Adoption Agency Ratings

It was a wonderful experience to work with ATWA! Everything was handled professionally from homestudy to placement and we can't thank them enough! The negative comments posted here are suspicious. 5 stars for ATWA!

I was very happy with ATWA and would highly recommend them! They are a small but ethical agency and really care about children. I gave them a 4 on communication because even though I always received medical updates and pictures, I would have to sometimes email or call to see how the case was progressing. that is my only minor complaint but otherwise they were great! Amy was my caseworker but isn't there any more but Cara is also a sweetheart :)

Oh dear lord! What I hate most about adoption is how many frankly insane and or "fundamentalist" people it brings out of the woodwork.
ATWA is a great agency, and I would use them again. They have been nothing but supportive, professional, and helpful, unlike my adoption agency, which was a mess.
Look, some adoption agencies are a mess, and some are not, and some are great. Even the great ones are going to have some issues. Everyone is human, people. Do your research. But it is not fair for one lone family and a couple of adoption haters to continually slam a good, caring, and helpful agency.
ATWA was wonderful to us, real people with a real adoption, completed in the last 5 years, not over 10 like the stupid family that just won't stop hounding them. I mean, is it ever time to move on people? Even Jesus himself made mistakes, quite a few. Are you on the net hounding Him too?
As for the people who think all adoptions that are international are just rich people buying up kids, why do you think rich people want so many kids? What do they do with them all? Hamburger? Maid staff? Be real.
We give everything we have to our adopted daughter. She is the sun and the moon to us. We wish dearly that we could both have a second child and give our daughter a sister or brother, but we cannot afford it. Adoption is expensive, mostly fees paid to the USA, and travel costs, NO BRIBES. Duh, the USA is a Hague country. Really, so many of you loonies are so verbal, and yet so uninformed.
We also wish, so much, that we could take another child away from a life with no family.
You adoption-haters who don't want anyone adopted, I bet you enjoyed the privledge of growing up in a family, so why you want to deny it to other innnocent, friendless children I cannot understand.
Adoption is a good thing, done by good people who love, and want to give all they have, to children. And they love the children as if they were their biological children when the birth-parents cannot, or will not do it.

So, please, loonies, go back under your rock, and let good families and agencies do good things for good children who are in desperate need. Gte a hobby. Learn macrame; something else already.

To my daughter I say, "I love you honey; I cannot tell where you end and I begin; I'd die for you, and I will be eternally grateful to have been given the privlegde of having you call me mom."

To the waiting children I send a wish that someone will have enough stamina and love to come up with the money and ignire the haters and get you and bring you home and give you the chance that your birth-parents didn't.

c-r

Isn't it interesting that particular Adoption agencies try to thrive in non-Hague Countries like Japan, Ghana and Morocco. Does the truth embarass those of you that have adopted under the old system independently?
Why do you suppose adoptions sunk from 22,000+ in 2004 to barely 12,000 in 2009? Maybe fraud? Maybe the children adopted were NOT properly relinquished? The truth is in the numbers in 2010 the number of foreign children adopted to the USA will barely be 9,000+ As a person once said "The numbers speak for themselves" All of you need to get a life and stop defending the old way of adoption. Lastly Adoption agencies in the USA are now 55% less than they were 5 years ago. Some were closed down many have had to close down because the State Attorneys General closed them down. Maybe you people should get a life and start a letter writing campaign to your congress person and nominate Ms. Siegel for an Angel in Adoption Award. Sorry that business is down, but maybe you should all look in the mirror as to why Adoptions are drasctically down and will NEVER be up to 22,000+ ever again. Also ask where is the orginal staff from ATWA? They are gone. And the shuffling in and out of contract LCSW is a joke. These are not rumors, check out the lawsuit with IAC and the Reynoso family. Defend whomever you want because they bought you a baby but know that today, your GOD, will not be able to perform these expensive miracles.

These agencies are still making a living out of dealing with non-Hague countries like: Ghana, Japan, and Morocco. Ask yourself why they want to deal in countries with no strong central adoption authority?
No bad rumors only the FACTS:
Foreign Adoptions to the USA in 2004 were over 22,000
in 2009 barely 12,000+ In 2010 it is estimated they will be around 9,000+
The numbers are shrinking for a reason, and that reason is these children that the agencies claim are orphans are not bonafide relinquished orphans - the old way of having the birth mother sign papers independently is going away and so is the "business".
Some of you acquired your children/babies from this old system and feel compelled to defend it, even though it is sophisticated kidnapping and cohersion on economically strapped birth mothers that you feel superior to.
When someone lies to me, I have a problem with it and when someone has abused the system and not been fair it is only right to let everyone know about this.
Lesley Siegel was very cruel and unkind to me and I never met her because she was hiding behind her staff who are now gone.
In fact, Siegel since has come out of her shell with a new marketing campaign and new look? Also moved her offices away from the old IAC (Independent Adoption Center) her old employer who she sued.
Take a look at this blog.
http://exposingadoptionfraud.blogspot.com/2009/10/david-avilla-and-advoc...
California has required registration of adoption facilitators since 2006.

David Avilla did not bother to register Advocate for Orphans International (AFOI) until mid-October, 2009. This means that it had operated ILLEGALLY for part of 2006, all of 2007, all of 2008, and the first nine months of 2009!

Avilla sought registration at this late date because he and his organization had come under scrutiny from the Gilroy Police and Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office. All of AFOI's fall, 2009, "hosting programs" were abruptly canceled, and rescheduled for later in 2009 or early 2010.

Avilla has also, once again in violation of California law, displayed photographs of "available" children on his website.

Avilla has also been known to "look the other way" when it comes to the MANDATORY background check for host families. He has done this because his arrangements often fall through, and he does not have time to process another family properly. This exposes the visiting children to unacceptable risk.

He has been known to work with "The Stork" (operated by George Kokhno) and "Across the World Adoptions" (operated by Stacy Brown and Lesley Siegel).

Several families have already had an adoption collapse because of his unethical practices.

Avilla obtains his "tax exemption" from Congressional District Programs (a misleadingly named for profit corporation) and the Heritage Foundation. If you MUST do business with Avilla, check with your accountant or attorney before assuming that fees paid to him will be deductible!

I rest my case, and hope that the rest of you either get a life or spend your time on your letter writing campaigns nominating your next "angels in adoption" fake award.
Look at the law, the truth and the facts instead of looking at the fact you have a child and someone feel a sense of gratitude to the person that paid upwards of $40,000 to facilitate this process.
It is a business and nothing else.