Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Act of Love Adoptions Prepares for National Adoption Month

In case you didn't hear next month is National Adoption month!  Of course we celebrate adoption and all of it's beautiful complexity everyday here at the agency but November is special.  In our home state of Utah there are a couple of big events that are held each year to help promote adoption awareness across the state.

One of the newest annual events now in it's second year, is the Adoption Conference held on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem Utah.  The conference is recognized by the Utah Adoption Council and the National Council For Adoption. This year it will be held on Monday, November 22nd from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in the Sorensen Student Center. There is a small charge for this years event.  Pre-registration before Nov 15th is $19.00, after the Nov 15th the cost is $29.00 with lunch included with admission. Register at http://www.uvu.edu/chss/adoption/

The conference will feature three very special keynote speakers:
10:00am -Opening Keynote: Steven Scully, Senior Executive Producer & Political Editor of C-SPAN
12:00pm - Luncheon Keynote: Barbara Smith, ABC4 News Anchor
4:00pm - Closing Keynote: Nina Easton, American Journalist & Fox News Channel Commentator

Individual breakout sessions between the keynote addresses by adoption experts who represent all facets of the adoption community from all over the country will also be offered.  They will share their knowledge and insight on a wide variety of topics. Here is a link to the landing page for the conference that has more detailed information http://www.uvu.edu/chss/adoption/.  

Act of Love Adoptions own Director of Social Work Isaac Thomas and two of our skilled Clinical Social Workers Laraine Moon and Melissa Williams will run separate breakout sessions during this year conference. Laraine and Melissa will guide a discussion designed to help pre-adoptive families understand the most common mistakes to avoid when preparing for adoption entitled "10 Mistakes Adoptive Families Make" at 11:00 am.  Isaac will present "Conversations with Your Child: Discussing the Hard Stuff" which will investigate how to discuss the sometimes difficult topics and questions kids have surrounding their adoption at 2:00 pm.  

This conference was created to provide information for anyone interested in or connected to adoption including but not limited to adoptive parents, birth parents, adoptees, prospective adoptive, families,adoption professionals. We will also have an information booth at this years conference and we hope everyone will stop by to say hello. We would love to meet you all.   

If you would like to get information about A Act of Love Adoptions and the services we provide for birth parents and families you can contact our office at:
24 hr Birth Parent Line 1-800-835-6360
Adoptive Family Line 1-888-767-7740
Adoptions@aactofloveadoptions.com

If you have any questions about the conference you can contact 
Utah Valley Conference on Adoption
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Toni Harris, Assistant Dean for Administration and Development
800 W. University Parkway, MS 144
Orem, UT  84058-5999     fax#: 801-863-7383

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Prospective Families Have Options

Hi Friends,
We thought we would start off todays post with some news about our Adoptive Family Programs.  AAOL is offering three different programs for families who are interested in adopting a newborn infant.Today we'll explain our Standard Program which allows families to work directly with our agency and gives families access to the very best services we can offer.  Later this month I will explain our Agency Assist Program and our Outreach Program.

The Standard program gives families the chance to work directly with AAOL and gives families the support and individual care almost 2000 families have come to rely on since AAOL opened it's doors in the early 1990's.  AAOL is a full service agency who will walk with you from start to finish.  From the first phone call to our office until the day your adoption is finalized.

Overall cost is always an important part of the decision to work with an adoption service provider.  AAOL takes this into consideration by giving you flexibilty with your adoption budget and allows you to set your parameters before we begin. AAOL does this by giving  families a range of the fees need to complete your adoption. 

AAOL takes pride in the service it can offer families.  We do this by providing a trained experienced family case worker. She will be there to assist you by answering all of your questions throughout your adoption journey and will provide you with support and assistance. Your case worker will help you whenever possible with every aspect of your adoption.  She will help you with your home study and your background clearance preparation whenever possible.  Assistance in gathering information to create your adoptive family agency file as well as information and help with your family profile/life book which is the key tool used when you are presented to birth parents who have made an adoption plan.  Once your paperwork is completed she will notify you of any adoption opportunities that meet your criteria and will present your family profiles to our birth parents.

Of the three programs we offer the Standard Program will also give you the most exposure to adoption opportunities at AAOL.  AAOL provides adoption assistance to birth mothers all across the country and this can give your family tremendous options depending on your personal openness criteria.  AAOL lets families choose their level of openness for the gender and racial background of your adopted newborn. AAOL also offers families options when it comes to your level of comfort with a birth mothers use of tobacco, alcohol or in some cases drug exposure.  Families can also choose to consider opportunities that have special needs limitations related to mental and physical health deficits.

Because we assist birth parents all across the country many are in need of a safe, secure, comfortable and friendly environment during their pregnancy.  For those birth parents who are in need we are able to assist them here in Utah during their pregnancy.  Those who are in a good environment in their home state we are able to assist them there during their pregnancy where they delivery close to home.  Since each state has different adoption laws this simply means that families have more options. 

Well we hope that helped you to better understand our standard adoptive family program in a nutshell.  There's much more information that we can offer you by if your interested in learning more.  Please feel free to contact us directly to receive a free information kit.
Phone - 1-888-767-7740 
Email - adoptions@aactofloveadoptions.com 
Online - http://www.aactofloveadoptions.com 

Coming up later this month: Information on our Agency Assist Adoptive Family Program and our  Adoptive Family Outreach Program, our Birth Mother Services and an assortment of other adoption related issues. 

Friday, June 11, 2010

Welcome To Our New Blog!

Hi Everyone,

This is our first blog post!  We wanted to start by introducing ourselves to the blogging community.  We are a licensed non profit child placing adoption agency based in Sandy Utah.  Our owner and founder Mrs. Kathy Kunkel is an adoptive mother of many children and has been helping birth parents and adoptive parents for over 20 years. Cathy is also a member of the Utah Adoption Council.  UAC as it is known, works as an oversight committee focused on protecting both birth parent and adoptive parent rights in the state of Utah.

Because of her own personal adoption experience she understands the risks involved within the adoptive process. She founded this agency with the idea that she could make a difference for families here in Utah and all over the country by providing quality professional care for both birth parents and families seeking to adopt.

In that time, her agency has helped to place over 2000 newborns with their forever families and provided a warm and safe environment for their birth parents. Our agency assists birth parents and works with families and other adoption professionals from all over the United States. We are very proud of our birth parent program and feel it is one of the very best in the state of Utah. We are equally as proud of our adoptive family program that can offer families flexibility with fees and provides a high quality of care and professional service.


We are excited to begin sharing information with you about our agency and hope you will find it helpful and informative whether you are considering placing a child for adoption or a family interested in opening your heart and home to a newborn.

For more information about our adoption services for birth parents and adoptive families please contact us at:
Phone - 800-835-6360
Email - actofloveadoptions@gmail.com
Website at http://www.aactofloveadoptions.com