Adoption Law in New York

Are you considering adopting in the state of New York but struggling to understand what the process is and wanting to know the exact steps to take in order to achieve your dreams of building your family through adoption? If so, then you want to listen to this conversation I had with Greg. Greg is an adoption attorney in the state of New York. And not only does he walk us through the process, but he also walks us through the different types of adoption that you might want to consider. I'm excited for our conversation with Greg. Let's dive right in. Greg, thank you so much for being willing to join us today. We really appreciate it.

Amanda: Would you mind just starting off by sharing a little bit more about your background and just who you are with our audience?

Gregory: Sure. I am an attorney. About 90% of my practice involves adoptions and assisted fertility. And I got into doing this when my wife and I adopted our son late in the last century. And we had a lawyer in Rochester, New York, where I'm based, who actually had no concerns or complaints about her. We had a lawyer in Virginia who hadn't been disbarred yet; we had an attorney in Chile, where we adopted our son; the first attorney died; the second attorney, when we ran into some issues, said, "Well, beggars can't be choosers. And we let him know that he was mistaken on a couple of different levels. And I was changing law firms the same summer we successfully adopted our son, and my wife said to think about doing adoptions as a niche, and it worked out pretty well. I had a kid, and I had a career.

Amanda: What could you ask for? For more than that, that's amazing. I think you touched on some really important things there in your past, which is that this is a niche, right? And this is a niche that requires compassion and a deep amount of knowledge in order to really be valuable to hopeful adoptive families in this, you know, journey. And I often refer to it as, as you know, a specialty. But the fact that you need to actually have an adoption attorney is really important. You don't need a family lawyer; you don't need Uncle Bob, who's a lawyer, even though he's lovely, and I'm sure we'd love to help you form your family. charging much less

Gregory: And they will charge much less than I might, but somebody who is competent and experienced and understands the details, because you're trusting a complete stranger or Uncle Bob with the most important thing in your life. And you want to make sure that you're working with somebody or a group of people who are experienced, knowledgeable, compassionate, understand the territory, and can be honest with you about chances and issues or celebrate your successes with you.

Exploring Adoption in New York: Navigating the Adoption Process and Finding the Right Fit

Amanda: That is really important. And even within adoption, there are specialties that you touched upon there, right? There's international adoption versus domestic adoption; there's assisted reproductive technologies, which would be more along the surrogacy-type route; and there are private adoptions. You really want to make sure that you're going to the right type of attorney based on where you are. And where you are, as you touched upon, is the state of New York. So I'd love it if we could start our conversation by just getting a general understanding of the adoption process. And really kind of the law within that in the state of New York, if you don't mind.

Gregory: Sure, and in 20 words or less. Let me actually start off answering that by saying that New York is not a bad place from which to adopt. I hear a lot of people saying, "Oh, New York, New York, New York. I think that comes a lot from the fact that New York is very careful about agencies and making sure that there are enough protections, at least in theory, that people aren't going to be taken advantage of by unlicensed facilitators and things like that. So in order to adopt from an agency in New York, the agency has to be licensed by the state of New York. On the other hand, private adoptions in New York are perfectly fine, and people can market themselves and locate a pregnant woman on their own, and there are no problems with that at all. In a private adoption, adoptive parents need to be what's called pre-certified as qualified adoptive parents. That sounds very fancy. Basically, there's a home study, fingerprints, and child abuse clearances. So the court knows you're not wanted for armed robbery in Cleveland or something like that. And that way, the court is able to sign an order that says adoptive parents are able to adopt from anywhere in the United States, and the order is usually good for 18 months. In an agency adoption, there's no prerequisite. There's no pre-certification required. But the agency will have certified the family directly. And there's a similar home study with similar fingerprints and child abuse clearances. But there's no free court order, if you will. So the preliminary stuff is not a problem, and I would always encourage people, if they are, to start off the process. Most people, when they start off the process, don't know what path they want to be following, whether it's international, domestic, private, agency, or foster care. And if they're unsure about whether they're going to be going private or agency, or even better, deciding that they're going to do both, which, frankly, I think it's a good idea, the more things you're doing simultaneously, the more likely you're to be successful, and successful sooner, to pick an agency, because an agency will do the home study. We can use the agency's home study for a private adoption, but we are probably not going to be able to use a private social worker's home study for an agency adoption. So to pick an agency, one of the things I do with clients at the very beginning of the process, because I don't have an agenda and I don't care which path they follow, is to talk about what the options are and what's involved for the adoptive parents themselves. And what work are they going to have to put in to make this happen, if it's private, if it's agency, or whatever, and then hopefully selecting an agency and helping them select an agency—I don't select it for them—to help them select an agency that meets their personality, their family profiles, their comfort level, and stuff like that goes back again to trusting complete strangers with the most important thing in the world.

