We had such a great experience with Adoption Avenues. Radu is a man of few words however, he gets the job done. I would recommend this agency to anyone looking to adopt.
I am sad to see the negative feedback on Radu... I have had such a great experience with him and this agency so far. There are times when he is difficult to understand, but I do not fault him for that. With this agency you can get immediate feedback on questions, know who you will talk to when you call, and know that they are on your side! If you need someone to hold your hand through the process than you may want to look elsewhere, but if you feel confident that you can follow straightforward directions with a little support here and there, then this agency is for you!!! I love knowing that I will get immediate feedback and can call anytime and talk to Radu on the phone. I highly recomend this agency!
We would not recommend Adoption Avenues. We have had many problems with our adoption and most of them were because this agency did not want to deal with them. When an issue came up and more paperwork was required or there were issues our case was put aside and not dealt with. This caused our adoption to take about 1 1/2 years longer than it should have. We had to e-mail the embassy and others directly in Ethiopia to get information to move our case along and to fix issues. We were originally supposed to only make one trip to Ethiopia but ended up making 3 trips because of mistakes that were made. For the last trip that was made we were going to use an escort to bring our child. This agency told us that we had to use their escort and pay $1,500 for this escort in addition to all the expenses of the trip (which were going to be more than necessary). When we told them we did not want to use their escort and wanted to use our own escort we were told that we were on our own in Ethiopia and Adoption Avenues would do nothing to help us. We ended up having to make the trip ourselves because of misinformation that we were given about escorting. We had to contact the embassy directly to make arrangements to come and also had to contact people in Ethiopia directly to make all the arrangements ourselves. Thankfully we had done this before so we knew what needed to be done but if we had not done it we may still not have our child. The embassy told us there had been many errors in this case and requests for documents that our agency was not allowed to have. We have become aware of many things that were done wrong and unprofessionally. We also feel that this agency was going to leave us without help in order to get more money out of us. This adoption has already cost us about $40,000 and the agency wanted more from us. We feel that all the decisions that are made are financially motivated and not necessarily in the best interests of the children or families.
We were at another agency and changed. Radu reviewed our materials at no charge before we filled out the application. I have yet to wait more than a few hours for a response from him. I feel very comfortable with Radu and feel like I am in very good hands. Everything is very straightforward. I am very happy.
Our experience has been good with Adoption Avenues in the Ethiopia program. Our wait for a referral for a baby boy was very short. I have been in contact with Radu often and he has initiated the contact. I agree that with Kerith that AA might not be the best agency for someone that needs a lot of assistance with each step - that said - the information I received was enough for me to carry out what needed to be done along the way. I think that a lot of agencies are working through the changing requirements but they have a "PR" person to 'handle' the phone calls from concerned Paps. With AA, you deal directly with Radu and he is very straightforward. He is also very available in my experience.
I have had no problem with communications with this agency! And it looks like 2 of these reviews were written by the same person (?). The director is from Romania and he does speak with an accent, but I guess I've spent most of my life around Eastern Europeans (I'm Jewish) so to me it feels very familiar. I suppose one might perceive him as brusque, but he truly has a good heart and is very helpful. He's not long on words, but he has always happily answered all of my questions. Really, most of the adoption process is just a lot of waiting time. I guess if someone needs a lot of hand-holding and reassurances, then this might not be the agency for them. For us, it's been great.
Re. medical updates, for Ethiopia the orphanage just sends the initial one. You can request additional information with no problem (it just takes a few days). We've twice done that with no problem. (We wanted to double-check growth rates and follow up on some pending test results.)
All of the charges were laid out ahead of time and signed off on. No unreasonable fees or surprises. We are adopting from Ethiopia, and the total costs were less than many other agencies. Our children have already been referred to us (just a 9-week wait). We are waiting for our court date and anticipate traveling to Ethiopia by the end of April. I would definitely recommend this agency with the one caveat being that it might not work for someone who is very anxious or requires tons of feedback. We were very proactive when questions arose and worked very well with the agency.
Very poor communication. The facilitator is very difficult to understand on the phone, and never answers questions completely. He is always one step behind, and does not give you a heads up for anything. Nothing is explained thoroughly, and the he gets quite snappy if you ask *too many* questions. SO frustrating!
Very poor communication! You are charged a $300 communication fee but the only time there is communication is when you initiate it your self. Medical updates are only provided when you ask. Pictures are totally sporadic. But the worst is that even important information is withheld like KO's from PGN adding even more time to your case. there is no support from the agency.
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Reviews
Incredilbly awesome
We had such a great experience with Adoption Avenues. Radu is a man of few words however, he gets the job done. I would recommend this agency to anyone looking to adopt.
