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Standing Apart from the Crowd
3 Tools to Get You Noticed By Kelly Burgess
They had no preparation at all for the birth of their son, Maddox. They did know that the adoption agency had given the birth mother three portfolios including the Hutzels', but then they didn't hear anything for quite a while. When they got a call Monday night that the mother had given birth, telling them to come and get the baby, they had to drop everything and get on a plane for Florida the next day.
The agency the Hutzels used was fully licensed, so that's no guarantee of satisfaction. Hutzel says in the future she plans to talk to people who have used various agencies and ask them if they were happy with the staff. She'll also be more wary in her initial contacts with the agency staffers if they seem patronizing or dismissive, she'll keep looking.
Lacey Stephan also knows it was a measure of luck, but she can't discredit the fact that she and her husband used every available resource to create a blanket effect that got their names out into a variety of venues rather than just one.
"This was an expensive route to go but no more expensive than fertility treatments or international adoption," Stephan says. "And Michael is worth it; he's our miracle baby. It just took some work and creativity to accomplish that miracle a little more quickly."
* Name changed to protect privacy.
