Went to Bethany early in my pregnancy. Made it VERY clear, multiple times (before I even walked in the door, in fact) that I was not sure what I wanted to do--parenting or adoption--and that I needed help and information on both options. They promised to walk me through both options and help me no matter which I chose.
When I had attended several appointments and finally asked for help in putting together a parenting plan, finding community resources to help me parent, and so on, they refused.
They have refused to provide the life-long post-placement counseling they promised.
When I returned to them post-relinquishment and asked for information on support groups, books to help a post-relinquishment mother, etc., they could not provide me with a single resource... I ended up telling THEM about the closest CUB meeting. (And later found out they don't support CUB, anyway, because it's too radical... which is absurd--Google CUB.)
Bethany has individual people who do a good job, but the organization as a whole is corrupt, in my opinion. It is a huge supporter of the NCFA, which lobbies for closed records, closed adoptions, and which put out the booklet "Birth Mother, Good Mother" as a way to market infant adoption--to make women feel that in order to be good mothers, they need to relinquish their children.
Bethany's pamphlets and website alone should be enough to make people RUN in the other direction--there are lies and half-truths and pro-relinquishment spin all over the place. (Check out the "Options" pages on the Unplanned Pregnancy section of the website. Notice how under "Parenting," the NEGATIVES are listed first... and under "Adoption," the POSITIVES are listed first.) There is no mention that open adoptions aren't legally enforceable, either--website makes it sound like it's all up to the natural mom how much contact she has. And no mention of increased risk of depression, PTSD, substance abuse, etc etc after relinquishing a child. Basically... everything is whitewashed.
I could go on and on and on about individual horror stories, about the brainwashing and subtly coercive methods, but I'll stop and just say this:
No mother should relinquish her child through this agency--period. And no adoptive parent should adopt through this agency--period. Unless you are comfortable with a portion of your fees going to SUPPORT denying adoptees their original birth certificates and their own records--then do NOT use this agency, even if you have found an individual office that isn't too bad.
We adopted a little girl through bethany services. I won't use the "Christian" in their name since they are primarily concerned with money and not with Jesus.
They treated our daughters birthmother like crap and like they were trying to sell a perfect caucasian baby. They refused to give her counseling after the baby was six weeks old, even though we paid for lifetime post-placement counseling.
They have denied many women I know this same thing. They also are the largest funders of the NCFA which proposes that women who place their babies for adoption don't love their children.
I placed my daughter into a closed adoption through Bethany in 1990. My social worker was wonderful. I do not think that I asked all of the questions I should have or could have and wish I had been exposed more to the options of open or semi-open adoption.
As my daughter grew, I attempted to add medical information to the file, and the handling of these requests was inept and inconsistent. I later tried to send an update to the adoptive parents, was told by Bethany staff that the adoptive mom had agreed to send me an update letter (which was well outside of what was agreed to in the closed adoption) and I waited anxiously for this letter for months. Finally got an answer from Bethany that the adoptive mother would not even accept the photograph I had sent of myself and my children as she felt that would put them in a position of having to send pictures to me.
Now, I certainly don't fault the adoptive parents, as this was outside of the original agreement. My frustration was with the agency that gave me false information and caused over a year of depression as I dealt with the reality that I would not be getting any information, after celebrating the information I was told was forthcoming.
My initial relief that the agency was able to contact the family so quickly, has changed to doubt if contact was ever even made. My daughter will turn 18 this year and I plan to send a letter for the file at the agency, but have little faith it will wind up where it is supposed to go or be available should the family be ready for the information.
We live in a community with a Bethany office and no other agencies. We drove 2 hours away to use another agency. Bethany's office was very disorganized. When I called for information, they enrolled me in a class on foster parenting without my knowledge. When I did not attend, they were very angry with me. I was not interested in becoming a foster parent. I also don't care for how vague all their information is about cost. If I am going to be ask to spend that amount of money for an adoption, I want to know why costs that much. I don't mind paying for real costs but I do mind paying for other programs. We ended up adopting from S.Korea and paying much more than Bethany charges but our agency could account for everything.
