Q & A with Laurie
Hello everyone, my name is Laurie Walker, and I am an Adoptive Family Specialist with American Adoptions. I have worked with many birth mothers and adoptive families in my time here at American Adoptions and love being able to watch families form through adoption.
Q. Can I expect “the call” about an adoption opportunity to come during normal business hours or is it possible that it might come in the evening, on the weekend or a holiday, or even in the middle of the night?
A. Typically, phone calls to adoptive families are made during our regular business hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. CST on weekdays. However, there are circumstances that require us to call a family outside our business hours.
During those less common situations referred to as “pop-ups” by our agency, we have little to no notice that there is an adoption opportunity coming for the adoptive couple until after the baby is born. Typically, this is because the birth mother has not contacted until after the baby is born. In those circumstances, we will call a family as soon as we have information from the birth mother and hospital and have assessed the birth mother’s commitment level and the type of adoption she desires. In those circumstances, you might be called at night, on the weekend or during a holiday.
Because those types of situations are unpredictable, it’s best that you are available at any time. We recommend that you and/or your spouse provide us with your cell phone number after you become activated with our agency. In the event you have a pop-up adoption opportunity and are not home when the agency needs to reach you, your cell phone will be the best way to ensure we are able to present the adoption opportunity to you. If we receive your voicemail, we’ll continue trying to reach you. But if several hours pass by and we are unsuccessful in reaching you, we may need to call a different family. The agency and an adoptive family has to move very fast in pop-up adoptions because the birth mother likely wants a family at the hospital as soon as possible to care for the baby, and the baby will likely need to be discharged to a family 36 to 48 hours after birth.
This is also a good time to remind all families to notify the agency if you are planning a vacation to a destination without cell phone coverage. In that case, we recommend that you leave an additional phone number with the agency (like your hotel) or some other type of contact. If you know you will have cell phone coverage, notification is not as crucial, as we will call both your home and cell phone numbers if we need to reach you.
If you have any questions about phone calls or your contact information with our agency, you can talk to your Adoptive Family Specialist.
