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February 2023 by Brenae Perkins
Do not trust!!!!’ My cousin is in the ICU fighting for his life right at this moment in Houston, TX Graceful Adoptions is currently hiding the whereabouts of his 2 year old daughter. The hospital staff has asked them not to return, and has completely removed their access because they’re trying to secure his signature while he is incoherent!My cousin is older and has had a mental decline over the last year, and as he was preparing for what he thought would eventually be his death, he legally arranged for me to retain all legal rights and arranged custody of his daughter to be transferred to me. About 8 months ago his health took a turn for the worst, he was not mentally stable and starting showing signs of dementia. He contacted an adoption agency without informing anyone in his family, he has forgotten that he has family. When he was rushed to the hospital a few days ago, somehow this agency swooped into Texas from Iowa and took partial custody over his child. The hospital staff refused to allow any documents to be signed because they fully understand the scope of decline he is in and has been in. When we realized what he had done, we contacted the agency and informed Karen that in fact, there’s already a legal standing in motion for the custody of his child and he was not and has not been in the condition to make decisions. She argued with me, ignored the legal documents and is refusing to give the location of the child. The Galveston police also have the guardianship papers, and they recognize that our baby has to be with us, her family. This woman is in Iowa, and there is an active missing child case for the baby in Texas— and I told her all of this and she hung up in my face and refuses to pick up my calls. This is kidnapping, text book… DO NOT DO BUSINESS HERE.
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February 2023 by Brittany Campbell
Karen was very loving, with a great sense of humor and playful personality. This agency is a blessing if you’re considering adoption as a birth mother.
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January 2023 by JohnandBreana Adoption
My husband and I spent two years waiting with another agency before we signed up with Graceful Adoptions. Our experiences with the two agencies could not have been more different.The first agency we worked with took our money, wrote up a home study and then told us to get in line and wait our turn. Throughout the entire process they were completely unsupportive, and we ended up finding out several years into the waiting process that they hadn’t even followed up on all our home study paperwork. After signing up with them, we also found out that they had four times more waiting families than placements each year and quite a few of their families had been waiting 4-5 years.When we reached out to Graceful Adoptions, it was such a relief to feel like we were finally seen and heard! Karen and her team worked closely with us to craft a profile that would allow us to put our best foot forward. (We didn’t have this happen personally, but I know that they also let prospective adoptive families know if they receive any constructive feedback on their profile from prospective birth moms so that they can further improve it.) It was SO helpful and made us feel confident going forward with them. They also provided a lot of help and support in preparing for being interviewed by our daughter’s birth mom and later, in beginning our open relationship with her and other members of our daughter’s birth family. And they have been there with support and advice every time we have needed it in the two years since our daughter was placed with us!We love the fact that our daughter’s amazing birth mom and other members of her birth family have also been seen, cared for, and supported by Graceful Adoptions! That is SO important to us!We are currently waiting for a second placement with Graceful Adoptions, and we are so grateful to have found them!
