Our experience with IAC was very mixed bag of awful and wonderful. We
adopted in less than a year, but we were open to any race. We had 20
birthmother calls and three matches to finally connect with our
birthmother. It can be a rough process, which is no fault of the IAC
directly. I highly recommend transracial adoption regardless of the
fact that there are more babies available...so search your hearts on
this topic. Our daughter is full African American (we are white) and
it's been a great experience.

However, the IAC has some big issues they need to address. Our first
match turned out to be a convicted felon with a history of ripping
off prospective adoptive parents. At the time we discovered this we
had already unmatched with her, and only found out because the
detective on her case called us. NOT the IAC. IAC does NOT verify the
identity of any birthmothers, nor do they intend to do that in the
future. This woman was pregnant, as the medical report showed.

Not only do they not do the most basic of identity checks, but they
were pretty rude to us for expecting some effort on their part. They
made it pretty clear they thought WE had "trust issues". You bet we
did, after having been ripped off and not protected in the LEAST by
the agency we trusted. Some of the counselors were pretty good at
IAC...several of them are excellent (Pam Bess and Colby Bilkiss are
great).

Bruce Rappaport is a piece of work. My husband called him at the time
our daughter was born to talk about some of the identity issues and
our concerns about getting "taken" again. After a short conversation,
Bruce hung up on him! I was listening to my husband and he was being
firm, but not rude, and certainly didnt deserve that. We were ready
to fire the agency and use a lawyer. As it turned out, we saw the
process through to completion with IAC.

Buyer beware! IAC is in this as a business, which all people in the
adoption industry are, of necessity I guess. It's very strange that
so much money changes hands, the adoptive parents pay huge amounts
and seem to get no protection at all.

We are considering another adoption and will not use IAC again,
despite our generally good experieince with the counselors.

Michele Thornton