Amanda: It really does. And you touched on something really important there, which is having multiple methods of matching. I highly, highly suggest that, because quite honestly, the more times you share your profile, the wider the net you're casting, the more likely you are to come across the right fit for your situation. So I also firmly believe that not every adoptive couple is the right fit for every expectant parent. Yeah. So you really have to find the right fit and share. I loved your take on the process step in New York being to find an attorney, find someone that's experienced in that area that can help guide you through this, and then talk with an agency to find the right fit for you, but then also share the profile on your own. Because then, if you network and connect that way, then you can always take that, you know, connection back to the agency, and then the agency can help walk you through the steps from there; they can run to the appropriate social services and things, oh, can they not in New York?

Gregory: Well, no, you can do that. But it strikes me that one of the things that you're paying an agency to do primarily is find ways to make that link so that meditative and competent adoption attorneys are able to help with the social services, the managing of the process, counseling for birth, parents, and stuff like that. And that makes it a much, much less expensive option than finding a birth mother on your own. And then going, Hey, agency, would you please help manage this? And the agency says, Sure, we'd love to request another $15,000. And I don't know if that is always necessary. A lot depends on who the individuals are and what their comfort level is. I mean, a lot of folks come in and say they are very, for lack of a better word, squeamish about marketing themselves. And I understand that. I mean, you're talking about sharing something with either strangers or non-strangers, which is one of the most important, private, and personal things in anybody's life. And that can be uncomfortable. But there are always family members and friends who know about this. And if you're not doing this broad-based networking, where you're sending a letter to every OBGYN west of the Mississippi, which people have done successfully, for that matter, though not much so in the last couple of decades, that works. And even if you're just keeping it to a small group of friends and family who can help you market, great; that helps them get the word out for you. So it doesn't have to be a huge marketing effort. It can be something small when working with an agency, but the more stuff people do, the more likely it is.

Navigating Adoption in New York: Understanding the Legal Process and Post-Placement Contact

Amanda: I love your tips about working with an attorney who's competent, doing those types of things, and providing social services. It's really important, I think, to really save every dollar you can through the adoption journey, because obviously your kid wants to parent at the end of his life and pay for college and all the funding, but also make sure you have the right services that you need in order to make it through the journey, right? You don't want to cut a service just because you want to save $1. Right? You know, make sure that you're providing the support you need for the expectant parents and, most importantly, that you're doing everything legally within the bounds of the law. So as it relates to adoption law, can you touch a little bit on how the process works from a legal perspective once you have the home study completed?

Gregory: Sure. In an agency adoption, there really is no next legal step until a baby is placed with adoptive parents. And some agencies will wait for several months until after babies are placed with adoptive parents before they will sign their consent to the adoption, which is a requirement because in an agency adoption, the birth mother is placed with the baby for placement with those adoptive parents. In a private adoption. Again, there is nothing from the adoptive parents standpoint that they need to do before the baby is placed with them when I'm representing a birth mother. And of course, in New York, you cannot represent two parties at the same time. So I can't represent an adoptive parent and a birth parent; I can't represent an agency; and an adoptive parent can only wear one hat because otherwise there's a conflict of interest. So if I'm representing a birth mother, I'm preparing bunches of documents in advance to make sure that birth mother has reviewed the paperwork in advance and understands everything that is in there because I don't want her reviewing the paperwork for the first time when she's sitting there in the hospital having just delivered a baby, she wants to go home, she's had a C section, and she's, shall we say, under the influence of various painkillers. I want there to be as much stuff done in advance as possible to make this as comfortable as possible and minimize the trauma to the extent possible. But once the baby is born, if I'm representing a birth mother, then I'm up there at the hospital when she's ready to sign and get all the paperwork signed. If I'm representing adoptive parents, my job doesn't really start in terms of paperwork until the birth mother and maybe even the birth father are lucky and the birth mother has signed off on her consent forms. And then we prepare petitions for adoption. All that stuff gets filed with the court, and the court will wait a couple of months and then order and update the home study. It's called a supplemental investigation in New York. And there may be updates to the fingerprints and the child abuse clearances because, you know, who knows what the adoptive parents have done in the meantime? And then, ultimately, we will get an invitation to sit down with the judge. And it's a celebration at that point; we don't get invited into court if there are any questions or issues. And we sit down with the judge for 15 or 20 minutes, and the judge will sign the papers that make the adoption final and irrevocable and forever change the child's name. And the court will then ask either Albany, New York, which is our capital, or the state where the baby was born to issue a new birth certificate showing the adoptive parents as the parents, and then all they have to do is live happily ever after.

