 8 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches long. She's perfectly healthy and
sleeping really well at night...thank goodness! Garrett and Cameron are really
enjoying having a baby sister and are great helpers--except when it comes to
changing diapers.
I just wanted to thank you for all of your help through the adoption process--I
don't know
what I would have done without you, Phyllis! Everything went very smoothly in
Michigan and we really enjoyed meeting our birthmother and her
family at the hospital. We've been keeping in touch with them
since we've gotten home.
Again, thank you for everything!
Cheryl, Curt, Garrett, Cameron and Avery
December 2004
Testimonial by Birthmother
Lisa:
You see, sometimes we have to face
choices we're not ready for, that's why I called A Loving Choice Adoption.
There was someone with understanding waiting for me to call.
When you have questions, when you have fears, when you have
doubts, when you have love in your heart, when you have no
family or friends to talk to, when your finances are gone, when you see no hope,
when you want to make your own adult decision--you should call them.
I wasn't planning on getting pregnant and then when I knew I was for sure, I
wasn't planning on keeping it. I wanted to pick life. I knew I had three major
choices: abortion, adoption, or parenting. I wanted to pick the family and keep
in touch, in case the baby needed me. But when I called, I was scared and I
didn't know what I was going to do. After I talked to A Loving Choice, I knew
everything would be okay no matter what I decided to do. I was able to pick out
parents for my child without a lawyer or without fear of making the wrong
decision. I was able to meet them, too.
I had heard of children being adopted and wanting to find their biological
parents, so it was important to me that I didn't have to be a stranger.
The adoptive parents didn't have to be strangers either. I was able to feel
comfortable with the decision I made for my baby.
I thought it would be hard to give my daughter to the new parents at the
hospital, but she will always be my daughter by blood and I can keep in touch
with her as long as I want to. The best part is that I got to pick out her
parents. I know in my heart because they couldn't have children of their own
they'll take care of her 100 times better than I ever could.
So believe me when I tell you, you can still provide the best life for your
child. Choose your own decision, choose the adoptive parents, and choose A
Loving Choice ~ they were great!
Lisa
| 
