FACILITATORS vs. CHRISTIAN ADOPTION

Written by Deborah.

Facilitate: v.t. to make easy or less difficult; lessen the labor of.

Anyone that makes a task less difficult or lessens the work thereof is a facilitator in the literal sense. The crossing guard that helps children safely across a busy street is a facilitator. The attentive nurse that lessens the recovery time of a patient is a facilitator. The school teacher that uses an interesting game to assist children in learning their multiplication tables is a facilitator. The midwife that supports a birthing mother is also a facilitator. We’ve all been and will continue to be facilitators.

In the adoption world, the meaning and/or definition of a facilitator originated, has changed and one might say evolved since 1995; at that time an adoption facilitator was an unknown entity. But in 1997 facilitators began to pop up in California like dandelions in a neighbor’s yard. Like many new concepts and newly created service positions, there were no laws regulating and/or licensing adoption facilitators in the beginning. And like any new profession that grows exponentially due to supply and demand; the laws of the land aren’t prepared to govern the legal, ethical and/or moral standards. Supply and demand as well as the ever present love of money/greed motivation drove up facilitator fees in short order. Within 5 years of the facilitator boom, primarily in California, state legislatures across the country began to design laws to protect their constituents and/or ban them from their state (causing adoption facilitators to be illegal in that particular state). A facilitator, as we understand the adoption industry standard, is an individual that “finds, matches and/or arranges” birthmother/adoptive couple placements.

Most states have specific facilitator assisted adoption laws in place and many of these states have forbidden the hiring of facilitators; with good reason. Adoption facilitators aren’t required by law to hold any particular credentials and cannot be regulated like adoption agencies. Therefore, anyone can become an adoption facilitator and hang out a shingle: “Open for the adoption triad arrangement business!” Once facilitators began to band together to form small adoption companies or organizations, their reputation for defrauding adoptive couples grew overnight. Hence, there have been many facilitator fraud cases tried with dire consequences for the individuals involved. States like New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Colorado and others, don’t allow the hiring of facilitators in the adoption process. In a word, they don’t trust the ethical character of the average facilitator. (Although there are many honest facilitators—they’re not accepted by non-facilitator states {like other professions that get tarnished by a few ‘bad apples’}).

Christian Adoption is not an adoption facilitator, because we do not “find, match and/or arrange” adoption placements for our adoptive couples. Christian Adoption is a ministry that provides a meeting point, a platform, a venue for birthmothers that are considering adoption placement and for adoptive couples that are seeking to adopt. Christian Adoption is an educational resource for the adoption triad (adoptive couple, birth parents, child). Christian Adoption is a ministry that ministers to the needs of those that contact us. As a ministry we offer supportive counseling and support to the adoption triad. (If Christian Adoption acted as an adoption facilitator, then we would be restricted to only represent adoptive couples from facilitator-legal states.)

Although we prayerfully support one another within our Christian Adoption Family as well as offer words of encouragement—Christian Adoption is not an adoption facilitator service.

For more information please read God is Able.  

We encourage you to follow God's loving guidance.

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1.800.277.7006     620.251.4405     adoption@telepath.com

Deborah S. Niles     P.O. Box 243     Coffeyville, KS     67337    

We are not an adoption agency, we are not registered, we are not licensed, and we are not professional counselors.

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