I adopted a Russian special needs toddler from an adoptive family that was unable to keep him due to his needs. Bethany placed the child in my care as a foster placement. Soon I decided I would like to adopt him, but this information was never given to the adoptive family. They were continually told that they had leads, but no family had yet said they were interested. Unwilling to leave the baby in foster care indefinitely, and not knowing about my interest, they asked Bethany to return the child to their home until a suitable family could be found. Bethany then threatened (and did) to turn them into social services and take away their biological daughter. The family sought legal advise and, through their attorney, were able to have the baby returned to them. Social services found absolutely nothing wrong and questioned the complaint. I was able to talk with the parents when bringing the child back to them. Apparently Bethany had not only been lying to them about prospective families, but about results of medical tests, etc. while the child was in my care. In the end we became good friends and I successfully adopted the baby privately. While our story had a happy ending, Bethany, at least in Nashville, can not be trusted to uphold ethical adoption practices. I am thankful that my son's first family had the spirit to put his needs first and fight for him. It seems as though the money Bethany was receiving for having a special needs child in their care was more important than finding him a home. Adoptive parents and birthmothers, please beware.
I went to Bethany in the 90's not knowing what i wanted to do yet...the counselor was so one sided. the organization was so mean and cruel.she saw the turmoil i was in and did not offer anything but adoption for my child...i found out later that they have offered some first moms shepherding homes for their new borns while the mom made a decision and dealt with everything after the birth...i have no idea why that was not offered to me...had i been offered a place for my child for a few weeks, i would have grabbed that!!! i also picked a profile of a family that had agreed to updates and pictures all thru my childs life and to keep the name i gave///they did none of that!!! i am so furious...and I chose life for my child...i gave a family the most precious gift and they and Bethany just laughed...Jesus is definitely not in that organization...but "Vengeance is mine , saith the Lord." I just have to pray my child knows the truth one day and pray for God to hold him close always...
After our placement, things went fairly well. Two years into our adoption, our social worker felt the need to contact the bm and tell her that we should be sending pics/updates. We did our year pic/update obligation/schedule. The sw then calls us and tells us that we must not have Jesus in our hearts if we refuse the updates/pics. Our sw makes a point to find the bm and tell her we will not send pic/updates. Would I rec. Bethany? No. They should take Christain out of the agency name.
Social worker turnover rate was horrible in the office we used. It got down to a single employee for a while. During our process, we had 3 different social workers and had only met 1 of them (until placement day when we finally met our final SW). Paperwork got lost at least 5 different times. The day after placement we got a phone call telling us we owed 4 days worth of medical while in the hospital because of an error they had done.
Not happy at all with the agency in how they handled our adoption. Would not recommend them to anybody, and have told people locally not to use them.
I am surprised to hear that there are negative reviews about Bethany Christian. I placed a baby boy in December of 99 through the Atlanta Bethany office and had a good experience as far as placing a child goes. The social workers were very caring and attentive to my needs. I truly feel that I would not have had a better experience had I turned to another adoption agency. Although my parents arranged the first meeting, I never felt pressured by the agency to place my child. In fact my social worker helped me realistically look at what it would take for me to parent my child. I was seventeen at the time I got pregnant and 18 when I placed. Although it has been 8 years since I placed I am still satisfied with the services I received at Bethany Christian. Not that I never had doubts about my decision, and occasionally regret that I placed for adoption. But this is to be expected because it is a healing process that will probably take the rest of my life. In no way do I ever believe Bethany is to blame for those regrets.
Bethany provided me with a shepherding home in which the couple I lived with had three precious children with which they adopted through Bethany. Bethany provided counseling throughout the entire process. Bethany encouraged a relationship with the adoptive parents throughout the pregnancy and helped set up arrangements for an open adoption and a birthing plan that suited myself and involved the adoptive parents. After the placement I attended post placement support group meetings and did receive some counseling. For anyone who is considering placing or adopting through Bethany I strongly recommend it. Placing is not easy to do but through my experience through the Atlanta office I would recommend Bethany.
And if it werent for the natural mother you wouldn't have her. I cringed how you called it an "obligation". You should be happy to provide pictures and an update. It's the least you could do. It' s not a chore.
I was sad to see such negative comments for Bethany. We had a wonderful experience with the S. CA office. Everyone was extremely kind and very professional, and our social worker Eleanor was the best! We only used their home study and post placement services since the country we adopted from was not available through Bethany. Our reports were all done in a very timely manner and she helped us finalize our adoption very quickly through the local courts.
