Sunrise Family Services Society

If I could give zero stars I would. We came to then with a birth mother who had already selected us prior to getting involved with their organization, if you can even call it that. Pretended to be excited saying “you’re going to be a mom” during my first phone call with them, claimed that if the baby was born prior to the homestudy being finished there would be no issue and they’d file for permission of a breech of contract. As we were outside the hospital while our daughter was being born they called to say we weren’t approved citing reasons that had already been stated a non issue by all our physicians. After destroying us they continued to call and email after explicit requests to have all contact through my mother as I couldn’t handle to engage in any further contact with them. They made us believe the whole time it was all a formality and even saying such a statement as that. We had to dismantle and entire nursery, take a month off work (& even more for my husband as he was even more devastated as he was going to be taking the parental leave) and receive multiple counselling sessions just to be able to leave our house without feeling the crushing pain of loss. They have such little respect for anyone’s mental well-being & live in a fantasy world where their actions don’t affect anyone. My heart is aching as I write this and I feel knots in my stomach and throat just as I did on January 8th when our daughter was ripped from us.

I would recommend Sunrise Family Services in a heart beat!! We adopted both our sons locally. The approval process in both adoptions was great, we learned allot about ourselves, parenting styles and parenting theory. The staff at Sunrise were professional and friendly and always willing to help. We found the entire process to be great and very rewarding as we are now parents of two wonderful little boys.

We are so happy with Sunrise Family Services. For anyone considering adoption, Sunrise is definitely the agency to go with. From our first initial visit to inquire about adoption to the final paperwork for our beautiful baby girl, we couldn't have asked for better service. They were always there for us when we needed them, even for our daily phone calls we made when we were waiting out the 30 days after our placement.Not only have we increased our extended family size by our birth family but also with Sunrise

The team at Sunrise was exceptional. I worked closely with Delia and Fonnie on the Vietnam program and they were not only knowledgeable but responsive and empathetic. I felt understood and supported every step of the way. The adoption process is a long journey with many curve balls and unknowns and I am so appreciative of all of the extra attention and counsel I received as I navigated the ins and outs of this experience. I highly recommend Sunrise.

Our experience was years ago. We were approved and almost done our entire process adopting from romania when the agency we were dealing with went bankrupt. Sunrise pretended to be interested in helping us. We drove all the way there with our little children only for them to instantly refuse us for already having children. Even though we were already aproved and all our paperwork had been done and reneeed a couple of times already. The first question asked was why adopt when you already have children?" Then they justified their decision by citing birth order rules which we had already been aproved for by the romanian government and the previous canadian agency which was helping us. The director from sunrise was demeaning insulting and massively unprofessional. Years of work and money went down the drain while our paperwork sat in Romania and expired. I would never deal with them again."

We highly recommend Sunrise. From their counsellors, to their social workers, administration, lawyers they are all amazing. We had two very unique and challenging adoptions. They were with us every step of the way. Fielding calls and emails during the evenings and weekends, arranging meetings and joining us on those meetings just to ensure everyone was comfortable. Throughout the course of both of our adoptions their judgement was spot on and their experience proved priceless. We have no doubt that we have these two little boys in our lives because of them. They helped us navigate through the homestudy, the stacks of paperwork, and meeting birthmothers. But more than showing us the way, they supported us through all of the ups and downs.But what impressed us the most about Sunrise was the amazing support they provide to birthmother/parents. Through our adoptions we got to know two birthmothers and they were each remarkable in their own right. Their wellbeing in the weeks and months after the adoption was so important to us. Knowing that Sunrise was also there for them, as well as offering counselling was a huge relief and let us concentrate on caring for and bonding with our sons.Post adoption we are still in regular contact with Sunrise and attend their picnics and seminars on adoption. We have enjoyed meeting other families who have also adopted children and have made life-long friends through Sunrise. Thank you to the entire Sunrise Team! If someone had told us when we applied in December that we would be parents by June I would have never believed them. Or wake up one morning the parents of one child, talking about what we would have for dinner that night, while having no idea we had been chosen by a birthmom and by 1:30pm, that same day, we would have a baby in the backseat on our way home. Amazing! Crazy, but truly amazing.We only wish we had contacted Sunrise sooner. We spent a few years going through all of our options, afraid to take the leap. But once we jumped in we realized the pool wasn't as deep as we thought, the water was pretty warm and you have some great lifeguards there if you get in over your head. ;)Ashli and

Sunrise has facilitated 3 adoptions in the journey of building my family and I am extremely happy with their commitment to creating ethical programs, focusing on what's best for the children, and their support to my family during and after our adoptions. Sunrise has been transparent, respectful and professional. The staff have truly gone the extra mile for us as a family!

We worked with Sunrise from start to finish for our two international adoptions. The staff at Sunrise was very supportive, professional, and helpful. So many factors in adoption are out of the agency’s hands, but they encouraged us every step of the way and provided us support while we were out of the country.

From our first meeting at sunrise we felt a very warm welcome. Their compassion for our desire to start a family was evident. The Sunrise staff was and is always kind, courteous and very professional. We love Sunrise and highly recommend their services to anyone looking to adopt locally or worldwide.

The philosophy, professionalism, exceptionally friendly and open staff make Sunrise such an amazing organization. Ethical, clear and certainly advocates of adoption, but of child protection. Sunrise helped us complete our family, and I have recommended countless other parents to speak with program directors at Sunrise. An amazing group of professionals that I consider it a privilege to know (still! after all of these years, they still reach out!)