Phone: 304-657-3304
Consulting
Educate yourself about the process with adoption consulting services from Opt 2 Adopt.
Post-Placement
Our Adoption post-placement services include the required follow up to your adoption.
Contact
Available 24 Hours a Day,
7 Days a Week
Home Study
Preparation
About Our Owner
WE ARE ALL HERE TO HELP YOU
Brenda Pizatella has been a licensed practicing social worker in West Virginia since 1974 when she graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor’s in Social Work. In 1977 she obtained her Master’s Degree in Social Work and became the first social worker at Fairmont General Hospital. She developed the Social Services Department at the Facility. This is where her love of and interest in adoptions first began as she worked with birth families who requested placement of their babies at birth.
During her work as an Acute Care Social Work Director she developed the policies and procedures for adoptions from the hospital as well as learning the need for home study preparations by social workers when she started her first business, Social Work Consultants, LLC. She became well know as a geriatric social worker and in that capacity helped start a skilled care unity within her hospital. Brenda at this time become expert on children’s services including adoption processes and child protective services and frequently had to provide expert testimony in regards to abuse and neglect in the courts. She Then along with many community leaders started the North Central West Virginia Coalition to Prevent Child Abuse. She is also an Academy of Certified Social Worker, which is a nationally recognized certification along with being a member of the National Association of Social Workers.
Adoption work has always been an integral part of her professional like and work. Therefore as the years have gone by she has prepared home studies for hundreds of various families. These home studies include completion for purpose of domestic and international adoptions (although international home studies will no longer been done.), custody issues, second parent adoptions, inter-and intra-state work.
Adoption consultations as a result of the many years of experience is also part of her work so that even if she does not prepare the family home study she can guide them through the maze which is the adoption process. Her business is happy to assist with dossier preparation as well as assistance with preparation of profile books and birth mother letters. As a result of these well-defined interests, Brenda started her current business of Opt to Adopt, LLC in order to focus on adoptions in many forms.
Meet Brenda
The Owner
- Licensed practicing social worker
- More than 30 years experience.
- Caring.
- Helped more than 500 families adopt children.
- Completely versed in adoption law.
- Talented.
- Expert in home studies, adoptions, and post-placement.
Consulting
From the first phone call to the finalization.
Consultations will include assistance in seeking an adoption agency that meets your individual needs as well as assistance with profile preparation if this is a requirement for you adoption. General questions will be answered as you are walked through the process.Make sure your home is a suitable environment for adoption with an adoption home study from Opt 2 Adopt in Fairmont, West Virginia. Our Licensed Social worker prepares home studies for families in a variety of situations, including infant, second parent, and stepparent adoptions, as well as custody issues.
Our licensed social worker has talent for tapping into emotional aspect of any situation, in addition to her many years of experience, to help grow your new family.
Home Study
Preparation
What is a home study? An evaluation of your preparedness to adopt a child/children or to gain custody of a child. In order to prepare an adoption home study our licensed social worker will meet with you and all members of your household. The social worker will evaluate you home environment, your financial information, your physical ( to be completed by a physician) mental and emotional stability and ability to adopt a child or to become their guardian or custodian. The home study will be prepared to be in compliance with the state laws of West Virginia and Pennsylvania as they pertain to adoption. Each adult in the home is required by law to have FBI, State Police and Department of Human Services background checks.
At least two face to face interviews will be conducted with the potential adoptive parent or parents. In order to obtain any more detailed information please contact us. The process is painless and exciting. The time to complete the home study will vary according to the information required.
Post Placement
After a child is place in your care all states have varying post placement requirements that must be met before your adoption can be finalized. Your pending adoption will go smoothly when you use the adoption post-placement services of Opt 2 Adopt in Fairmont, West Virginia. The Law requires a number of post-placement visits and supervisory reports on every adopting family. Our social worker brings decades of experience to the task and determines whether you are properly doing what you agreed to do as part of your adoption contract.
Testimonials
WHAT PARENTS SAY ABOUT US
Brenda Pizatella…. Where to begin? From the first pre-adoption visit to the last post-adoption visit, she had been so much more than our social worker. She has become a member of our family. Being new to the process and having so many questions. Brenda calmed our nerves, explained the process completely to us and held out hand every step of the way. Brenda also knows the law - She is extremely knowledgeable about the laws of West Virginia and is completely versed in adoption law.
SHe made us feel so calm throughout the whole process. She was on the highest standards both professionally and personally and we put our complete trust in her. She became so important to us that now - almost 4 years after our adoption - we still keep in contact with her and our hope of adoption again. Our dream of beginning the symphony of our family has became a reality - and Brenda was the first instrument playing. We can’t thank her enough for all she has done for us. Stephanie & Matthew
When we first began our adoption journey we didn't even know where to start the only thing we knew for sure was that we wanted to adopt an infant in the United States. Luckily, we found Brenda and Opt-To-Adopt. Brenda was able to provide us advice and suggestions based on her years of experience with adoptions. She helped us complete the necessary documents and background checks and completed our home studies with us. Home studies can be invasive but Brenda put us at ease and turned it into a pleasurable experience. During our wait for our daughter, Brenda was always available for questions and concerns and was a constant source of encouragement. Upon the birth of our daughter, Brenda walked us through the process and advised us what to expect and helped alleviate our concerns. The adoption process is the bothe most stressful and most joyous situation we have ever been in and we truly don't know what we would have done without Brenda to help us through it. Her professionalism is outstanding but it is her caring, thoughtful nature that we really appreciated. She helped to make our Dream of family come true.
We found Brenda through a mutual friend, and we could not have been happier with our choice of social worker! Our adoption process was not always (not many are) but Brenda always knew what the next step would be, could clearly layout a plan for us, and most importantly, made us feel supported and not alone in the process. She was gracious in all of our interactions and it was truly a pleasure to have her in our home. We looked forward to meeting with her and greatly appreciated all of the wisdom, knowledge, experience and insight that she provided during our adoption process. She was deeply invested in helping us create our family and walked beside us every step of the way. We have recommended her to several friends and would be blessed to have her help us again in the future.
Contact Us
HAVE QUESTIONS? WE HAVE ANSWERS.