Awesome so far...
I am sad to see the negative feedback on Radu... I have had such a great experience with him and this agency so far. There are times when he is difficult to understand, but I do not fault him for that. With this agency you can get immediate feedback on questions, know who you will talk to when you call, and know that they are on your side! If you need someone to hold your hand through the process than you may want to look elsewhere, but if you feel confident that you can follow straightforward directions with a little support here and there, then this agency is for you!!! I love knowing that I will get immediate feedback and can call anytime and talk to Radu on the phone. I highly recomend this agency!
Would not Recommend
We would not recommend Adoption Avenues. We have had many problems with our adoption and most of them were because this agency did not want to deal with them. When an issue came up and more paperwork was required or there were issues our case was put aside and not dealt with. This caused our adoption to take about 1 1/2 years longer than it should have. We had to e-mail the embassy and others directly in Ethiopia to get information to move our case along and to fix issues. We were originally supposed to only make one trip to Ethiopia but ended up making 3 trips because of mistakes that were made. For the last trip that was made we were going to use an escort to bring our child. This agency told us that we had to use their escort and pay $1,500 for this escort in addition to all the expenses of the trip (which were going to be more than necessary). When we told them we did not want to use their escort and wanted to use our own escort we were told that we were on our own in Ethiopia and Adoption Avenues would do nothing to help us. We ended up having to make the trip ourselves because of misinformation that we were given about escorting. We had to contact the embassy directly to make arrangements to come and also had to contact people in Ethiopia directly to make all the arrangements ourselves. Thankfully we had done this before so we knew what needed to be done but if we had not done it we may still not have our child. The embassy told us there had been many errors in this case and requests for documents that our agency was not allowed to have. We have become aware of many things that were done wrong and unprofessionally. We also feel that this agency was going to leave us without help in order to get more money out of us. This adoption has already cost us about $40,000 and the agency wanted more from us. We feel that all the decisions that are made are financially motivated and not necessarily in the best interests of the children or families.
Very happy
We were at another agency and changed. Radu reviewed our materials at no charge before we filled out the application. I have yet to wait more than a few hours for a response from him. I feel very comfortable with Radu and feel like I am in very good hands. Everything is very straightforward. I am very happy.
Good Experience
Our experience has been good with Adoption Avenues in the Ethiopia program. Our wait for a referral for a baby boy was very short. I have been in contact with Radu often and he has initiated the contact. I agree that with Kerith that AA might not be the best agency for someone that needs a lot of assistance with each step - that said - the information I received was enough for me to carry out what needed to be done along the way. I think that a lot of agencies are working through the changing requirements but they have a "PR" person to 'handle' the phone calls from concerned Paps. With AA, you deal directly with Radu and he is very straightforward. He is also very available in my experience.
Very good experience so far
I have had no problem with communications with this agency! And it looks like 2 of these reviews were written by the same person (?). The director is from Romania and he does speak with an accent, but I guess I've spent most of my life around Eastern Europeans (I'm Jewish) so to me it feels very familiar. I suppose one might perceive him as brusque, but he truly has a good heart and is very helpful. He's not long on words, but he has always happily answered all of my questions. Really, most of the adoption process is just a lot of waiting time. I guess if someone needs a lot of hand-holding and reassurances, then this might not be the agency for them. For us, it's been great.
Re. medical updates, for Ethiopia the orphanage just sends the initial one. You can request additional information with no problem (it just takes a few days). We've twice done that with no problem. (We wanted to double-check growth rates and follow up on some pending test results.)
All of the charges were laid out ahead of time and signed off on. No unreasonable fees or surprises. We are adopting from Ethiopia, and the total costs were less than many other agencies. Our children have already been referred to us (just a 9-week wait). We are waiting for our court date and anticipate traveling to Ethiopia by the end of April. I would definitely recommend this agency with the one caveat being that it might not work for someone who is very anxious or requires tons of feedback. We were very proactive when questions arose and worked very well with the agency.
Would NOT recommend
Very poor communication. The facilitator is very difficult to understand on the phone, and never answers questions completely. He is always one step behind, and does not give you a heads up for anything. Nothing is explained thoroughly, and the he gets quite snappy if you ask *too many* questions. SO frustrating!
Awful. Terrible
Awful. Terrible communication. Have not heard from this agency in 5 months. Awful. Awful. Awful. Would not recommend this agency to anyone. Awful.
Very poor communication! You
Very poor communication! You are charged a $300 communication fee but the only time there is communication is when you initiate it your self. Medical updates are only provided when you ask. Pictures are totally sporadic. But the worst is that even important information is withheld like KO's from PGN adding even more time to your case. there is no support from the agency.