Here there are lot of reviews are display, I don't how it is happen..?
In my experience Bethany is not so bad. The only drawback is it fails to product the Christianity.....
Apart from this there is no problem...
I adopted through their traverse city, Mi office in 2005. I felt very supported through the whole process. My case worker is still working there and helping me with my second adoption. My office is very willing to offer me any post adoption support I and my son's birthmom have needed. They are still willing to help coordinate visits between the birth parents and myself. We have moved on to contacting each other directly but appreciate that option. I had a great experience and would recommend Bethany to others looking to adopt.
I think Bethany is one of the best comprehensive agencies around- there is a flat fee for all adoptive parents in most offices, our office used a sliding scale based on income. So I liked that there weren't different fees for adoptions based on race/ethnicity.
And, they provide the most counseling, of other agencies, in my opinion. And, their training classes for adoptive parents are very good. Some of the smaller agencies we looked at just don't have the capacity to provide much of the above.
We were pleased with how comprehensive their programs are, and how they continue to offer support to the adoptive family after the adoption is over.
The Bethany New England office far exceeded our expectations! We appreciated the prayer that went into our adoptions & the personal attention given to our family, as well as the openness to our adopted children sending pictures and/or notes to their files (in case birth parents desire some information later in their lives). We also appreciate that birth families have the ability to add information to the files if they would like to (health issues, birth family updates, notes to children, desire for contact).
We were able to adopt three times with Bethany New England; each situation was different, but Bethany handled every adoption with Christian caring & professionalism.
We also had the opportunity to talk with a birth mom who was in the process of making a decision about parenting or making an adoption plan for her baby. We specifically asked her if she was being pressured to place her baby with an adoptive family & she responded that there was no pressure from Bethany to choose adoption rather than parenting herself & told us some of the input she had received from Bethany about both options. It was pretty clear that she was not being told that placing her baby for adoption was the best or only choice.
We also developed a friendship with a woman who we later found out had been counseled by Bethany when pregnant. She verified that there was no pressure on her to place her baby with an adoptive family & received counseling from the agency after giving birth & choosing to parent herself.
We would definitely recommend Bethany Christian of New England for adoptive parents and birth mothers. Another positive note: the interim care families our children lived with for a time were also wonderful!
Warning: Don't allow yourself to play the "Chrisitian" card - we did and our experience was regrettable, to say the least. Wished we had done our homework, on the front end vs. falling into the pratfall of choosing the Christian Organization. Should have ran from these folks!!!! Plenty of Conference Calls to handle issues with no action/results on their part! On their advice, we hired a lawyer ($4,000) to acquire apostile for our marriage license and as soon as we received document they informed us that we didn't need this - should have flushed the 4 Grand down the toilet!! At any point where we ran into "Roadblocks" within the process they pushed it off on us to resolve - had to hire a private attorney to navigate the marriage license fiasco and check up on their progress. Very little communication from St. Louis office to Home office or within Home office. Very little support thrpughout the process!!! THINK TWICE PRIOR TO UTILIZING BETHANY - ST. LOUIS!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so sad to see others giving BCS poor reviews. We had such an amazing adoption experience with them. We adopted a waiting child from Korea, were matched before our homestudy was complete and he was still home within five months of being matched. Our social worker had never done a Korean adoption before (in our area BCS can only assign waiting children from Korea so it isn't a popular program) and she graciously admitted when she didn't know the answer to a question and then went and found out. Communication was excellent and they saw us through to finalization and beyond.
We adopted a domestic infant child (trans-racial) in one state and 2 international girls in another state all through Bethany. We thought the agency was very ethical and clear in their communication. Their hearts and concern for putting the needs of children first was great. Some social workers are better than others in terms of communication, so you never know who you're going to get. I'd still strongly recommend them as a good Christian agency with excellent experience.