Amanda: Awesome. So thank you for giving us that kind of step-by-step. I do. And at the end of the process, don't ask a question. I'm going to go back and ask another question about the end of the process. What about post-placement contact? Are there agreements in the state of New York that are legal and binding or non-legal? And what is your advice in that situation?

Gregory: New York is one of the states that has very strong and binding post-adoption contact agreements, which I think are wonderful. I am a very strong proponent of post-adoption contact. The concept of openness is one that is somewhat intimidating to some prospective adoptive parents. And I am a huge proponent of openness. But there is no such thing as "open adoption. An open adoption is whatever the adoptive parents and the birth parents are comfortable figuring out for themselves. And it's a relationship. It's a relationship that evolves over time. But what I've really found over the years is that openness is as much a source of reassurance as anything else. A birth mother wants to know that she's made the right choice, she's picked the right people, and the kids are okay. And there may be more openness right around the time that babies are born. I mean, virtually every adoption today is open. I mean, adoptive parents and birth parents are meeting each other with an agency or privately; adoptive parents might be in the delivery room with the birth mother, or at least they are spending time with each other in the hospital after the baby is born. So it's open. The question that concerns some adoptive parents is what does it mean in the future? Sure, and openness is not co-parenting. It's not a birth mother who drops in for Thanksgiving, unless that's their relationship. And I've had clients where Thanksgiving truly is an extended family, with birth parents and birth grandparents and adoptive parents and their parents, everybody getting together for Thanksgiving or holidays or something. And it's an amazing situation. That's not that common. But that's fine. Post-adoption contact: I'm frustrated sometimes by agencies that will tell a birth parent. And here's the post-adoption contact agreement with the adoptive parents. And you'll write letters, take photos at certain times of the year, and visit at our annual picnic. And I mean, that can be fine. But is that what everybody wanted? So these things are discussed and negotiated. And they evolve over time. Because as people get more comfortable with each other, relationships can evolve. And maybe there will be less contact; a birth parent can say, "You know, I thought I wanted to have visits; I thought I wanted to have more letters. But I don't need to know that this is good or thator that there could be more; there could be a friendship that develops. So it is just flexibility and going with the flow, but still groups respecting everybody's legal rights. And if there is a violation of a post-adoption contact agreement, it does not overturn an adoption. What you can have is a judge who says, Hey, you didn't play by the rules. And I'm going to require that you send those letters and pictures a couple of times a year. If there are posted options, contact agreements that are not working out, like a birth parent with mental health issues, but I'm not respecting boundaries. For a child who was reacting poorly to visits and things like that, then agreements can either be changed, or if we have to, I've never had to do this. But we can always go to court and say to a judge, "We need to modify this agreement because it's not working for the child. I see that more commonly in foster care situations with an older child or a child who has been born with some mental or physical health issues, with contact with the birth parent being more complicated because of the history, than in a newborn situation. But there's flexibility built into the process.

Private Adoption: Involvement of Birth Fathers and Self-Matching Process

Amanda: That's good to know. One other thing you touched upon as you talked about the process was whether the birth father was in the picture or not. Can you elaborate a little bit more on this? Maybe just some generalities if the birth father is not in the picture? How is the process different if he has an eviction?

