Invitation from PairTree Founder, Erin Quick
My firstborn son, Emerson, turns six in a few days.
His birthday is always a special day for me. For obvious reasons of course –– celebrating the sweet-tempered, ball of energy that lights up our life with his beaming blue eyes, ear-to-ear grin, and clever sense of humor.
It also reminds me that six years ago – I got to close the door on what I called the ‘dark days’ – the years that we struggled through seemingly endless ultrasounds, needles, drugs, tears, waivers, surgeries, pregnancies, blood draws and miscarriages.
Looking back (and I know some of you who are still in the thick of it will roll your eyes), but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Because that path led us to Emerson. And what a fast path it was.
From the time we went live with our adoption profile to the time we were holding Emerson in the hospital – less than three weeks had passed.
Which is why I say private adoption is the fastest path to parenting.
When you choose private adoption, instead of working with an adoption agency, you build your own team. Your team usually consists of a Social Worker and an Attorney. The Social Worker completes the Home Study, and an Attorney takes care of the legal stuff. In some states, like Texas, you may still have to work with an agency – but by identifying your birth mom before agreeing to work with the agency, you can save A LOT of money and time.
Your social worker will supply you with the paperwork needed (application, tax records, background check, and reference letters) and facilitate the in-home meetings necessary to complete the Home Study. That took us around five weeks. You can definitely do it faster than that. It’s not hard… just takes some coordination of schedules. Once the Home Study is complete – you’re ready to go live with your profile and start meeting potential birth moms.
While I was shocked at how simple the private adoption process was, I still had this nagging voice in the back of my head saying, “more people need to know about this method of adopting…” And, “even though the process was simple, it wasn’t necessarily enjoyable.”
And I think it should be…and can be.
Because when you think about it…. Adoption is fueled by creating these magical connections between a hopeful parent with a birth mom. That should be an exciting experience, not one that is shadowed by doubt, or shame or fear.
And that’s why we created PairTree – which uses future-forward technology to connect adoptive parents with birth moms – creating happier families, faster, for less…ultimately giving birth moms more choice and more confidence in whom they choose to parent their child, and gives hopeful parents the fastest, more affordable, most enjoyable path to parenting.
So join us – and together we will modernize adoption!
Cheers!
– Erin
P.S. The picture in the header above still cracks me up… it’s us leaving the hospital with Emerson and I look terrified!
