I just saw the Dateline story which mentioned that Adoption Partners was one of the agencies that was using a banned facilitator of adoptions and I figured I would add my story to the list of complaints.
I wanted a older child around the same age as my birth daughter. The first child that I was interested was removed because there was a glitch in the paperwork (dirty paperwork).
The next children that were offered were sisters. I was interested in the older one. The adoption seemed to be dragging on forever, so I took a trip to Guatemala to visit. Everything seemed to be going fine. I received the video updates which showed that my daughter was getting the packages that I was sending. Jonanne seemed to have her stuff together and was very inthusiastic.
The problem began when I got the adoption packet of paperwork I think a day or two before the adoption was to be finalized. I read through it and found a birth certificate with a birthdate that made my daughter two years older than what she was suppose to be. I called Joanne and she advised me of what to do to get the adoption to go through.
To make a long story short, we tried to go get the paperwork changed to no avail. They acted like the adoption was not going to be completed and that I might have to wait to get everything completed on a 3rd visit to Guatemala. I called Joanne again from Guatemala and she was yelling at me on the phone and telling me to call the embassy and go back to the embassy by myself (I was a single mom adopting) and nearly beg them to get the adoption to go through. I did all this which was a MAJOR task of travelling back to the embassy in a cab with no help and waiting in a long line of people to get up to one window after another window of being turned away. I finally was able to get them to help me and was able to complete the adoption since all of the official paperwork had the altered birthdate in it. Little did I what trouble would lay ahead.
After returning to the US my daughter started school in kindergarten since she didn't know english even though she should have been in first grade. My other daughter was also in kindergarten. Now they both are in 4th grade and my adopted daughter has breast and her period has started. She weighs about 120 pounds on a short frame and eats endlessly. She lies, cheats and steals. She is very forward (flirty) with boys as a teenager would be, not a 4th grader.
She has mentioned that she heard the conversation when her mom "sold her" and a few of her siblings. Her mother was pregnant again when my adoption was going through. She has also mentioned that in Guatemala she was even older than the two year discrepancy that I am aware of.
Since the day that Joanne was yelling at me in Guatemala, I never once heard from Joanne again. Not a email, call or letter even congratulating me on the completion of my adoption.
I have since adopted two local children through the state after fostering them. I would recommend this over the international adoption. There are many children including babies locally that need to be adopted. You can foster them and if it is a good fit, then adopt them if they become available.
I forgot to mention that once in Guatamala they tried to get me to pay even more money for a school bill or medical bill that I had already paid for!
or they can be downright treacherous. While I'm glad for you and envy your naivete', I will just say that if you would like to see some of our e-mails from JoAnne that are condescending, patronizing and sometimes downright threatening, let me know. I'll gladly share them. I will also forward ours to you so that you can see the things that we requested from JoAnne are by no means out of the ordinary.
We also have two children that we adopted, both through JoAnne Mitchell. My husband and I are still kicking ourselves for not following our gut and changing agencies despite our communication problems with JoAnne during our first adoption. For our second, we rationalized that we "knew how she worked" and that if my husband just dealt with her, we could make it through the process.
JoAnne is a crook. She held our check and refused to pay the banned facilitator, Teo, which held up our case. She also lied to us about hiring Adoption Supervisors, about where our case was in the process, about medical reports, etc. Also, would you like to see the forged POA that somehow appeared in our file despite proof that we sent her one with our valid signatures. I'm sure the Dept of Homeland Security is very interested in this aspect of our case also and we are providing any and all info. to any agency.
She knows exactly what she is doing which is why she has changed the name of her agency and for the Hague accreditation filed under the name "las Estrella's" dba Adoption Partners. Don't you think if she was a legit agency, she would have told her clients of this name issue so that we could review her agency in order to ensure accreditation? Businesses with good business practices don't operate under one name and file all of their accreditation paperwork under another.
Good luck to you and please keep your innocence! Pray for JoAnne or whoever you want, but please pray for the children that are involved in any case that JoAnne and Teo facilitate.
Sincerely,
Susan G. (Mom to 2 despite AP)
Please note that I'm using my name as I'm tired of all these screen name things. The above comments are my opinion and my experience.
Again, one star only because zero was not offered as a choice. Just wanted to back this comment up since now I am a "registered" user. Our experience with JoAnne Mitchell and Adoption Partners was horrible. Not only did she repeatedly lie to us, she attempted to cover up her lies with other lies. She held our check and refused to pay the facilitator in Guatemala, who we found out is actually one of the banned facilitators....he goes by the name Teo. We were involved in the Dateline story via telephonic interview and we also shared our e-mail traffic from JoAnne with the producers. We have since turned over all of our documentation to the Embassy and the Department of Homeland Security. We also have some great "film" from our trip to Guatemala. JoAnne is evil and there are many clients that will not stop until she is shut down. Count us as one of those clients. Mom to 2 despite AP
I and many other families have been in contact with both the people in charge of implementing the Hague and the state to insure that she DOES NOT get accredited. Word has it thought that she is buying in to a new agency so she can continue to steal people's money and terrorize families. This woman has to be stopped. I agree, how she can sleep at night is a complete mystery to me except that it shows her mental state, that she has no regard for other people nor does she have any respect for the wonderful people of Guatemala, that would include her poor innocent children who are adopted from Guatemala. She refers children then pulls referrals and some of these children were never adopted because of the games she plays. I recieved a referral of a little girl and we fell in love with the picture (Joann'e EXACT words "that's a little weird") WEIRD? WHY? You cannot love the child you think you are about to adopt? Many things happened that caused us to be suspicious, we finally had a friend annonymously call and inquire about our child and Joanne enthusiastically told my friend that our daughter was available, after we sent the check. We were able to stop payment on that check so there was no money loss but the loss of the dream was almost harder to bear. We went to Guatemala after accepting a referral with another "ETHICAL" agency and we still in our hearts hoped to run in to someone who knew how we might be able to get the our first baby too. Joanne led us on, lied, talked down to us, told us to lie, told us to go to a friend and have all of our documents notarized by one person and to make up our references to make it go faster. Like many of the reviews said, she blames the people in Guatemala, because they cannot defend themselves and most of us do not speak Spanish so she thinks we cannot find out the truth on our own. And she forbids us to call PGN....hmmmmm...... I wonder why? So she can LIE,LIE,LIE!!!!! This was by far the worst experience of our life. Thank God we brought home a beautiful baby girl in January and she has brought us much JOY. We are now waiting for our 2 other children to come home who just got out of PGN. I am certain if we had done this through Joanne and adoption partners we would be childless, especially the way things are right now. Please... DO YOUR HOMEWORK, Google, yahoo groups you will find it all. Do not allow Joanne to continue to abuse the adoption process and innocent families and children. Make sure if you go with another agency you find out who operates it and that she is NOT involved! TEN FINGERS DOWN FOR THIS AGENCY!
Joanne is a complete fraud!
AVOID JOANNE MITCHELL. She already changed the name of her agency once, so beware if she opens up shop under another name again. She's more suited to selling used cars than dealing with human lives. We can't claim that she did anything illegal in our case, but she was very shifty.