We adopted from China when the time frames just started to get out of control. We applied in January 2005 and it took 2 months of repeated attempts on my part to make sure we were going to get approval of our application. We had to attend an informational meeting before beginning homestudy, but these meetings are only held 2 times per year!! Good thing I pushed to get our application approved in April or we would have had to wait until October to even think about what country to adopt from. Our homestudy took forever, as our SW was slow as molasses. We called several times to find out if she was done yet. This held up out 171H form and delayed our dossier going to China by almost 2 months. When our dossier was finally sent in August, we didn't get a log-in-date until October 2005. A huge difference considering folks with an August LID got their referrals in December 2006 and we got ours in April 2007! The wait for a referral was only 6-8 months when our dossier was sent and then it just started to lengthen, through no fault of Bethany's - but not once did our SW call or email us about the change. If we had not been online and informing ourselves, we would have called our SW 6-8 months after LID and asked when we would be getting our referral. As the wait grew to 18 months, we were never called to see how we were doing. I even had to call her to get info on renewing our 171H, getting refingerprinted, and updating our homestudy since they all expired during the wait. Bethany DID take great care of us IN China - 5 stars! But post-placement is another story. I had to email our SW to let her know we were home and in need of our first visit and again for our 6 month visit. I friend of ours who also adopted with BCS has been home over a year and has only had their initial home visit. They refuse to contact BCS to set up the 6 month or 12 month since BCS's own paperwork says that they will be the responsible party and schedule the appointments. We did PAY them for these services already and aren't receiving them unless we call and demand it. I know others have great sw's in other states, but ours is awful! We won't be using them again for any future adoptions.
I am thankful that the SW at Bethany is supporting the BM on this. Why in the world wouldn't you send the pics/updates? It sounds as if you agreed to this, obviously, but now don't want to make that small effort. Your child, someday, will know that you did not keep your word.
We were very happy with our experience with Bethany Christian Services. In the realm of international adoption, we found them to be ethical, organized, and efficient.
In the country from which we adopted, they have a wonderful reputation with the US Embassy and the government itself.
I would recommend this agency to anyone, especially after hearing horror stories about some other agencies that specialize in IA.
Great social worker and everybody was very helpful. They are a good organization and I recommend to other families. They did what they said they would, and we have a beautiful boy as a result. Good job done!
My husband and I adopted 2 children from the East Lansing/Grand Rapids, Michigan Bethany offices. The social workers we worked with were outstanding. They kept us informed with each new step of the adoption process. One of them even went so far as to give us her personal cell phone number and said we could call any time. As far as we were able to determine, not being birthparents ourselves, both of our sons' birthmothers were treated with respect and caring. Birthmothers are honored at Bethany in many ways, but one way I found exceptionally touching is a birthmothers luncheon that they hold every year on Birthmother's Day (the Saturday before Mother's Day). One of our son's birthmothers wrote to us about attending this event and said how wonderful it was. Bethany also provided them with support groups that they can attend for as long as they choose.
Bethany provides ongoing support for adoptive parents as well. We receive educational material regularly, invitations to outings with other adoptive families, and so much support. We know we can call with any concerns we have about our adoption, our children, or our children's birthparents and our social workers will always be there to help us.
I loved working with a Christian adoption agency. Bethany definitely follows scriptural principles through their actions. While we were waiting for our son's birthmother and the baby to be released from the hospital we waited with our social worker and our son's grandfather (his birthmom's father) outside of the hospital and prayed together for her to have peace during such a difficult moment. It was a memorable moment and I was so glad we had chosen this agency. What secular agency would have done that? Bethany is an exceptional agency that I would highly recommend.
We've adopted 2 infant children through Bethany and had 2 great experiences. We've referred them to several others which have also been very pleased with their service.
Adopted our healthy, happy baby girl with a lot of support. The paperwork and placement occurred in a very timely manner with great communication. They are not for everyone (very religious), but show incredible dedication and respect to their birth parents and adoptive families.
Bethany is a very good agency. Bethany is a Christian agency but in the matter of international adoptions religion isn't important and their fees are right in line or lower than many other agencies.
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Reviews
Serious ethical problems
Went to Bethany early in my pregnancy. Made it VERY clear, multiple times (before I even walked in the door, in fact) that I was not sure what I wanted to do--parenting or adoption--and that I needed help and information on both options. They promised to walk me through both options and help me no matter which I chose.
When I had attended several appointments and finally asked for help in putting together a parenting plan, finding community resources to help me parent, and so on, they refused.
They have refused to provide the life-long post-placement counseling they promised.
