about us

Open Arms Adoption Services was founded by D. Missy Everson, LCSW, DCSW in 2003. Ms. Everson has more than thirty years' total experience as an adoption social worker, which includes her adoption work at this agency.  Through this non-profit, licensed child-placing agency, Open Arms Adoption Services, Incorporated has assisted hundreds of birth mothers and prospective adoptive parents across Northwest Louisiana.  Upon her retirement at the end of 2022, Ms. Everson hopes to see the legacy of this agency continue under new leadership.

Angela Bowman-White, LCSW-BACS has assumed leadership of Open Arms Adoption Services effective January 2023.  She is a native of Bossier City, Louisiana and has been a social worker at this agency since 2016.  Ms. White has  successfully completed a 72-hour accredited assessment-based certificate Training for Adoption Competency program through the Center for Adoption Support and Education. This TAC Training is accredited by the Institute for Credentialing. Excellence 

Our Philosophy

Our goal is to provide compassionate, legal, ethical, and professional casework and training to birth parents and prospective adoptive parents.  Through our interactions, we hope to facilitate placement of infants and toddlers into well-prepared homes with loving parents who are stable and capable of offering a secure life.  We understand that birth mothers and birth fathers who choose adoption are making the supreme sacrifice to find and ask another set of parents to love and raise their children.  Our agency mission is to assist each birth parent in finding a family that will offer the best home for the child's needs, offering peace of mind for birth parents while preparing birth parents and adopting families for the lifelong journey of adoption.