Gregory: New York is wonderful in that a birth mother has the right to privacy. And she can say, I choose not to disclose who the father is. And I would always prefer to have a birth father's consent in secret, his medical and family history, and his social history, to have him be part of the process and get him to sign off. It humanizes everything and makes it much more compassionate. And that certainly is the goal: to have this be as open as possible, and the word I'm looking for is "two-way, as opposed to one-way, but that's a very inarticulate way of putting it. But in any event, there are three different categories of birth fathers: the most rare and precious is the birth father who is either living with or married to the birth mother; they're making the adoption plan together. He's signing off. It's wonderful. And if it's 20% of the time, that's probably overestimating. The other end of the spectrum is when she has no idea who it is she was with, either, you know, with several different people or, god forbid, a rape or something like that. She can't identify the birth father; we don't need to worry about the situation like that either. because a birth father has any rights in the process. In the six months before the placement, he has to have stood up and acknowledged paternity to the world. He has to have at least offered to pay the birth mother some financial support to take care of the baby. And he has to be ready, willing, and able to be a full-time custodial parent. And he can sit there and fold his arms and say, Well, no baby minds getting adopted; that won't work. He has to have done those things in the six months before placement. And the less of that stuff he does and the longer he doesn't do it, the less likely we have to be at all concerned about the birth father, which brings us to the middle situation where there is a guy who was known, and maybe he and the birth mother lived together for a while during the pregnancy. He wants his name on the birth certificate because it's his child, but he doesn't want to be a parent. And that's the opposite of that other situation; the more he does it and the longer he does it, the more likely it is that we need his consent to the adoption. And unfortunately, there are situations where we need his consent and he won't give it, so the adoption can happen. And what that means in almost every case is that the birth mother was parenting herself. And he's disappeared into the woodwork where he had crawled out to begin with. But we are always sensitive to birth father questions and issues. And it's probably the most important part of this process to make sure that it is safe and legal.

Amanda: Yeah, it is one of those questions that I get quite often via DM. And I remind everybody, Mike, Listen, I'm not a lawyer; you need to speak to a lawyer, which also reminds me that I should have mentioned it; it's this at the top of the show. This isn't legal advice, folks. This is for informational purposes only. So if you need a lawyer, please call Greg if you're in the state of New Orleans. So that's right, all those famous disclaimers But I would love to talk a little bit more about private or self-matching adoption. I know some people call it by different names. I know a lot of people in the Facebook groups. I see self-matching and independence. And we've talked about it being private, which you definitely touched on earlier in the show, and how it is allowed in the state of New York, and actually how you are allowed to share your profile yourself, whether that I think is through or not, which you can clarify here. Hade means such things as Google ads or Facebook ads are in the air on those matching sites and things of that nature, or through just sharing it through friends and family and a kind of word of mouth. Do you mind if I elaborate a little bit more on that?

Gregory: Actually, I don't need to; you just described it perfectly. I mean, back in the old days, you might have heard of these; they were called newspapers, and they were very, very popular. There were classified ads at the back of a newspaper. And in local newspapers here, there was a whole section for adoption, which was actually right above automotive and alphabetical. If people would put ads in and say, Hi, we're Joe and Susie, and we'd like to adopt your healthy newborn, call 800. And that worked wonderfully Pete birth, mothers would look in the newspaper, they would call the number, and we'd have a match. And it was fabulous. I had clients once who had put an ad in the paper that said something like dirty diapers wanted, and their phone rang off the hook. It was wonderful. Unfortunately, that doesn't work anymore. We don't have those newspapers anymore. And that has opened a whole bunch of other avenues out there, whether it's Facebook, whether it's adoption, specific sites that will host profiles of adoptive parents that birth parents can look through and even actually kind of do drop-down menus and say, I'd like a married couple of particular ethnicity who don't have children," or whatever else. So it's possible to really market yourself that way. And that works. Facebook works. I am always skeptical, which is as good a word as any, until there is some verification of who everybody is. So pregnancy and things like that—I mean, I love the situations where somebody is a person who's holding herself out to be a pregnant woman and touches adoptive parents and says, "You guys are wonderful. You're exactly who I want to be the adoptive parents of my baby, who's going to be born in three weeks. But I need you to wire me $750 right now because my landlord is going to throw me out on the street. If I don't pay part of the rent that I owe. It's like, No, we're not going to do that. Particularly if it's a Friday afternoon. It could be a legitimate situation, but it probably isn't. No judge is going to evict an eight and a half-month pregnant woman and throw her out in the street. So we need some confirmation that she needs to have her own attorney. Money goes from my trust account to her attorney's trust account to whoever we look at carefully. But looping back to the question you'd asked about marketing and stuff like that, one of the reasons that I love private marketing, private networking among family and friends, and business contacts with the checkout person at your local supermarket, anybody you can talk to, is that if they know somebody who is pregnant, or maybe their best friend's parents cousin in Idaho's next door neighbor's 16-year-old daughter is pregnant, that person is kind of coming in almost unnoticed to you. So there are some corroboration concerns that are less common in networking than a cold text message—God forbid anybody should actually pick up the phone and talk to each other anymore. But a message from some birth mother who says, "Hey, I saw your profile on Facebook, and I'd love to work with you," requires a much higher degree of scrutiny. Not that we give any less to any situation, but an initial threshold of let's see what this really is.