When I returned to them post-relinquishment and asked for information on support groups, books to help a post-relinquishment mother, etc., they could not provide me with a single resource... I ended up telling THEM about the closest CUB meeting. (And later found out they don't support CUB, anyway, because it's too radical... which is absurd--Google CUB.)
Bethany has individual people who do a good job, but the organization as a whole is corrupt, in my opinion. It is a huge supporter of the NCFA, which lobbies for closed records, closed adoptions, and which put out the booklet "Birth Mother, Good Mother" as a way to market infant adoption--to make women feel that in order to be good mothers, they need to relinquish their children.
Bethany's pamphlets and website alone should be enough to make people RUN in the other direction--there are lies and half-truths and pro-relinquishment spin all over the place. (Check out the "Options" pages on the Unplanned Pregnancy section of the website. Notice how under "Parenting," the NEGATIVES are listed first... and under "Adoption," the POSITIVES are listed first.) There is no mention that open adoptions aren't legally enforceable, either--website makes it sound like it's all up to the natural mom how much contact she has. And no mention of increased risk of depression, PTSD, substance abuse, etc etc after relinquishing a child. Basically... everything is whitewashed.
I could go on and on and on about individual horror stories, about the brainwashing and subtly coercive methods, but I'll stop and just say this:
No mother should relinquish her child through this agency--period. And no adoptive parent should adopt through this agency--period. Unless you are comfortable with a portion of your fees going to SUPPORT denying adoptees their original birth certificates and their own records--then do NOT use this agency, even if you have found an individual office that isn't too bad.
Bethany should be ashamed of using the word "Christian"
We adopted a little girl through bethany services. I won't use the "Christian" in their name since they are primarily concerned with money and not with Jesus.
They treated our daughters birthmother like crap and like they were trying to sell a perfect caucasian baby. They refused to give her counseling after the baby was six weeks old, even though we paid for lifetime post-placement counseling.
They have denied many women I know this same thing. They also are the largest funders of the NCFA which proposes that women who place their babies for adoption don't love their children.
Jesus has no place in their agency, at all.
no good
This agency is extreemly unethical and unsupportive, soley in if for the money.. not in it for the kids. Beware all, you can NOT trust these people!
Bethany has a long way to go
I placed my daughter into a closed adoption through Bethany in 1990. My social worker was wonderful. I do not think that I asked all of the questions I should have or could have and wish I had been exposed more to the options of open or semi-open adoption.
As my daughter grew, I attempted to add medical information to the file, and the handling of these requests was inept and inconsistent. I later tried to send an update to the adoptive parents, was told by Bethany staff that the adoptive mom had agreed to send me an update letter (which was well outside of what was agreed to in the closed adoption) and I waited anxiously for this letter for months. Finally got an answer from Bethany that the adoptive mother would not even accept the photograph I had sent of myself and my children as she felt that would put them in a position of having to send pictures to me.
Now, I certainly don't fault the adoptive parents, as this was outside of the original agreement. My frustration was with the agency that gave me false information and caused over a year of depression as I dealt with the reality that I would not be getting any information, after celebrating the information I was told was forthcoming.
My initial relief that the agency was able to contact the family so quickly, has changed to doubt if contact was ever even made. My daughter will turn 18 this year and I plan to send a letter for the file at the agency, but have little faith it will wind up where it is supposed to go or be available should the family be ready for the information.
I would NOT recommend this agency.
Not for us
We live in a community with a Bethany office and no other agencies. We drove 2 hours away to use another agency. Bethany's office was very disorganized. When I called for information, they enrolled me in a class on foster parenting without my knowledge. When I did not attend, they were very angry with me. I was not interested in becoming a foster parent. I also don't care for how vague all their information is about cost. If I am going to be ask to spend that amount of money for an adoption, I want to know why costs that much. I don't mind paying for real costs but I do mind paying for other programs. We ended up adopting from S.Korea and paying much more than Bethany charges but our agency could account for everything.