The second red flag (after giving her the benefit of the doubt when the first red flag went up) was that she lied about a major fee increase.
(joanne) "I told you the fee went up."
(us) "No, you didn't."
"Yes I did, I'm looking at the email where I told you the fee went up."
"Please forward that email to us."
"Well, I'm not so much looking at the email, more like looking at a checklist that says I emailed you. But the web site shows the new fees."
"No, it doesn't. We're looking at it."
"Well, I told my web master to update it, and you're paying for an attorney who consistently gets cases completed in under 6 months."
...10 months later our case was completed. The only reason we didn't put a stop payment on our check was that we already had photos of our child and had fallen in love. Very dirty strategy on her part.
There was a lot more lying along the way. Nothing illegal (that we know of), just totally unnecessary lying about the progress of the case, dates in and out of PGN, etc. The case was kicked out of PGN and she didn't tell us until weeks later. Then there was an unexplained delay getting it back to PGN. She actually did advise us to lie to PGN by altering our homestudy. (We did not take her advice.)
And to repeat what others have said, she is impossible to reach by phone once she has your money.
On the bright side, she is a horrible liar, so it's pretty easy to keep her on track. Fortunately my mom is fluent in Spanish so we didn't have to hire Adoption Supervisors; we just called PGN directly, and the foster family, and got all our information directly. The dishonesty gave us nightmares and months of worrying that our case was going to wind up on the front page of CNN in a kidnapping scandal, but in the end we got our baby. What's so irritating is that my wife and I are perfectly able to have our own biological child, we just wanted to adopt because we thought it was a more noble thing to do. But after dealing with Joanne, we feel dirty.
By the way, the positive reviews sound just like Joanne. We're 99% sure she wrote them herself, which is totally consistent with what we expect of her. We don't know if she's a malicious liar or just a dingbat who can't take responsibility for her own mistakes. Same difference.
I would love to share our e-mail traffic with anyone who is investigating JoAnne. We too, kept everything and have printed everything out in a nice easy-to-follow packet. It would make great reading for any DHS or State Dept investigator or anyone else who might be interested.
Didn't Joanne tell you she could get you out faster if you paid a bribe? That's what she told us - an extra $3k. However, we called PGN and found out we were already out of PGN. She was just trying to scam us one more time. We are part of a group of families that adopted from Guatemala -and Joanne pulled fast ones on all of us - she's a control freak. She'll move your child from one foster home to another without telling you to keep you from your child and extort more money from you.
Your only hope is to tell her she's wonderful and doing a great job, etc. If she likes you, then she'll treat you better than most - but she'll use that against you to scam more money from you and blame the problem on a corrupt Guatemala.
Come to find out (as recently as today), we were one of the many families left with an empty room in our house, aches in our hearts, and voids in our bank account after being victimized by Ms. Mitchell and her agency. The one fortunate thing about our situation is that our case was not that far along before Joann realized she could bilk us out of our money and manipulate us away from the little girl we so hoped could become our daughter. Hopefully, recent developments have put AP out of business, but BE FOREWARNED: Any agency where Joanne is remotely involved does not merit any consideration as ethical, professional, capable, or caring!
Not anymore. She took over Adoption Resource Center, formerly located in Maryland and Florida. She is listed as the Executive Director on the most recent 990 (tax-exempt form) for this agency. I wonder if she's going to change names again?
You'all should read the news on guadadopt.com.... a lot of agency owners that are being prosecuted for fraud....hopefully Joanne Mitchell at adoption partners will be the next!
I gave them one star only because "zero" wasn't a choice. I just wanted to comment on the review that JoAnne Mitchell has the energy of three people. I just wanted to add that she also has the personality of three people....three delusional, narcissistic people who have no morals or integrity! Regardless of the name of her agency, she is a crook and needs to be stopped. We are hoping her next "ministry" is license plate manufacturing at some secure facility somewhere.
Totally agree with everything everyone has stated, 110%. No need to rehash things. Trust what others have said. Not sure how anyone could treat families like they do.... just totally unbelievable!
I would not recommend them to a friend or to an enemy. They do not return phone calls and do not provide the services described in their publicity. They only answer certain questions and we still have not received paperwork that we have been asking for for many months now. They have no clue where our case is in the court process and we have had to hire an outside attorney, Adoption Supervisors, to keep track of our case. They still have not provided us case numbers or even monthly medical updates. Steer clear of adoption Partners!!!! Check it out on Adoption.com, Guatemalan board...there are many dissatisfied clients. Just ask!
PLEASE NOTE that all prior "good" ratings are from people who have not yet completed their adoptions. We, too, were "taken in" by this agency in the initial stages of our adoptive process. We were happy initially because we were ignorant of the truth!! Once we started having questions about our case, things turned ugly. Answers were vague and usually found to be not true. We accepted referral mid 2006 and got one initial and onlyone other medical updatein 6 months! Granted, our son is essentially healthy, but they said we would recieve monthly updates! We were told repeatedly that we were in PGN for months, when infact, our actual date of submission was 9 weeks later than she insisted we were submitted.
Our concerns were not taken seriously and we were belittled when we had questions. We were also prohibited from visiting for the past 6 months, although initially we were allowed to visit "any time". We hired Adoption-Supervisors (SJI) and found out about the lies we had been told about our case. Coincidentally, the day that we confronted her with the information we had uncovered about our case, she told us that she had "just found out" that her office in Guatemala was lying to her.
When we asked for a fee reduction for having to hire our own attorneys to get the staus of our case, we were told "your child didn't die, the birthmother hasn't changed her mind", so therefore no fee reduction!! No apologies either for the poor service, communiction or information. In fact, towards the end of our adoptive process by our agency that they would fabricate a story to delay our case further at the USE!! We are happy to have a beautiful son, but so glad we are done with a year long relationship with an agency that caused delays at every turn. I cannot understand how someone who has such poor people skills would be in this type of business. Hopefully not much longer!!I, too, have full documentation of all of my complaints and complaints that we have filed with JCICS, SC Attorney General's Office and USE in Guatemala.
STEER CLEAR of Adoption Partners. She applied to the Hague for accreditation under a different agency name "Los Estrellas".
i would not recommend this facilitator to anyone not even my worst enemy. for 6 weeks after our referral we kept hearing our process was moving right along and we will be bringing our child home within 4 months. little did we know the attorney hired was banned by the embassy and the facilitator knew this but didn't tell us. we went for a few visits while the facilitator was there. she would pick and choose her favorite clients and invite them out to dinner with her and hang out with them and the rest of us were left high and dry and excluded. we were never given our own website which on her website is promised to the clients. our son was sick when he came home with massive double ear infections which almost caused loss of hearing. the doctor at home told us these ear infections our child had must have been there for months without any type of treatment. when we came home our son was dx with adhd and sensory issues and i emailed numerous times and never had a response. the only time i got a response was a few months ago when i sent an updated picture and asked for some information and was told via email how dare you send me a picture and ask for information from me when all you do is go around and post bad things and bad referrals about me on different websites. do not contact me ever again. this woman works hard but does not answer questions and picks and chooses her favorite clients and gives them preferential treatment.