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January 2023 by Matthew & Gina Adopt
Wow. Where to start? The team at Graceful Adoptions made our dream of becoming parents come true. From the research stage to the day we brought our baby girl home from the hospital, we knew we had the support of Karen, Rachel, and Farrah (the unbelievably compassionate dream team!). Karen, the director and founder, was available to us via phone, text, and email to answer even the smallest of questions. As first time parents who weren’t super familiar with the domestic adoption process, we had TONS of questions and some concerns too. We loved that Karen never made us feel silly or needy; she’s been through the adoption process to grow her family too, so she gets it! I believe that’s the difference with Graceful—they don’t just have a heart for adoption, they KNOW adoption because they have lived through it themselves.Domestic adoption newbies, please read this next part because this was our biggest trepidation and I hope it gives you peace of mind! One of the major pleasant surprises for us was the relationship we shared with our daughter’s first family. At first, we were skeptical about open and semi-open adoption. We have many friends that have adopted, but all of those families pursued international (closed) adoptions. We had no idea what to expect and were super nervous about a birth mother selecting us, then interviewing with her, and finally, meeting her in-person. But after we did our research and realized how beneficial open communication is for the child, we were onboard. When we first met our daughter’s mother on Zoom, we knew this was the moment Karen had been talking about when she said it would “feel right.” We had Karen on the call with us to make sure we felt comfortable, but within minutes the three of us—our birth mother, my husband, and I—were gabbing like friends. We loved her and couldn’t wait to spend time with her and her partner in person. What’s so beautiful about adoption is the unexpected love and admiration we have developed for that incredible couple. We spent a full weekend together getting good food, laughing, and talking about our dreams for Baby Girl. At the hospital, we were honored to be in the room for the birth. It was an experience we’ll never forget. The entire stay was memorable as we got to meet our daughter and share this joyous moment with her “tummy mummy” as well. When it was time to leave the hospital and say goodbye, it was honestly bittersweet! We love our daughter’s first mom so much and will miss the time we spent together.To say that we recommend Graceful Adoptions is an understatement. The wait was short (just about 8 months from going live to getting matched) and the staff was genuinely kind. Not only is Graceful devoted to making your dream as adoptive parents coming true, but they are devoted to the care and empowerment of birth families, which was very important to us. If you’re thinking of adopting in the US, save your time calling and researching…just reach out to Graceful! They will take care of you! :)
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January 2023 by Google user
My husband and I spent two years waiting with another agency before we signed up with Graceful Adoptions. Our experiences with the two agencies could not have been more different. The first agency we worked with took our money, wrote up a home study and then told us to get in line and wait our turn. Throughout the entire process they were completely unsupportive, and we ended up finding out several years into the waiting process that they hadn’t even followed up on all our home study paperwork. After signing up with them, we also found out that they had four times more waiting families than placements each year and quite a few of their families had been waiting 4-5 years. When we reached out to Graceful Adoptions, it was such a relief to feel like we were finally seen and heard! Karen and her team worked closely with us to craft a profile that would allow us to put our best foot forward. (We didn’t have this happen personally, but I know that they also let prospective adoptive families know if they receive any constructive feedback on their profile from prospective birth moms so that they can further improve it.) It was SO helpful and made us feel confident going forward with them. They also provided a lot of help and support in preparing for being interviewed by our daughter’s birth mom and later, in beginning our open relationship with her and other members of our daughter’s birth family. And they have been there with support and advice every time we have needed it in the two years since our daughter was placed with us! We love the fact that our daughter’s amazing birth mom and other members of her birth family have also been seen, cared for, and supported by Graceful Adoptions! That is SO important to us! We are currently waiting for a second placement with Graceful Adoptions, and we are so grateful to have found them!
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January 2023 by No N.
I read Karen's bio on her business page. Just wow - I'm dumbfounded that she LIED to her colleagues at her job at Intelsat in Washington, DC. back in 2003. She told us that she was resigning to get married and move back to Iowa - we threw her a party to celebrate. We find out years later that, in fact, she didn't get married at all... WHO DOES THIS?! Not someone who has any integrity or ethics, that's for sure.
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December 2022 by Mary Escobar
From our initial email to our most recent conversations, the ladies at Graceful Adoptions have been a true joy — and comfort — to work with! They're always happy to answers any questions we have. We are so grateful to have found them.
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November 2021 by brandon powers
1st call to look into a possibility of adoption. And asked questions to understand what they offer. I literally got nowhere each response took a min to reply. And in the end I was told to call someone else. So literally got nowhere.
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May 2021 by Lisa J.