Amanda: Yeah, I really agree. I have clients that come to me all the time. And they're like, "Teach me how to do this on Facebook; teach me how to do that. And I'm like, "Listen, of course I will show you how I've had other clients match that. But you're better off coming through one of those, as you called it, almost pre-vetted type situations.

Gregory: And everything works. I had clients a couple years ago who were on a road trip to South Carolina or something like that. And they stopped at a diner. And they gave a business card to the waitress to say, "Hey, you know, if you know anybody who were prospective adoptive parents in the wait, we said, My roommates, pregnant? Match! Yeah.

Amanda: Everything works, and having your profile in such a way that it's easily shareable I've had a client that picked up a flyer in a laundromat of all places and just put it up. And they had a flyer with a QR code on their website. And on their website, they had their video, and someone texted him and said, "Hey, I came across your flyer." They ended up knowing each other through their social circles, but they didn't know it at the time. And she was like, I think adoptions are a path and a plan for me with this baby. And so, having something that was easily shareable—right, it was the flyer, having the business card—having the thing that leads someone to an easy way to get to know you allows you to make that connection a little bit easier and more comfortable, quite honestly, for all involved.

Insightful Advice for Successful Adoption: Trusting Your Instincts and Taking Control

Gregory: The other thing, though, is to make sure that you've laid the groundwork to be successful with the adoption at the same time as you're doing the marketing work, because it is wonderfully easy to start marketing, then you start selling waitresses and diners. And if this roommate who's pregnant is due tomorrow and you're not pre-certified as a qualified adoptive parent in New York, you're going to be spending a whole long time in West Virginia or wherever waiting for all the work and stuff to get done. As opposed to doing it upfront. So there's a lot of front-loading that goes into this. And it's overwhelming to a lot of people. And I get that. So maybe take it in small chunks, start with the home study, make a plan for how you're going to market yourself, start drafting the profiles, create websites and business cards, and all those other things, and take it in manageable steps. Or maybe there is a relative or friend who would love to help with stuff like this, so delegate it to them. But don't omit doing the legal stuff that's going to be necessary to allow you to bring that baby back into New York State after the baby's born.

Amanda: Yeah, that's right. I have a course in particular, the self-matching adoption program, that teaches you the steps and why you should do them in a certain order for reasons just like that, because I've had people show up in my DMs that are like, Hey, we don't have a home study, but our neighbor's sister is pregnant. She wants us to adopt, and they're doing it for a week. What do I need to do? And I'm like, Oh, really quickly, you've got to call an adoption attorney; you've got to pray; you can work some magic on a home study, my friend, because you're a little behind the eight ball there.

Gregory: We make almost anything work. With delays and everything else. I mean, you're not going to be able to bring that baby out of the hospital. The question is whether you stay in a small motel room, and we're going to have some people somewhere in New Mexico for like two months. Because they had not done all the legwork in advance. And all of a sudden, the baby dropped into their laps. I would much rather have people be able to take things with a little bit more deliberation and be able to exhale occasionally.

Amanda: Yeah, it is a very, very wild process in moments. Oh, yeah. Doing things yourself that you can and taking the appropriate steps to avoid that. better off you are. Well, this has been phenomenal. You've talked through all of our questions, but I'd love for you to have the opportunity to share anything else with the audience about the process of adoption in general. Just anything that's kind of on your heart and mind based upon your experience

Gregory: The one thing that I would say about that is to trust your instincts; if a situation sounds too good to be true, maybe it is. Maybe it isn't, or maybe it really is that good. And if there are warning signs, if you're getting a feeling in your gut—I mean, every adoptive parent is paranoid; we're all paranoid—the situation is going to work out that the birth mother is going to change her mind, which of course she has the right to do up to a certain point. But if there is just a nagging feeling that something is weird, listen to that feeling. And don't just internalize it; talk to your attorney about it. And maybe that is not an issue. Or maybe it's something that I need to speak to the birth mother's attorney about. Or to get that birth mother some better counseling, get a counselor who's familiar with adoption, as opposed to somebody who's just dealt with, I don't know, general depression or something like that. Because an adoption is familiar, a familiar social worker and therapist are much more sensitive to a birth mother's feelings of loss, grief, relief, and all the other feelings that go hand in hand with placing a baby for adoption. And a competent counselor can really help a birth mother come to grips with the decisions that she's making and figure out what the right path is for herself. But to listen to those gut feelings and make sure that we talk about them, I would rather have a client ask me too many questions than not enough. And for God's sake, don't ask; don't send me three-page emails with 45 questions; let's pick up the phone and talk to each other. Because the conversation is whether it's a phone call, a resume, or whatever. Some dialog is a way to have an exploration of what the real questions really are and be able to really answer them sufficiently, as opposed to a yes or no checkbox on a forum or something like that. So communication, listening to your gut feelings, and trusting your instincts as to whether something is right or wrong