The first thing that struck me about this agency was the knowledge base and comfort of the staff with Guatemalan adoptions. We actually changed agencys, prior to match, to use this agency. Joanne has the energy of three people. I receive emails often within minutes of when they are sent, especially if over a sensitive matter. If she needs to obtain info, she emails me and gets back to me in the time frame stated. I get medicals I never even asked for. When we had problems in family court, she knew exactly what to do and kept me informed every step of the way.... even when news wasn't what I wanted hear. I get pictures and movies on a regular bases. I can tell our little one is thriving and being taken good care of. She always lets us know ahead of time when she will be sending packages for babies and foster moms. I know at times she has taken packages to orphanages. She seems to be a very caring person. I am quite nervous about travel, and she has offered to have her assistant in Guatemala meet me at the airport and take me to the hotel, just so we can go for a visit trip. When I was unable to get a package together for our baby and foster mom, she sent one for me and politely refused reimbursement. I have to say overall, I have been impressed with this agency and plan to use them for round two should God lead us there.
My experience with this agency almost ended my adoption journey as I was so afraid to trust again.When I first contacted this agency they were so nice and eager to get started. I identified a child that was available on thier site but could not get questions answered, calls returned, no return emails etc. I went 3 weeks without a single return call or email I left MANY.
When you did ask questions via email they would answer one of the ten questions we listed. The owner seems to talk down to you when you needed something or questioned her. We asked for references, she said yes but never produced, we asked for medical info with no response. They leave many children's pictures on their website that are NOT available. Thank God we found an agency we could trust and now we are bringing home 3 beautiful children from Guatemala. Seems to be moving right along!!!I would not trust this agency if it were the only one. They are not available or family oriented as they state on their website. I did my homework and found this agency operated under another name out of California. JUST BEWARE!!!
The Agency used an attorney and facilitator, both of whom were banned from the Embassy ultimately. This reflects badly on their choice of representation within the country. We were kept completely unaware of specifics regarding our case; we would never know exactly what stage we were at. Did ultimately bring the child home in the vast majority of cases but it was not a smooth, supportive journey and it certainly was never done within a timely fashion.
The details about the trips are bogus, as is their commitment. Much of their website has not been updated in over two years. The trip dates were changed to make them more recent, but the picture there is estimated to be 4 years old.
This agency has HORRIBLE ethics. She has a longstanding relationship with a facilitator that was banned by the US Embassy, and many of her adoptions are processed by this man (she is fully aware he has been banned, she just doesn't care). She has threatened many families with pulling referrals or extending their process.
And for some families, she may always remain sweet as sugar.
We had a horrible experience with this agency. Our experience was pretty much identical to the first four posting on this site. Specifically, the agency told us that we were in PGN but we found out 3 months later that our case had not even exited Family Court and the birthmother had yet to be interviewed. It took us hiring Adoption Supervisors (the original AS) to confirm that we were not in PGN. Before hiring AS we had asked the agency for the PGN entry receipt number for 3 weeks straight and they gave all sorts of excuses of why they could not get it. We called the PGN court ourselves and was told that there was no case for our adoption. The agency would not believe us and told us that they were not going to give us a PGN receipt number no matter how many times we asked. They told us that they were 100% sure that we were in PGN. So we hired Adoption Supervisors and found out within 24 hours that our case had not even exited Family Court. The agency did not communicate with us in a helpful manner, they did not support our concerns of not being given a PGN number that ultimately added on 3 months of waiting for us. We completed our adoption through the use of Adoption Supervisors.
Our son came home on a Wednesday (9 months from being matched), was in the Emergency Room on Saturday and had open heart surgery on the next Tuesday. Our son was very sick with a large hole in his heart. The doctors stated that he would had lived about one more month without the operation as he was entering heart failure when we took him to the Emergency Room. The agency provided us with ONE medical report at the time of referral and ONE medical report when our son was 5 months old which we insisted on after visiting him one month earlier and saw that he was having problems breathing, was underweight and developmentally delayed. We have since found out that the facilitator who the agency uses would not listen to the foster mom when she told him that our son was sick. The foster mom took our son to her own peditrician who diagnosed our son with a heart condition but the medical doctor who the agency uses refused to acknowledge this and we were never told one thing about the heart condition. So the 3 month delay I mentioned earlier could have meant our son's life - the delay could had been prevented if the agency simply looked into our concerns and made sure that the facilitator provided her with documentation confirming entry and exit from Family Court and entry into PGN.
The agency provided us with horrible services and we hope that this will be an agency that is shut down in the future for unethical and incompetent behavior. I can back up every last thing I have written in this review and much that I have chosen not to talk about via saved emails and witnesses to events and information that prove unethical and incompetent behavior on part of the agency.
The agency currently states on their website stories of visiting Guatemala in Jan, Feb, March, April and May 2007. The agency would not let us visit with our son when we asked for a visit to see him in March of 2007. The email from the agency states that for "safety purposes" they were not allowing visits. However, the website indicates that the agency went there in March 2007 with adoptive families.
In the beginning, things seemed fine with this agency (up until Pre-approval). I was told that our case entered PGN on Sept 12, 2006 when in fact it did not enter until Dec 15, 2006. It didn't even clear family court until Dec 11, 2006. When I visited in Nov '06, I was told by the facilitator that we were definitely in PGN. Whenever I tried to get information about our case, I was either lied to or never responded to up until the time we received Pink. In addition, they have told other families that they no longer worked with the "banned facilitator." This is not true as this is the facilitator that was used in my case. Steer clear of this agency.
We were consistently told inaccurate information during our adoption process. Our child was moved from 1 foster mother to another but we were never told why or when...In fact it was denied that the child had been with the first Foster Mother to begin with....We do however have all the paperwork. We asked the coordinator directly when we visited, when was the child placed with the Foster Mother. I don't know a lot of Spanish, but I could tell he did not ask the Foster Mother the queston I had asked....and I could tell that he was "inventing" an answer. He said " The child has been with M since he was 1 week old"...We were also told false entry dates into PGN....We were told and thought we were in PGN for 2 MONTHS before we were actually submitted....(Imagine every day waiting for "The Call"....) We did not even find out when we really went in however until 4 months after we were told that our case went in. ie: Told we went in June...Really went in Aug...Didn't find out our true entry date until early Oct after we demanded info and threatened to hire Adoption Supervisors....We do have our child and we will always be grateful for him....but it took a year and we were in limbo the entire time wondering what was the truth and what was fabrication to keep us hanging on. We would definitely NOT recommend this agency to friend or foe.
stay clear. lies lies lies. dont know how this woman sleeps at night. she is a fast talker and will be able to sell you anything you WANT to hear, at first, until you are in process and then she is a money grubbing lieing immoral person that should not be allowed within miles of children or people wanting to adopt children. The only guarantee you have with this agency is that you will need to hire Adoption Supervisors to get your child out. Stay clear---do not walk, RUN as fast you can.