This agency was referred to us through a family member. On the positive side, the owner took a couple of calls from us over a weekend and answered all of our questions. It went downhill once she handed us over to her team.We went through their screening process and the screening was at best, unprofessional. We were asked questions such as, “What would you do if your 16 year old daughter told you, ‘You’re not my real parents anyway!’” “What would you do if your child were diagnosed with autism?” “What would you do if your 8 year old son didn’t want to meet up with his birth parents for a scheduled visit?” In any of these situations, we felt that parenting isn’t just this straight forward — there is context, history, etc. that must be considered to make the right call. No matter our answer, there were inappropriate follow up questions and responses and it was clear that our answers didn’t meet their prescribed list of allowable answers.In any of the situations above our response was to determine what was in the best interest of the child — what might be driving the behavior, how might we help them process through emotions, etc.The screen further went into discussing our reaction to instructions about how to handle the hospital situation at the birth. We talked about not making critical changes to the adoption plan during this emotional time. We asked if this same approach was taken with birth parents — to hold off on any changes until after the hospital. The response from the screening team was, “We tell the birth parents what we need to in order to reach the end goal.” This was a second red flag. Finally, they made it a point to say that their agency is a “birth parent centered agency”. I have no issues with putting special focus on the amazing parents who choose adoption. We love the moms who chose us and made us parents — we hold them in high regard! For us, we were looking for a child-centered agency where both the birth family and the adoptive family collaborated to finding the right plan for the child and the families.Ultimately our questions and responses resulted in being screened out. Before we got this answer, we had already decided we weren’t interested in working with an agency that appeared to treat their birth moms with such little regard (I.e. telling them what you need to in order to reach an end goal). I shared this with the owner who insisted this wasn’t the case. She further told me that there wasn’t a birth mom that would choose me and my husband so they declined to work with us.In the end, we don’t have hard feelings. I believe that people have good experiences with this agency. Ours just happened to not be one of them. We worked with a different agency and were matched with a birth mom 6 weeks after getting our profile posted with that agency. We’ve subsequently been matched with 4 more birth moms and have a beautiful family. For those adoptive families who get the “rejection” from the screening process, I encourage you to find an agency that fits you — there are many wonderful ones out there to make your dreams come true.
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November 2019 by Toni Williams
Karen, is flat out amazing. She truly cares about her clients and I will always recommend them!
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August 2019 by Annie Barbour
Our family successfully adopted a newborn through Graceful Adoptions. From our first call with Karen, she was open and honest, and clearly dedicated to her clients. Graceful Adoptions worked closely with us throughout the process, and was always a phone call away. They were present through the ups and the downs in our journey; crying, laughing, anticipating, and sometimes, just plain waiting with us. While so much of this journey was out of our (and the agency’s) control, we felt consistently informed, updated, heard, and seen.
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August 2019 by Michelle Riege
Absolutely do NOT use this agency! It took me 8 months to calm down enough to write this review. We started the adoption process in 2016. 2 and a half years later we had spent $31,596 with nothing but heartbreak to show for it. When we asked for the "guaranteed refund" she offered us $12,000. When we had the audacity to ask for more back she blamed us for the birth mother backing out because that way the refund policy is voided. Karen is a complete hack. Use ANY other agency and you will be much, much better off.
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June 2019 by Briana Bartley
Graceful adoptions is a great and wonderful company, but they aren’t just a company to me! I’ve worked with Miss Karen before and am now working with her again! She makes me feel like family, she has took all my stress and worries and taught me how to deal with them, if not forget them! She helped me with so many things from support when I was 15 to now and I’m 20!! She said she will always be a person I could count on, she has proved that!! If you need a great and loving environment for adoption Graceful Adoptions is the family who will make you feel at ease and at home!!
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May 2019 by M H.
Absolutely do NOT use this agency! It took me 8 months to calm down enough to write this review. We started the adoption process in 2016. 2 and a half years later we had spent $31,596 with nothing but heartbreak to show for it. When we asked for the "guaranteed refund" she offered us $12,000. When we had the audacity to ask for more back she blamed the birth mother backing out on us as our fault because that way the refund policy is voided. Karen is a complete hack. Use ANY other agency and you will be much, much better off.
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May 2019 by Heather sargent
I gave my baby up for adoption through this adoption agency and at first it seemed like they were on my side and that this was my choice. they say the have certified counselors but they counselor couldn't tell I wasn't mentally competent to make this decision. I said I changed my mind well within my 96 hours and I've been fighting everyday to get my baby back. they ignored me and wouldn't acknowledge that I had revoked my consent and wanted my baby back. I made an appointment to talk with their "certified" counselor and they blew me off. now I'm just a women who was tricked and lied to by this agency and all I want is my Dakotabear back and I will fight everyday for the rest of my life to make sure no one ever gets hurts by this agency again. DO NOT TRUST THEM.