I adopted a Russian special
I adopted a Russian special needs toddler from an adoptive family that was unable to keep him due to his needs. Bethany placed the child in my care as a foster placement. Soon I decided I would like to adopt him, but this information was never given to the adoptive family. They were continually told that they had leads, but no family had yet said they were interested. Unwilling to leave the baby in foster care indefinitely, and not knowing about my interest, they asked Bethany to return the child to their home until a suitable family could be found. Bethany then threatened (and did) to turn them into social services and take away their biological daughter. The family sought legal advise and, through their attorney, were able to have the baby returned to them. Social services found absolutely nothing wrong and questioned the complaint. I was able to talk with the parents when bringing the child back to them. Apparently Bethany had not only been lying to them about prospective families, but about results of medical tests, etc. while the child was in my care. In the end we became good friends and I successfully adopted the baby privately. While our story had a happy ending, Bethany, at least in Nashville, can not be trusted to uphold ethical adoption practices. I am thankful that my son's first family had the spirit to put his needs first and fight for him. It seems as though the money Bethany was receiving for having a special needs child in their care was more important than finding him a home. Adoptive parents and birthmothers, please beware.
Terrible things happen at the Atlanta Office
I went to Bethany in the 90's not knowing what i wanted to do yet...the counselor was so one sided. the organization was so mean and cruel.she saw the turmoil i was in and did not offer anything but adoption for my child...i found out later that they have offered some first moms shepherding homes for their new borns while the mom made a decision and dealt with everything after the birth...i have no idea why that was not offered to me...had i been offered a place for my child for a few weeks, i would have grabbed that!!! i also picked a profile of a family that had agreed to updates and pictures all thru my childs life and to keep the name i gave///they did none of that!!! i am so furious...and I chose life for my child...i gave a family the most precious gift and they and Bethany just laughed...Jesus is definitely not in that organization...but "Vengeance is mine , saith the Lord." I just have to pray my child knows the truth one day and pray for God to hold him close always...
My Experience
After our placement, things went fairly well. Two years into our adoption, our social worker felt the need to contact the bm and tell her that we should be sending pics/updates. We did our year pic/update obligation/schedule. The sw then calls us and tells us that we must not have Jesus in our hearts if we refuse the updates/pics. Our sw makes a point to find the bm and tell her we will not send pic/updates. Would I rec. Bethany? No. They should take Christain out of the agency name.
No thanks
Social worker turnover rate was horrible in the office we used. It got down to a single employee for a while. During our process, we had 3 different social workers and had only met 1 of them (until placement day when we finally met our final SW). Paperwork got lost at least 5 different times. The day after placement we got a phone call telling us we owed 4 days worth of medical while in the hospital because of an error they had done.
Not happy at all with the agency in how they handled our adoption. Would not recommend them to anybody, and have told people locally not to use them.
Placed through Bethany and satisfied
I am surprised to hear that there are negative reviews about Bethany Christian. I placed a baby boy in December of 99 through the Atlanta Bethany office and had a good experience as far as placing a child goes. The social workers were very caring and attentive to my needs. I truly feel that I would not have had a better experience had I turned to another adoption agency. Although my parents arranged the first meeting, I never felt pressured by the agency to place my child. In fact my social worker helped me realistically look at what it would take for me to parent my child. I was seventeen at the time I got pregnant and 18 when I placed. Although it has been 8 years since I placed I am still satisfied with the services I received at Bethany Christian. Not that I never had doubts about my decision, and occasionally regret that I placed for adoption. But this is to be expected because it is a healing process that will probably take the rest of my life. In no way do I ever believe Bethany is to blame for those regrets.
Bethany provided me with a shepherding home in which the couple I lived with had three precious children with which they adopted through Bethany. Bethany provided counseling throughout the entire process. Bethany encouraged a relationship with the adoptive parents throughout the pregnancy and helped set up arrangements for an open adoption and a birthing plan that suited myself and involved the adoptive parents. After the placement I attended post placement support group meetings and did receive some counseling. For anyone who is considering placing or adopting through Bethany I strongly recommend it. Placing is not easy to do but through my experience through the Atlanta office I would recommend Bethany.
Your child?
And if it werent for the natural mother you wouldn't have her. I cringed how you called it an "obligation". You should be happy to provide pictures and an update. It's the least you could do. It' s not a chore.
Extremely happy with the S. CA office
I was sad to see such negative comments for Bethany. We had a wonderful experience with the S. CA office. Everyone was extremely kind and very professional, and our social worker Eleanor was the best! We only used their home study and post placement services since the country we adopted from was not available through Bethany. Our reports were all done in a very timely manner and she helped us finalize our adoption very quickly through the local courts.
Not Bad...