WARNING: This agency is to be avoided at all costs. They are unethical, & used a banned facilitator on our case. The director without business savvy. Communication regarding our case was very poor, with information almost always inaccurate. Time lines were all wrong, we were never where she told us we were in the process! She had no clue about the particulars of our case. Beware: She posts on adoption forums as a PAP and monitors her clients forum discussions.
This agency is still offering referrals as of mid-October 2007, despite strong statements issued by the DOS. THIS IS A HUGE RED FLAG!! No mention of any problems with implementation of the Hague & Guatemalan adoptions appear on her website to warn any unsuspecting parents.
This agency deserves a "0" in the "Ethics/Birth Family and Country" category, because their ethics are not "poor", they are non-existent.
I could go on for hours. Suffice to say that we have had nothing but trouble from start to finish. We almost quit at least twice. We received "referrals" that were not real, we lost two separate referrals months into the process, and we had delays in both of our two cases for no good reason. The owner was caught in one lie after another and never took ownership. All she did was defer and blame the people in Guatemala. She never knows the status of any of her cases and if she does give you an update it is 9 times out of 10 a complete lie. We were also forced to hire Adoption Supervisors. After hiring them we discovered one of our cases was already in PGN and she didn't inform us. In other words, she doesn't just keep the bad news from her clients she doesn't pass along good news either.
There are MANY unethical practices conducted by staff on a daily basis. In fact, they go beyond unethical. I strongly suggest avoiding Adoption Partners and/or Las Estrellas at all costs. Even though our two kids are finally home I am still worried because of the practices used by her agency. BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE
I signed a contract in September 2006 and was given a referral one month later. For the next fourteen months, I was lied to, bullied, and intimidated by this agency. I was told story after story about why my case was making no progress, and then I was told my case WAS progressing. It turned out to be ALL LIES, every single bit of progress was actually A LIE. I even have a legal document from Guatemala stating that the Power of Attorney to START my case was NEVER filed, even though the "agency" said I was in process that entire time. The director continued to blame me for not accepting a new referral even though SHE was the one who talked me out of a new referral by saying progress was being made! The story ended when the agency promised me either a new referral or a partial refund, but I have not heard from them in over a year since this promise (and of course I never received a new referral or a refund).
The agency worked with a banned facilitator. The director of the agency bragged about being able to bribe PGN officials. I never received one single medical update on my "referral," and the monthly visits that are advertised on the agency website occur more like every 8 weeks. They currently have a bad rating with their local Better Business Bureau because they refused to address my complaint. They do not care about their reputation or about their clients.
I gave them A LOT of money to facilitate an adoption process. They never matched me with a child that was able to be adopted, they lied to me constantly, and they blamed me for everything. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one they have done these kinds of things to. They will make FALSE CLAIMS, they will blame the waiting parents for not waiting patiently enough and then blame the parents for not demanding things. IT WAS A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Being bullied is NOT one of the risks we expect with adoption, and signing with this agency is a BIG risk.
We adopted years ago when Joanne had not yet even completed one adoption (dummies!) She came across all sweet but once I started inquiring about my attorney on a forum she told me (and others) not to ask questions as it would cause problems for the case. Turns out my attorney was banned by the embassy- what a way to start out. I went to Guatemala and stayed there with my baby daughter, made friends with a very well-connected attorney and his wife and informed Joanne I no longer needed her services. Plus I speak Spanish, so there was no need for her- too bad I had already paid her. I met the banned attorney and asked him how much Joanne had paid him- it was thousands less than she charged me for the attorney's fees, and a week before the adoption was finalized she had not even paid him-- he asked me to ask her for the money, which I did and received a scathing email from her in return. I saved all my emails, too.
Her new agency is Adoption Resource Center in Florida- STAY AWAY FROM HER.
By the way, she is very, very, very wealthy- she used to own a training company for 3rd party billing and cleaned up- before she started stealing money in adoptions.
We recently completed our adoption with Joanne and Adoption Partners. The process took 10 months to complete, which surprised me considering all of the legislative changes Guatemala has recently undergone. We accepted our referral late last year. Joanne advised us of the risks and we came into the process knowing we may ultimately not bring our child home. There were a few times in which I experienced the dark side of Joanne. She was defensive, unsympathetic, and down right rude. She selectively answered e-mails and refused to send us info we requested. She did, however, send us monthly medical reports and pictures. The Dateline special was alarming. I recommend thinking twice about hiring an agency with her involved. Though our adoption was fairly smooth, I did experience the Joanne that does not care about the children she is helping find forever families. I am sure there are more caring people involved in the adoption process. Do your homework.
We have since brought our healty beautiful baby girl home in November since my last review. I think the dates on these reviews are wrong. Anyway, I can still say, that we had a great experience with Adoption Partners. Luckily, we had a very smooth case (8 mos.) w/o any bumps along the way. Unfortunately, a lot of the problems that can arise during the adoption process, are most of the time out of the agencies hands. I feel bad for anyone that had a bad experience with Joanne move quickly to get them home! As another person wrote in their review, we will always hear more from the people who are unhappy then the people that had a positive experience. If you look at the big picture....... Joanne did hundreds of adoptions, so I think there must be quite a few of us out there...
I can't believe you have NO sympathy. You are one of the lucky ones. You know to stay in business and scam many more people out of money she has to do one or two good adoptions and you are lucky for being that lucky one. She NOTHING but a BIG CROOK!!!!! She will pay for what she has done to all the other families.
I would advice you to get out, if you have not lost too much already. She is nothing but a Crook!!! My heart and prayers are with you. We have lost a big some of money and have received nothing!!!!
If Joanne goes out of business this doesn't necessarily mean anything for your case. Your case in Guatemala is being handled by an attorney and facilitator. Quite honestly I would do what you can to track them down and start working directly with them. We were working with Joanne and she just quit communicating with us (way back LAST SUMMER)and so we have been working directly with our attorney. You DO NOT need Joanne or Adoption Partners to complete your adoption. You may want to contact Adoption Supervisors for some advice on how to go forward.
I have just read EVERY entry in this forum. My husband and I are currently using this agency. I just read that AP is shutting down(?) Is this true??? What day did this happen? My head is spinning, my mind is racing, my heart is breaking, and I am REALLY nauseous. I just may lose my mind. I'm not joking. Can ANYONE direct me to where I can find out not only if this is true, but what this means for our case? We just received an email from them on Monday updating us on our case. I need some sort of official confirmation. Please, if anyone has any info to help me I would be so, so, SO grateful.
Printer-friendly version
Reviews
Completed Adoption w/altered Birth Certificate
I just saw the Dateline story which mentioned that Adoption Partners was one of the agencies that was using a banned facilitator of adoptions and I figured I would add my story to the list of complaints.
I wanted a older child around the same age as my birth daughter. The first child that I was interested was removed because there was a glitch in the paperwork (dirty paperwork).
The next children that were offered were sisters. I was interested in the older one. The adoption seemed to be dragging on forever, so I took a trip to Guatemala to visit. Everything seemed to be going fine. I received the video updates which showed that my daughter was getting the packages that I was sending. Jonanne seemed to have her stuff together and was very inthusiastic.
