Our agency evaluation

Terri here. When Steve and I set up this blog, we had many reasons to do so. First and foremost, we wanted to be able to keep in regular contact with family and friends. In addition, we wanted to give a day-by-day journal of the ups and downs, ins and outs of adoption in Kazakhstan—no editing, no censoring.

In keeping with one of the intended purposes of this blog, we wanted to also provide an honest evaluation of our agency, Adoption International Program. There are many good and bad stories about this agency but so many lack a name or a face—so here are our thoughts given to you without anonymity or censorship.

Pros
• We got two beautiful, healthy boys.
• We did not pay a cent more than what we were told we would. Not only were the agency and foreign fees right to the penny, their estimation of all other expenses such as homestudy, INS fees, visa fees, embassy appointment, etc, were dead on.
• We did not stay longer than had been estimated and planned. The agency estimates 42 days when making 2 trips and we stayed 41.
• Our drivers, translators and coordinators in both Almaty and Ust were just wonderful caring people. They were ready and willing to take us where we needed to be and went above and beyond—Jarkin refused to let us buy a stroller and loaned us his; Vika knew I admired a traditional glass pendant and bought one for me and four little ones for each of us.
• The U.S. staff is awesome with paperwork. They processed everything as soon as it was received. They helped shepherd the documents first through DC, and when there was a slowdown there, got it through NY quickly.
• They supplied us with everything we needed to start the process before the ink on the contract was dry—their dossier packet made collecting the necessary documents very easy and everything was provided in Word with detailed instructions. Their Embassy packet (which details what to expect while you wait for your LOI all the way through your return trip) was also very detailed and helped prepare us for each of the next steps and what to expect along the way.

Cons
• Our second trip was longer than was necessary. Even though the second trip was within the length we had planned for, our boys’ visas did not get processed as soon as they could have. I attribute this to the money problems noted later.
• When we expressed concerns we did not hear back from the agency for 4 days.
• When we tried to reach the main coordinator, Yuliya in Ust to get an update on the visas, she hung up on me right after I said “Hello, Yuliya?”
• Albina, the other coordinator, acted indifferent and lied frequently when we asked for information on our court date, and later, our boys’ visas. She barely gave us the time of day and made promises she never intended to keep. She asked us for $800 to process the boys visas that actually went to paying for the apartment of a newly arrived family—leaving no money for the visas.
• There is (and has been for months) a problem getting the money to filter down to the staff to pay their salaries, gas, apartment and most of all document processing. I believe this was key to the delay in paperwork and has deeper impact in demotivating and demoralizing the staff.

In our opinion, no agency is perfect—and we’ve heard our share of real horror stories from people using other agencies. One family we met on the plane had a horrible first trip with another agency. They were shown children that were ill and the wrong age range for days before finally shown their daughter (our boys were shown to us within 10 minutes of arriving at the baby house). And, during that trip, the family was almost thrown out of their apartment by their coordinator when their older daughter had violent stomach flu. We’ve also heard of families with other agencies getting false medical reports stating children as healthy who clearly had special needs (ours were correct, if not slightly exaggerated to the unhealthy side to justify their adoptability). Also, two families with two different agencies went to adopt two children, were told that there were two waiting only to arrive and only adopt one (one due to no matching child available and the other due to region specific mandates). In one case, the $10,000 fees for the second child were never returned to them. These are all recent horror stories of other agencies, too—our story is far from it, it truly was a success.

International adoption is a long and difficult process. Any feelings of trying to control things will go out the window as governments are constantly changing the rules and, of course, never grandfathering them.

We feel that there are some necessary improvements that AIP should make to be sure money is distributed on a timely basis and that some of the indifferent and incompetent staff be replaced. With that addressed, we would recommend AIP. Read our story, assess your own tolerance for adoption and decide for yourself. Overall, our experience was a good one and one we will never forget.

In the next few days, we will post some additional, helpful thoughts with a post on Mythbusting (is it inappropriate to wear jeans in Kaz? is there really no toilet paper?) and a cast of characters identifying the staff involved.

And of course, more photos of our beautiful boys!