Amanda: I think you did fabulous with that last question. Really, really great advice. And we really appreciate you sharing an overview of the law and the process; it really kind of draws the parallels so that we understand where self-matching and agency adoption really differ. And just generally giving people that peace of mind to find the right partner, right…

Gregory: I'm not dissing agency adoptions, by the way. I mean, as you can see, it's going to be wonderful, and it's very much the right way for most people to go. But I would say that people shouldn't be afraid to do some self-marketing on their own, preferably with people who can really help guide them. So they don't have to reinvent yet another wheel because we have plenty of wheels already. And to get all the guidance that they need, which will help them have a successful resolution to this. Then their kids become teenagers, and then they wonder what the hell they were thinking to begin with. But it's true.

Amanda: Yeah, listen, I'm a firm believer in agency adoption. That's how my two kids came into my world. But I do believe that you have to put yourself in the driver's seat of your adoption journey, right?

Gregory: If nothing else, the one thing that we don't have in this process as adoptive parents is control. That's right. And even if you're giving yourself the impression of control by taking positive steps and working on getting a profile together, working on a video, working on the business cards, networking with friends and family, and stuff like that, it's control. It's giving you something towards a positive outcome here. And psychologically, not to mention practically, that's a really important thing to be doing.

Amanda: It is, for sure. Well, great advice, Greg. And we thank you so much for joining us today. And can you share a little bit more about how the audience can find you and reach out to you? Should they find themselves in need of an adoption attorney in the state of New York?

Gregory: Funny, you should ask. First of all, I don't work all over New York. So New York City, Long Island, and stuff like that are not part of my area. It's important to work with an attorney who knows the local courts and those local judges because every county, even though we have one law in the state of New York, does things differently. And if somebody is in New York City, they ought to be working with an attorney down there or something like that. I work basically in Syracuse and western New York in the southern tier, which is a pretty big part of New York State. My website is adoptionny.com or AFI Law.com. And I always offer prospective clients an opportunity to have a meeting like this at first, no charge because I need to check them out and they should be checking me out and making sure that I'm somebody who they would want to be working with Going back again to trusting those complete strangers with the most important thing in the world And it is; it's a scary process. And adoptive parents don't come to this as a first choice; all of us come because there has been, to one degree or another, an inability to have a child biologically or whatever. So there's loss, grief, frustration, impatience, and all that stuff. And I wish I could snap my fingers and say, or open a desk drawer and say, Oh, look, here's a baby for you right here. Sometimes it works that way—not too often, not in the desk drawer, at least. But starting the process and being willing to take some thoughtful and deliberate steps towards reaching their goal And it works. Everybody who wants to adopt is going to be able to; what we don't know is when and how. But it will happen.

Amanda: That is great. Well, we'll be sure to link to all of your contact information in the show notes or where you're watching this video or listening to the podcast; just scroll below, and you'll find the link to be able to get in contact with Greg and take him up on his opportunity to meet with him and ask any more direct questions that you have with him directly. So thank you again, Greg; we really appreciate your time today.

Gregory: Thank you, and I appreciate the opportunity.

Amanda: Wasn't that a great conversation with Greg? I loved his practical advice, especially around using multiple methods of matching. The basic statistics say that if you share your profile more often, you are simply going to match faster. In fact, my clients who use multiple methods of matching match twice as fast as those who don't use multiple methods of matching. And I teach people how to do that inside the adoption self-matching program. I walk you through the entire adoption process from start to finish, from picking which types of adoption are right for you all the way through the post-placement agreement, where you're actually adopted and have finalized your adoption, and you're parenting your child and keeping in contact with your child's first family.

If you want to learn more about that, head on over to myadoptioncoach.com/program. Remember, friend, anything's possible with the right plan and support, and I'm here with you every single step of the way. I'll see you soon.