The problem began when I got the adoption packet of paperwork I think a day or two before the adoption was to be finalized. I read through it and found a birth certificate with a birthdate that made my daughter two years older than what she was suppose to be. I called Joanne and she advised me of what to do to get the adoption to go through.
To make a long story short, we tried to go get the paperwork changed to no avail. They acted like the adoption was not going to be completed and that I might have to wait to get everything completed on a 3rd visit to Guatemala. I called Joanne again from Guatemala and she was yelling at me on the phone and telling me to call the embassy and go back to the embassy by myself (I was a single mom adopting) and nearly beg them to get the adoption to go through. I did all this which was a MAJOR task of travelling back to the embassy in a cab with no help and waiting in a long line of people to get up to one window after another window of being turned away. I finally was able to get them to help me and was able to complete the adoption since all of the official paperwork had the altered birthdate in it. Little did I what trouble would lay ahead.
After returning to the US my daughter started school in kindergarten since she didn't know english even though she should have been in first grade. My other daughter was also in kindergarten. Now they both are in 4th grade and my adopted daughter has breast and her period has started. She weighs about 120 pounds on a short frame and eats endlessly. She lies, cheats and steals. She is very forward (flirty) with boys as a teenager would be, not a 4th grader.
She has mentioned that she heard the conversation when her mom "sold her" and a few of her siblings. Her mother was pregnant again when my adoption was going through. She has also mentioned that in Guatemala she was even older than the two year discrepancy that I am aware of.
Since the day that Joanne was yelling at me in Guatemala, I never once heard from Joanne again. Not a email, call or letter even congratulating me on the completion of my adoption.
I have since adopted two local children through the state after fostering them. I would recommend this over the international adoption. There are many children including babies locally that need to be adopted. You can foster them and if it is a good fit, then adopt them if they become available.
I forgot to mention that once in Guatamala they tried to get me to pay even more money for a school bill or medical bill that I had already paid for!
Adoption Roads can be bumpy........
or they can be downright treacherous. While I'm glad for you and envy your naivete', I will just say that if you would like to see some of our e-mails from JoAnne that are condescending, patronizing and sometimes downright threatening, let me know. I'll gladly share them. I will also forward ours to you so that you can see the things that we requested from JoAnne are by no means out of the ordinary.
We also have two children that we adopted, both through JoAnne Mitchell. My husband and I are still kicking ourselves for not following our gut and changing agencies despite our communication problems with JoAnne during our first adoption. For our second, we rationalized that we "knew how she worked" and that if my husband just dealt with her, we could make it through the process.
JoAnne is a crook. She held our check and refused to pay the banned facilitator, Teo, which held up our case. She also lied to us about hiring Adoption Supervisors, about where our case was in the process, about medical reports, etc. Also, would you like to see the forged POA that somehow appeared in our file despite proof that we sent her one with our valid signatures. I'm sure the Dept of Homeland Security is very interested in this aspect of our case also and we are providing any and all info. to any agency.
She knows exactly what she is doing which is why she has changed the name of her agency and for the Hague accreditation filed under the name "las Estrella's" dba Adoption Partners. Don't you think if she was a legit agency, she would have told her clients of this name issue so that we could review her agency in order to ensure accreditation? Businesses with good business practices don't operate under one name and file all of their accreditation paperwork under another.
Good luck to you and please keep your innocence! Pray for JoAnne or whoever you want, but please pray for the children that are involved in any case that JoAnne and Teo facilitate.
Sincerely,
Susan G. (Mom to 2 despite AP)
Please note that I'm using my name as I'm tired of all these screen name things. The above comments are my opinion and my experience.
Mom to 2 despite AP
JoAnne Mitchell
Again, one star only because zero was not offered as a choice. Just wanted to back this comment up since now I am a "registered" user. Our experience with JoAnne Mitchell and Adoption Partners was horrible. Not only did she repeatedly lie to us, she attempted to cover up her lies with other lies. She held our check and refused to pay the facilitator in Guatemala, who we found out is actually one of the banned facilitators....he goes by the name Teo. We were involved in the Dateline story via telephonic interview and we also shared our e-mail traffic from JoAnne with the producers. We have since turned over all of our documentation to the Embassy and the Department of Homeland Security. We also have some great "film" from our trip to Guatemala. JoAnne is evil and there are many clients that will not stop until she is shut down. Count us as one of those clients. Mom to 2 despite AP
10 fingers down for this agency
I and many other families have been in contact with both the people in charge of implementing the Hague and the state to insure that she DOES NOT get accredited. Word has it thought that she is buying in to a new agency so she can continue to steal people's money and terrorize families. This woman has to be stopped. I agree, how she can sleep at night is a complete mystery to me except that it shows her mental state, that she has no regard for other people nor does she have any respect for the wonderful people of Guatemala, that would include her poor innocent children who are adopted from Guatemala. She refers children then pulls referrals and some of these children were never adopted because of the games she plays. I recieved a referral of a little girl and we fell in love with the picture (Joann'e EXACT words "that's a little weird") WEIRD? WHY? You cannot love the child you think you are about to adopt? Many things happened that caused us to be suspicious, we finally had a friend annonymously call and inquire about our child and Joanne enthusiastically told my friend that our daughter was available, after we sent the check. We were able to stop payment on that check so there was no money loss but the loss of the dream was almost harder to bear. We went to Guatemala after accepting a referral with another "ETHICAL" agency and we still in our hearts hoped to run in to someone who knew how we might be able to get the our first baby too. Joanne led us on, lied, talked down to us, told us to lie, told us to go to a friend and have all of our documents notarized by one person and to make up our references to make it go faster. Like many of the reviews said, she blames the people in Guatemala, because they cannot defend themselves and most of us do not speak Spanish so she thinks we cannot find out the truth on our own. And she forbids us to call PGN....hmmmmm...... I wonder why? So she can LIE,LIE,LIE!!!!! This was by far the worst experience of our life. Thank God we brought home a beautiful baby girl in January and she has brought us much JOY. We are now waiting for our 2 other children to come home who just got out of PGN. I am certain if we had done this through Joanne and adoption partners we would be childless, especially the way things are right now. Please... DO YOUR HOMEWORK, Google, yahoo groups you will find it all. Do not allow Joanne to continue to abuse the adoption process and innocent families and children. Make sure if you go with another agency you find out who operates it and that she is NOT involved! TEN FINGERS DOWN FOR THIS AGENCY!
Joanne is a complete fraud!
A lot of lying.
AVOID JOANNE MITCHELL. She already changed the name of her agency once, so beware if she opens up shop under another name again. She's more suited to selling used cars than dealing with human lives. We can't claim that she did anything illegal in our case, but she was very shifty.
The second red flag (after giving her the benefit of the doubt when the first red flag went up) was that she lied about a major fee increase.
(joanne) "I told you the fee went up."
(us) "No, you didn't."
"Yes I did, I'm looking at the email where I told you the fee went up."
"Please forward that email to us."