Here there are lot of reviews are display, I don't how it is happen..?
In my experience Bethany is not so bad. The only drawback is it fails to product the Christianity.....
Apart from this there is no problem...
Thanks...
--Alex--
http://www.christian-drug-rehab.org
AA To Ann Marie
We decided not to go with an agency after all. We will continue going our independent route and see where it takes us.
Traverse city MI
I adopted through their traverse city, Mi office in 2005. I felt very supported through the whole process. My case worker is still working there and helping me with my second adoption. My office is very willing to offer me any post adoption support I and my son's birthmom have needed. They are still willing to help coordinate visits between the birth parents and myself. We have moved on to contacting each other directly but appreciate that option. I had a great experience and would recommend Bethany to others looking to adopt.
Very happy with Bethany Christian Services
I think Bethany is one of the best comprehensive agencies around- there is a flat fee for all adoptive parents in most offices, our office used a sliding scale based on income. So I liked that there weren't different fees for adoptions based on race/ethnicity.
And, they provide the most counseling, of other agencies, in my opinion. And, their training classes for adoptive parents are very good. Some of the smaller agencies we looked at just don't have the capacity to provide much of the above.
We were pleased with how comprehensive their programs are, and how they continue to offer support to the adoptive family after the adoption is over.
Bethany Christian Services (New England)
The Bethany New England office far exceeded our expectations! We appreciated the prayer that went into our adoptions & the personal attention given to our family, as well as the openness to our adopted children sending pictures and/or notes to their files (in case birth parents desire some information later in their lives). We also appreciate that birth families have the ability to add information to the files if they would like to (health issues, birth family updates, notes to children, desire for contact).
We were able to adopt three times with Bethany New England; each situation was different, but Bethany handled every adoption with Christian caring & professionalism.
We also had the opportunity to talk with a birth mom who was in the process of making a decision about parenting or making an adoption plan for her baby. We specifically asked her if she was being pressured to place her baby with an adoptive family & she responded that there was no pressure from Bethany to choose adoption rather than parenting herself & told us some of the input she had received from Bethany about both options. It was pretty clear that she was not being told that placing her baby for adoption was the best or only choice.
We also developed a friendship with a woman who we later found out had been counseled by Bethany when pregnant. She verified that there was no pressure on her to place her baby with an adoptive family & received counseling from the agency after giving birth & choosing to parent herself.
We would definitely recommend Bethany Christian of New England for adoptive parents and birth mothers. Another positive note: the interim care families our children lived with for a time were also wonderful!
Think Twice prior to choosing Bethany - St. Louis, MO Office
Warning: Don't allow yourself to play the "Chrisitian" card - we did and our experience was regrettable, to say the least. Wished we had done our homework, on the front end vs. falling into the pratfall of choosing the Christian Organization. Should have ran from these folks!!!! Plenty of Conference Calls to handle issues with no action/results on their part! On their advice, we hired a lawyer ($4,000) to acquire apostile for our marriage license and as soon as we received document they informed us that we didn't need this - should have flushed the 4 Grand down the toilet!! At any point where we ran into "Roadblocks" within the process they pushed it off on us to resolve - had to hire a private attorney to navigate the marriage license fiasco and check up on their progress. Very little communication from St. Louis office to Home office or within Home office. Very little support thrpughout the process!!! THINK TWICE PRIOR TO UTILIZING BETHANY - ST. LOUIS!!!!!!!!!!!
No problems
I'm so sad to see others giving BCS poor reviews. We had such an amazing adoption experience with them. We adopted a waiting child from Korea, were matched before our homestudy was complete and he was still home within five months of being matched. Our social worker had never done a Korean adoption before (in our area BCS can only assign waiting children from Korea so it isn't a popular program) and she graciously admitted when she didn't know the answer to a question and then went and found out. Communication was excellent and they saw us through to finalization and beyond.
Adopted both Domestic & International
We adopted a domestic infant child (trans-racial) in one state and 2 international girls in another state all through Bethany. We thought the agency was very ethical and clear in their communication. Their hearts and concern for putting the needs of children first was great. Some social workers are better than others in terms of communication, so you never know who you're going to get. I'd still strongly recommend them as a good Christian agency with excellent experience.
It all depends on your local office and SW...
