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'Adoption Consultants' hopes to put personal face on process
Paperwork ... home studies ... background checks ... the process involved in adopting can be scary and overwhelming. It can even feel impersonal if it's handled from miles away with little more than a voice on the phone.
Offering "a face" and a personal connection, the staff of a new adoption consultation and child placing agency in McCook will help prospective parents work their way through the home study and the placement processes of adoption.
Nancy Morris of McCook, executive director of "Adoption Consultants," said she and her two partners have more than 50 years combined experience providing adoption-related services to the "adoption triad" -- the birth parent(s), the adoptive parent(s) and the adoptee(s). Each partner has experience in the areas of infant, domestic, international, private and special needs adoption.
Morris said that she and her partners, Barbara Swanson of Holdrege and Michelle Warner of Omaha, have witnessed the difficulties of people living in central and western Nebraska receiving quality adoption services, especially if they want to adopt a child internationally or a child from outside of Nebraska. "Adoption Consultants located our main office in McCook," Morris said, "in order to better serve the underserved population of Nebraska, especially western Nebraska."
Adoption Consultants offers its services across Nebraska, Morris said, but the agency will focus on western Nebraska.
"Our clients will feel so much more comfortable with a person in McCook, not just a voice on the phone," Morris said. "We offer 'a face' and a personal connection."
Adoption Consultants became licensed as a child placing agency by the State of Nebraska in June, and its partners are currently working on domestic adoptions in Nebraska and in California and the international adoption of children in Guatemala, China, Vietnam and Ethiopia.
State law requires that prospective adoptive parents undergo a home study, Morris said, an assessment of their ability to provide for a child. "We will see that, emotionally, financially and physically, they are capable of parenting a child," she said. The staff will conduct background and criminal checks and look into employment records. "We check family history," Morris said. "Some patterns are repeated."
"We check sex-offender registries, and look for sexual abuse as a perpetrator," she said.
Also part of the background check are doctor's reports, medical conditions and an evaluation of values, parenting skills and marriage security. It is a thorough assessment that can take six to eight weeks to compete and involves visits to the prospective parents' home, Morris said.
"Through this process, we also do a lot of teaching about where prospective parents can find support and resources," Morris said. "We also help prospective parents see adoption from the child's view point."
Morris said she and her partners will help prospective parents understand the special challenges of international adoption, which often involve children from orphanages and/or abject poverty and long placement periods.
Adoption Consultants will provide the post-placement reports required by states, placement agencies and/or attorneys, Morris said. It will also provide the post-placement reports required in international adoptions, some, like those in Russia, through the adoption's first four years.
Adoption Consultants will work with singles and with married couples who are childless or have children.
The adoption process is "a scary, costly and risky process which many prospective parents often just don't know how to start," Morris said. "Adoption Consultants can provide basic adoption information that will be helpful for families who want to add to their family through adoption."
Morris said, "We often hear adoptive parents who have completed a successful adoption say that they wish they had started the process sooner."
She continued, "There are thousands of children in the Unites States and around the world waiting for their 'forever family'. These children are the primary focus of Adoption Consultants. It is our goal to assist adoptive parents to prepare for a child entering their family through adoption. Adoption Consultants also continues to be a support following the placement of the child in the adoptive home to assure the family's adjustment."
Morris concluded, "Our goal is to help make prospective adoptive parents' adoption journey as stress- and problem-free as possible."
Adoption Consultants' staff includes:
* Nancy (Haag) Morris of McCook, Licensed Certified Social Worker, as executive director. She grew up south of Bartley and graduated from Beaver Valley High School in Lebanon. She earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1990 and has worked since then in the adoption field in the Omaha area. She was program manager for a pregnancy and adoption program for a statewide adoption agency and later was the director of social services for an agency that has both domestic and international adoption programs.
Nancy's husband, Gene E Morris, was a deputy sheriff and police officer in McCook in the late 1960's and early 1970's, and retired from Omaha Public Power District in 2005. Nancy and Gene have two daughters who live in McCook with their husbands and children, helping the couple decide to return to McCook for their retirement years.
Nancy said it did not take her long after "retiring" to realize she was not ready to quit her work in adoption. She and her partners proceeded to meet the requirements for a licensed Nebraska adoption agency and received their license as a child placing agency in June 2006.
Nancy said, "Coming back to my home town and starting a business is a fantastic opportunity. For prospective families wanting to adopt, the journey is often lonely and frightening, and one taken with a step of faith. Adoption Consultants hopes to provide the encouragement, direction, education and support in order for families to more easily reach their goals of providing loving, caring homes for children in need."
* Barbara Swanson, Licensed Certified Professional Counselor, who lives in Holdrege. She graduated with a master's degree in counseling from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She has acted as supervisor for a maternal health clinic and as interim director of a statewide adoption and pregnancy program, and has provided direct services to members of the adoption triad. Swanson provides services to Adoption Consultants' clients living in central Nebraska.
* Michelle Warner, Licensed Certified Social Worker, who is located in Omaha, where she earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Nebraska. She has provided direct service to birth parents choosing adoption, prospective adoptive parents and adoptees seeking counseling support. She was program supervisor for a pregnancy program and is herself an adoptive parent. Michelle provides services to Adoption Consultants' clients living in eastern Nebraska.
Adoption Consultants can be reached:
In McCook, Nancy Morris, (308) 345-5628; or gnmorris@charter.net
In Holdrege, Barbara Swanson, (308) 995-8185
In Omaha, Michelle Warner, (402) 884-5421.