"Well, I'm not so much looking at the email, more like looking at a checklist that says I emailed you. But the web site shows the new fees."
"No, it doesn't. We're looking at it."
"Well, I told my web master to update it, and you're paying for an attorney who consistently gets cases completed in under 6 months."
...10 months later our case was completed. The only reason we didn't put a stop payment on our check was that we already had photos of our child and had fallen in love. Very dirty strategy on her part.
There was a lot more lying along the way. Nothing illegal (that we know of), just totally unnecessary lying about the progress of the case, dates in and out of PGN, etc. The case was kicked out of PGN and she didn't tell us until weeks later. Then there was an unexplained delay getting it back to PGN. She actually did advise us to lie to PGN by altering our homestudy. (We did not take her advice.)
And to repeat what others have said, she is impossible to reach by phone once she has your money.
On the bright side, she is a horrible liar, so it's pretty easy to keep her on track. Fortunately my mom is fluent in Spanish so we didn't have to hire Adoption Supervisors; we just called PGN directly, and the foster family, and got all our information directly. The dishonesty gave us nightmares and months of worrying that our case was going to wind up on the front page of CNN in a kidnapping scandal, but in the end we got our baby. What's so irritating is that my wife and I are perfectly able to have our own biological child, we just wanted to adopt because we thought it was a more noble thing to do. But after dealing with Joanne, we feel dirty.
By the way, the positive reviews sound just like Joanne. We're 99% sure she wrote them herself, which is totally consistent with what we expect of her. We don't know if she's a malicious liar or just a dingbat who can't take responsibility for her own mistakes. Same difference.
JoAnne
I would love to share our e-mail traffic with anyone who is investigating JoAnne. We too, kept everything and have printed everything out in a nice easy-to-follow packet. It would make great reading for any DHS or State Dept investigator or anyone else who might be interested.
How much extra did you pay?
How much extra did you pay to get out of PGN?
Didn't Joanne tell you she could get you out faster if you paid a bribe? That's what she told us - an extra $3k. However, we called PGN and found out we were already out of PGN. She was just trying to scam us one more time. We are part of a group of families that adopted from Guatemala -and Joanne pulled fast ones on all of us - she's a control freak. She'll move your child from one foster home to another without telling you to keep you from your child and extort more money from you.
Your only hope is to tell her she's wonderful and doing a great job, etc. If she likes you, then she'll treat you better than most - but she'll use that against you to scam more money from you and blame the problem on a corrupt Guatemala.
Again - how much extra did she get from you?
Adoption Partners
Come to find out (as recently as today), we were one of the many families left with an empty room in our house, aches in our hearts, and voids in our bank account after being victimized by Ms. Mitchell and her agency. The one fortunate thing about our situation is that our case was not that far along before Joann realized she could bilk us out of our money and manipulate us away from the little girl we so hoped could become our daughter. Hopefully, recent developments have put AP out of business, but BE FOREWARNED: Any agency where Joanne is remotely involved does not merit any consideration as ethical, professional, capable, or caring!
Las Estrellas, Inc.
Not anymore. She took over Adoption Resource Center, formerly located in Maryland and Florida. She is listed as the Executive Director on the most recent 990 (tax-exempt form) for this agency. I wonder if she's going to change names again?
You'all should read the news
You'all should read the news on guadadopt.com.... a lot of agency owners that are being prosecuted for fraud....hopefully Joanne Mitchell at adoption partners will be the next!
JoAnne Mitchell
I gave them one star only because "zero" wasn't a choice. I just wanted to comment on the review that JoAnne Mitchell has the energy of three people. I just wanted to add that she also has the personality of three people....three delusional, narcissistic people who have no morals or integrity! Regardless of the name of her agency, she is a crook and needs to be stopped. We are hoping her next "ministry" is license plate manufacturing at some secure facility somewhere.
Totally agree
Totally agree with everything everyone has stated, 110%. No need to rehash things. Trust what others have said. Not sure how anyone could treat families like they do.... just totally unbelievable!
Also had to hire ASG. Did
Also had to hire ASG. Did not return emails or phone calls. No updates on case. FM were great though! Would not use again or rec to anyone.
I would not recommend them
I would not recommend them to a friend or to an enemy. They do not return phone calls and do not provide the services described in their publicity. They only answer certain questions and we still have not received paperwork that we have been asking for for many months now. They have no clue where our case is in the court process and we have had to hire an outside attorney, Adoption Supervisors, to keep track of our case. They still have not provided us case numbers or even monthly medical updates. Steer clear of adoption Partners!!!! Check it out on Adoption.com, Guatemalan board...there are many dissatisfied clients. Just ask!
PLEASE NOTE that all prior
PLEASE NOTE that all prior "good" ratings are from people who have not yet completed their adoptions. We, too, were "taken in" by this agency in the initial stages of our adoptive process. We were happy initially because we were ignorant of the truth!! Once we started having questions about our case, things turned ugly. Answers were vague and usually found to be not true. We accepted referral mid 2006 and got one initial and onlyone other medical updatein 6 months! Granted, our son is essentially healthy, but they said we would recieve monthly updates! We were told repeatedly that we were in PGN for months, when infact, our actual date of submission was 9 weeks later than she insisted we were submitted.
Our concerns were not taken seriously and we were belittled when we had questions. We were also prohibited from visiting for the past 6 months, although initially we were allowed to visit "any time". We hired Adoption-Supervisors (SJI) and found out about the lies we had been told about our case. Coincidentally, the day that we confronted her with the information we had uncovered about our case, she told us that she had "just found out" that her office in Guatemala was lying to her.
When we asked for a fee reduction for having to hire our own attorneys to get the staus of our case, we were told "your child didn't die, the birthmother hasn't changed her mind", so therefore no fee reduction!! No apologies either for the poor service, communiction or information. In fact, towards the end of our adoptive process by our agency that they would fabricate a story to delay our case further at the USE!! We are happy to have a beautiful son, but so glad we are done with a year long relationship with an agency that caused delays at every turn. I cannot understand how someone who has such poor people skills would be in this type of business. Hopefully not much longer!!I, too, have full documentation of all of my complaints and complaints that we have filed with JCICS, SC Attorney General's Office and USE in Guatemala.
STEER CLEAR of Adoption Partners. She applied to the Hague for accreditation under a different agency name "Los Estrellas".
i would not recommend this
i would not recommend this facilitator to anyone not even my worst enemy. for 6 weeks after our referral we kept hearing our process was moving right along and we will be bringing our child home within 4 months. little did we know the attorney hired was banned by the embassy and the facilitator knew this but didn't tell us. we went for a few visits while the facilitator was there. she would pick and choose her favorite clients and invite them out to dinner with her and hang out with them and the rest of us were left high and dry and excluded. we were never given our own website which on her website is promised to the clients. our son was sick when he came home with massive double ear infections which almost caused loss of hearing. the doctor at home told us these ear infections our child had must have been there for months without any type of treatment. when we came home our son was dx with adhd and sensory issues and i emailed numerous times and never had a response. the only time i got a response was a few months ago when i sent an updated picture and asked for some information and was told via email how dare you send me a picture and ask for information from me when all you do is go around and post bad things and bad referrals about me on different websites. do not contact me ever again. this woman works hard but does not answer questions and picks and chooses her favorite clients and gives them preferential treatment.