We adopted from China when the time frames just started to get out of control. We applied in January 2005 and it took 2 months of repeated attempts on my part to make sure we were going to get approval of our application. We had to attend an informational meeting before beginning homestudy, but these meetings are only held 2 times per year!! Good thing I pushed to get our application approved in April or we would have had to wait until October to even think about what country to adopt from. Our homestudy took forever, as our SW was slow as molasses. We called several times to find out if she was done yet. This held up out 171H form and delayed our dossier going to China by almost 2 months. When our dossier was finally sent in August, we didn't get a log-in-date until October 2005. A huge difference considering folks with an August LID got their referrals in December 2006 and we got ours in April 2007! The wait for a referral was only 6-8 months when our dossier was sent and then it just started to lengthen, through no fault of Bethany's - but not once did our SW call or email us about the change. If we had not been online and informing ourselves, we would have called our SW 6-8 months after LID and asked when we would be getting our referral. As the wait grew to 18 months, we were never called to see how we were doing. I even had to call her to get info on renewing our 171H, getting refingerprinted, and updating our homestudy since they all expired during the wait. Bethany DID take great care of us IN China - 5 stars! But post-placement is another story. I had to email our SW to let her know we were home and in need of our first visit and again for our 6 month visit. I friend of ours who also adopted with BCS has been home over a year and has only had their initial home visit. They refuse to contact BCS to set up the 6 month or 12 month since BCS's own paperwork says that they will be the responsible party and schedule the appointments. We did PAY them for these services already and aren't receiving them unless we call and demand it. I know others have great sw's in other states, but ours is awful! We won't be using them again for any future adoptions.
Why not?
I am thankful that the SW at Bethany is supporting the BM on this. Why in the world wouldn't you send the pics/updates? It sounds as if you agreed to this, obviously, but now don't want to make that small effort. Your child, someday, will know that you did not keep your word.
Excellent Agency
We were very happy with our experience with Bethany Christian Services. In the realm of international adoption, we found them to be ethical, organized, and efficient.
In the country from which we adopted, they have a wonderful reputation with the US Embassy and the government itself.
I would recommend this agency to anyone, especially after hearing horror stories about some other agencies that specialize in IA.
International adoption Korean
Great social worker and everybody was very helpful. They are a good organization and I recommend to other families. They did what they said they would, and we have a beautiful boy as a result. Good job done!
Bethany Christian Services is a true blessing!
My husband and I adopted 2 children from the East Lansing/Grand Rapids, Michigan Bethany offices. The social workers we worked with were outstanding. They kept us informed with each new step of the adoption process. One of them even went so far as to give us her personal cell phone number and said we could call any time. As far as we were able to determine, not being birthparents ourselves, both of our sons' birthmothers were treated with respect and caring. Birthmothers are honored at Bethany in many ways, but one way I found exceptionally touching is a birthmothers luncheon that they hold every year on Birthmother's Day (the Saturday before Mother's Day). One of our son's birthmothers wrote to us about attending this event and said how wonderful it was. Bethany also provided them with support groups that they can attend for as long as they choose.
Bethany provides ongoing support for adoptive parents as well. We receive educational material regularly, invitations to outings with other adoptive families, and so much support. We know we can call with any concerns we have about our adoption, our children, or our children's birthparents and our social workers will always be there to help us.
I loved working with a Christian adoption agency. Bethany definitely follows scriptural principles through their actions. While we were waiting for our son's birthmother and the baby to be released from the hospital we waited with our social worker and our son's grandfather (his birthmom's father) outside of the hospital and prayed together for her to have peace during such a difficult moment. It was a memorable moment and I was so glad we had chosen this agency. What secular agency would have done that? Bethany is an exceptional agency that I would highly recommend.
We've adopted 2 infant
We've adopted 2 infant children through Bethany and had 2 great experiences. We've referred them to several others which have also been very pleased with their service.
Thrilled with my domestic experience at the Fairfax, VA office
Adopted our healthy, happy baby girl with a lot of support. The paperwork and placement occurred in a very timely manner with great communication. They are not for everyone (very religious), but show incredible dedication and respect to their birth parents and adoptive families.
Bethany is a very good
Bethany is a very good agency. Bethany is a Christian agency but in the matter of international adoptions religion isn't important and their fees are right in line or lower than many other agencies.