Yes, it’s all about those adorable ten little fingers and ten little toes belonging to a little person who is going to change a couple’s life. The impact of a new baby, a long awaited event, is made more poignant when the instant family is created through an adoption process by local resident Cindy Simonson of A Loving Alternative, a facilitator providing a wide range of adoption services.

With 17 years experience of bringing potential adoptive parents together with a pregnant woman, her success stories are reflected in the many photos of newborn babies and beaming parents decorating her home. Her ability to speed up the process and fill a void in traditional services can reduce the wait for a healthy infant.

Licensed and regulated by the State of California, Cindy and husband Jim, focused on the need for someone to shepherd moms and wanna-be parents through the process, based on their own experience. Strongly believing that there is a home for everyone they set about streamlining a caring procedure that strives to meet the needs of both parties. Together with adoption agencies and attorneys, they are able to avoid duplicate services and costs for their clients.

After years of infertility treatments, which are expensive and emotional, attorneys, agencies or past clients may refer couples to A Loving Alternative. Once the initial contact is made, there is a fairly painless pre-adoption screening process of filling out paperwork, physicals and fingerprinting to be accomplished. All this takes time, but with Cindy in the driver’s seat, she can avoid a lot of the pitfalls and reduce the risks associated with a failed adoption.

“Coming from a background in corporate America, I was surprised when this line of work chose me! I wanted to prevent people from paying twice for services and I like to look at a problem and identify what isn’t working”, she said. “Now, when I look at the cards, letters and photographs of the success stories, it gives me a high for the day knowing that I’m doing something very worthwhile.”

In today’s world the profile of the birth mother is very different from before. No longer is it the unprepared unwed teenager, but more likely a woman in her mid-20’s who already is a mother. Many women see that in this economy they aren’t able to feed and provide for another child and make a selfless decision to place their child for adoption. They are able to read a prospective couple’s profile on the website and maintain contact with them before, during and after the birth. Knowing that their child will have a better life eases the pain of separation and they know that they will be treated with respect, support and compassion during the adoption process.

Birth mothers need some sort of financial assistance to help with living expenses and medical bills, which would normally be furnished by the future parents. Naturally, anxious couples have questions about how much everything will cost and can they afford it. From the moment the adoption plan is built, it is centered on the individual party’s needs, but an average of $25,000 is a good number to start with.

During the extensive nationwide search for potential birth mothers through advertising, Internet marketing, clinics, crisis centers and hospitals it isn’t unusual for negative thoughts to surface. What if the baby’s mother changes her mind? Should we agree to a “trial baby” for six months? Adhering to Simonson’s protocol and the attorney’s advice, normally a birth mother’s rights are terminated in three to ten days, thereby alleviating further cause for worry and stress. Of course, in dealing with maternal instincts there are no guarantees and there are always unforeseen elements with each adoption.

Most agencies and attorneys do not have the budget or the resources to manage a costly nationwide birth parent program. A facilitator is not required for an adoption, but it could be the most important factor, resulting in one of the shortest waits in the US for locating an infant to adopt. Over the last few years A Loving Alternative’s average wait is 9 months, but if a couple is open on ethnicity, the wait is shorter.

 Cindy Simonson is a human GPS, mapping out a route, proposing alternate plans and homing in on a destination, and that destination is a home with a cute little baby in it.b

Contact Cindy Simonson at A Loving Alternative 949/366-4500;  website: www.adoptaninfant.com;  email: [email protected]