The first thing that struck
The first thing that struck me about this agency was the knowledge base and comfort of the staff with Guatemalan adoptions. We actually changed agencys, prior to match, to use this agency. Joanne has the energy of three people. I receive emails often within minutes of when they are sent, especially if over a sensitive matter. If she needs to obtain info, she emails me and gets back to me in the time frame stated. I get medicals I never even asked for. When we had problems in family court, she knew exactly what to do and kept me informed every step of the way.... even when news wasn't what I wanted hear. I get pictures and movies on a regular bases. I can tell our little one is thriving and being taken good care of. She always lets us know ahead of time when she will be sending packages for babies and foster moms. I know at times she has taken packages to orphanages. She seems to be a very caring person. I am quite nervous about travel, and she has offered to have her assistant in Guatemala meet me at the airport and take me to the hotel, just so we can go for a visit trip. When I was unable to get a package together for our baby and foster mom, she sent one for me and politely refused reimbursement. I have to say overall, I have been impressed with this agency and plan to use them for round two should God lead us there.
My experience with this
My experience with this agency almost ended my adoption journey as I was so afraid to trust again.When I first contacted this agency they were so nice and eager to get started. I identified a child that was available on thier site but could not get questions answered, calls returned, no return emails etc. I went 3 weeks without a single return call or email I left MANY.
When you did ask questions via email they would answer one of the ten questions we listed. The owner seems to talk down to you when you needed something or questioned her. We asked for references, she said yes but never produced, we asked for medical info with no response. They leave many children's pictures on their website that are NOT available. Thank God we found an agency we could trust and now we are bringing home 3 beautiful children from Guatemala. Seems to be moving right along!!!I would not trust this agency if it were the only one. They are not available or family oriented as they state on their website. I did my homework and found this agency operated under another name out of California. JUST BEWARE!!!
The Agency used an attorney
The Agency used an attorney and facilitator, both of whom were banned from the Embassy ultimately. This reflects badly on their choice of representation within the country. We were kept completely unaware of specifics regarding our case; we would never know exactly what stage we were at. Did ultimately bring the child home in the vast majority of cases but it was not a smooth, supportive journey and it certainly was never done within a timely fashion.
The details about the trips
The details about the trips are bogus, as is their commitment. Much of their website has not been updated in over two years. The trip dates were changed to make them more recent, but the picture there is estimated to be 4 years old.
This agency has HORRIBLE ethics. She has a longstanding relationship with a facilitator that was banned by the US Embassy, and many of her adoptions are processed by this man (she is fully aware he has been banned, she just doesn't care). She has threatened many families with pulling referrals or extending their process.
And for some families, she may always remain sweet as sugar.
We had a horrible experience
We had a horrible experience with this agency. Our experience was pretty much identical to the first four posting on this site. Specifically, the agency told us that we were in PGN but we found out 3 months later that our case had not even exited Family Court and the birthmother had yet to be interviewed. It took us hiring Adoption Supervisors (the original AS) to confirm that we were not in PGN. Before hiring AS we had asked the agency for the PGN entry receipt number for 3 weeks straight and they gave all sorts of excuses of why they could not get it. We called the PGN court ourselves and was told that there was no case for our adoption. The agency would not believe us and told us that they were not going to give us a PGN receipt number no matter how many times we asked. They told us that they were 100% sure that we were in PGN. So we hired Adoption Supervisors and found out within 24 hours that our case had not even exited Family Court. The agency did not communicate with us in a helpful manner, they did not support our concerns of not being given a PGN number that ultimately added on 3 months of waiting for us. We completed our adoption through the use of Adoption Supervisors.
Our son came home on a Wednesday (9 months from being matched), was in the Emergency Room on Saturday and had open heart surgery on the next Tuesday. Our son was very sick with a large hole in his heart. The doctors stated that he would had lived about one more month without the operation as he was entering heart failure when we took him to the Emergency Room. The agency provided us with ONE medical report at the time of referral and ONE medical report when our son was 5 months old which we insisted on after visiting him one month earlier and saw that he was having problems breathing, was underweight and developmentally delayed. We have since found out that the facilitator who the agency uses would not listen to the foster mom when she told him that our son was sick. The foster mom took our son to her own peditrician who diagnosed our son with a heart condition but the medical doctor who the agency uses refused to acknowledge this and we were never told one thing about the heart condition. So the 3 month delay I mentioned earlier could have meant our son's life - the delay could had been prevented if the agency simply looked into our concerns and made sure that the facilitator provided her with documentation confirming entry and exit from Family Court and entry into PGN.
The agency provided us with horrible services and we hope that this will be an agency that is shut down in the future for unethical and incompetent behavior. I can back up every last thing I have written in this review and much that I have chosen not to talk about via saved emails and witnesses to events and information that prove unethical and incompetent behavior on part of the agency.
The agency currently states on their website stories of visiting Guatemala in Jan, Feb, March, April and May 2007. The agency would not let us visit with our son when we asked for a visit to see him in March of 2007. The email from the agency states that for "safety purposes" they were not allowing visits. However, the website indicates that the agency went there in March 2007 with adoptive families.
In the beginning, things
In the beginning, things seemed fine with this agency (up until Pre-approval). I was told that our case entered PGN on Sept 12, 2006 when in fact it did not enter until Dec 15, 2006. It didn't even clear family court until Dec 11, 2006. When I visited in Nov '06, I was told by the facilitator that we were definitely in PGN. Whenever I tried to get information about our case, I was either lied to or never responded to up until the time we received Pink. In addition, they have told other families that they no longer worked with the "banned facilitator." This is not true as this is the facilitator that was used in my case. Steer clear of this agency.
We were consistently told
We were consistently told inaccurate information during our adoption process. Our child was moved from 1 foster mother to another but we were never told why or when...In fact it was denied that the child had been with the first Foster Mother to begin with....We do however have all the paperwork. We asked the coordinator directly when we visited, when was the child placed with the Foster Mother. I don't know a lot of Spanish, but I could tell he did not ask the Foster Mother the queston I had asked....and I could tell that he was "inventing" an answer. He said " The child has been with M since he was 1 week old"...We were also told false entry dates into PGN....We were told and thought we were in PGN for 2 MONTHS before we were actually submitted....(Imagine every day waiting for "The Call"....) We did not even find out when we really went in however until 4 months after we were told that our case went in. ie: Told we went in June...Really went in Aug...Didn't find out our true entry date until early Oct after we demanded info and threatened to hire Adoption Supervisors....We do have our child and we will always be grateful for him....but it took a year and we were in limbo the entire time wondering what was the truth and what was fabrication to keep us hanging on. We would definitely NOT recommend this agency to friend or foe.
stay clear. lies lies lies.
stay clear. lies lies lies. dont know how this woman sleeps at night. she is a fast talker and will be able to sell you anything you WANT to hear, at first, until you are in process and then she is a money grubbing lieing immoral person that should not be allowed within miles of children or people wanting to adopt children. The only guarantee you have with this agency is that you will need to hire Adoption Supervisors to get your child out. Stay clear---do not walk, RUN as fast you can.
WARNING: This agency is to
WARNING: This agency is to be avoided at all costs. They are unethical, & used a banned facilitator on our case. The director without business savvy. Communication regarding our case was very poor, with information almost always inaccurate. Time lines were all wrong, we were never where she told us we were in the process! She had no clue about the particulars of our case. Beware: She posts on adoption forums as a PAP and monitors her clients forum discussions.
This agency is still offering referrals as of mid-October 2007, despite strong statements issued by the DOS. THIS IS A HUGE RED FLAG!! No mention of any problems with implementation of the Hague & Guatemalan adoptions appear on her website to warn any unsuspecting parents.
This agency deserves a "0" in the "Ethics/Birth Family and Country" category, because their ethics are not "poor", they are non-existent.
I could go on for hours.
I could go on for hours. Suffice to say that we have had nothing but trouble from start to finish. We almost quit at least twice. We received "referrals" that were not real, we lost two separate referrals months into the process, and we had delays in both of our two cases for no good reason. The owner was caught in one lie after another and never took ownership. All she did was defer and blame the people in Guatemala. She never knows the status of any of her cases and if she does give you an update it is 9 times out of 10 a complete lie. We were also forced to hire Adoption Supervisors. After hiring them we discovered one of our cases was already in PGN and she didn't inform us. In other words, she doesn't just keep the bad news from her clients she doesn't pass along good news either.
There are MANY unethical practices conducted by staff on a daily basis. In fact, they go beyond unethical. I strongly suggest avoiding Adoption Partners and/or Las Estrellas at all costs. Even though our two kids are finally home I am still worried because of the practices used by her agency. BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE
Fourteen months of HELL
I signed a contract in September 2006 and was given a referral one month later. For the next fourteen months, I was lied to, bullied, and intimidated by this agency. I was told story after story about why my case was making no progress, and then I was told my case WAS progressing. It turned out to be ALL LIES, every single bit of progress was actually A LIE. I even have a legal document from Guatemala stating that the Power of Attorney to START my case was NEVER filed, even though the "agency" said I was in process that entire time. The director continued to blame me for not accepting a new referral even though SHE was the one who talked me out of a new referral by saying progress was being made! The story ended when the agency promised me either a new referral or a partial refund, but I have not heard from them in over a year since this promise (and of course I never received a new referral or a refund).
The agency worked with a banned facilitator. The director of the agency bragged about being able to bribe PGN officials. I never received one single medical update on my "referral," and the monthly visits that are advertised on the agency website occur more like every 8 weeks. They currently have a bad rating with their local Better Business Bureau because they refused to address my complaint. They do not care about their reputation or about their clients.
I gave them A LOT of money to facilitate an adoption process. They never matched me with a child that was able to be adopted, they lied to me constantly, and they blamed me for everything. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one they have done these kinds of things to. They will make FALSE CLAIMS, they will blame the waiting parents for not waiting patiently enough and then blame the parents for not demanding things. IT WAS A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Being bullied is NOT one of the risks we expect with adoption, and signing with this agency is a BIG risk.
One of Joanne's first victims
We adopted years ago when Joanne had not yet even completed one adoption (dummies!) She came across all sweet but once I started inquiring about my attorney on a forum she told me (and others) not to ask questions as it would cause problems for the case. Turns out my attorney was banned by the embassy- what a way to start out. I went to Guatemala and stayed there with my baby daughter, made friends with a very well-connected attorney and his wife and informed Joanne I no longer needed her services. Plus I speak Spanish, so there was no need for her- too bad I had already paid her. I met the banned attorney and asked him how much Joanne had paid him- it was thousands less than she charged me for the attorney's fees, and a week before the adoption was finalized she had not even paid him-- he asked me to ask her for the money, which I did and received a scathing email from her in return. I saved all my emails, too.
Her new agency is Adoption Resource Center in Florida- STAY AWAY FROM HER.
By the way, she is very, very, very wealthy- she used to own a training company for 3rd party billing and cleaned up- before she started stealing money in adoptions.
So-so experience
We recently completed our adoption with Joanne and Adoption Partners. The process took 10 months to complete, which surprised me considering all of the legislative changes Guatemala has recently undergone. We accepted our referral late last year. Joanne advised us of the risks and we came into the process knowing we may ultimately not bring our child home. There were a few times in which I experienced the dark side of Joanne. She was defensive, unsympathetic, and down right rude. She selectively answered e-mails and refused to send us info we requested. She did, however, send us monthly medical reports and pictures. The Dateline special was alarming. I recommend thinking twice about hiring an agency with her involved. Though our adoption was fairly smooth, I did experience the Joanne that does not care about the children she is helping find forever families. I am sure there are more caring people involved in the adoption process. Do your homework.
Update from Anonymous.
We have since brought our healty beautiful baby girl home in November since my last review. I think the dates on these reviews are wrong. Anyway, I can still say, that we had a great experience with Adoption Partners. Luckily, we had a very smooth case (8 mos.) w/o any bumps along the way. Unfortunately, a lot of the problems that can arise during the adoption process, are most of the time out of the agencies hands. I feel bad for anyone that had a bad experience with Joanne move quickly to get them home! As another person wrote in their review, we will always hear more from the people who are unhappy then the people that had a positive experience. If you look at the big picture....... Joanne did hundreds of adoptions, so I think there must be quite a few of us out there...
Unbelievable
I can't believe you have NO sympathy. You are one of the lucky ones. You know to stay in business and scam many more people out of money she has to do one or two good adoptions and you are lucky for being that lucky one. She NOTHING but a BIG CROOK!!!!! She will pay for what she has done to all the other families.
I FEEL FOR YOU!!!
I would advice you to get out, if you have not lost too much already. She is nothing but a Crook!!! My heart and prayers are with you. We have lost a big some of money and have received nothing!!!!
If Joanne goes out of
If Joanne goes out of business this doesn't necessarily mean anything for your case. Your case in Guatemala is being handled by an attorney and facilitator. Quite honestly I would do what you can to track them down and start working directly with them. We were working with Joanne and she just quit communicating with us (way back LAST SUMMER)and so we have been working directly with our attorney. You DO NOT need Joanne or Adoption Partners to complete your adoption. You may want to contact Adoption Supervisors for some advice on how to go forward.
ATTENTION ANYONE!!-- PLEASE HELP ME ASAP
I have just read EVERY entry in this forum. My husband and I are currently using this agency. I just read that AP is shutting down(?) Is this true??? What day did this happen? My head is spinning, my mind is racing, my heart is breaking, and I am REALLY nauseous. I just may lose my mind. I'm not joking. Can ANYONE direct me to where I can find out not only if this is true, but what this means for our case? We just received an email from them on Monday updating us on our case. I need some sort of official confirmation. Please, if anyone has any info to help me I would be so, so, SO grateful.