Adoption Agency Ratings

We now have two beautiful children thanks to Children's House. They were wonderful to work with and still offer support to us even after we have been home for 3 months. All fees and time frames were clearly defined and there were no surprises. I highly recommend them and plan to adopt through them again in the future.

We had a wonderful experience with Children's House for our first adoption two years ago, and we are traveling soon to bring our second child home. We are very happy. We would use them again and highly recommend this agency. There seem to be some vicious attacks on this group and I think families should talk to the agency people, and talk to lots of families that have adopted through Children's House before believing all the viciousness.

There have been some recent posts in support of Children's House International. They did help some families complete adoptions, and obviously these families are grateful. However, there are many families that initiated adoptions with CHI but were unsuccessful. CHI pays these families money to be silent and not protest. Therefore, it is very difficult to get a balanced perspective on this agency. They are extremely poorly run and can also be deeply dishonest. A big warning to any PAPs considering this agency is the fact that they were denied Hague accredidation. Very few agencies are denied. This is public information and record. You can verify the information yourself on the government website. See this link and you will find that CHI was indeed denied Hague accredidation:
http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/convention/convention_4240.html

There are many fine agencies to choose from. CHI is not one of them.

This agency is in it for the money only. They do not care about the children, nor do they care about the families. They have a long history of problems in many of their country programs: Russia (AMREX debacle and swindle, main players in this saga!), Kazakhstan (many initiated but failed adoptions, lots of reports of blindsiding families overseas and demanding more cash before referral), Guatemala (many initiatied but failed adoptions and player in the illegal and unethical relinquishment of children that has helped halt adoptions in that country), Haiti (lots of failed adoptions and broken hearts), and the list goes on. They get into problems in almost every country that they set up a program in. BEWARE!!!! They only set up very superficial programs in a country and employ coordinators overseas that are not ethical (and neither are they). Then they market extensively to families in the US and charge a lot of money for "their services". They charge the money upfront, before the family really gets into the process with them. They clearly state that they offer no refunds. This is because they offer lousy service and if you proceed with them you will wish you could get a refund, your time, and your trust back---and they know this. Once you have made the mistake of getting involved with them and see your time, money, and hopes already invested, then they add new requirements, significant new financial demands (adding 30% more to the total cost originally quoted), and radically change the type what type of adoption they will assist you with (ie healthy to special needs only, infant to older child only, girl to older boy only, etc). This is clearly the workings of an unethical organization! They try to say that the unexepected changes are all out of their control, due to circumstances overseas, part of the international adoption process, etc. This is mostly BS. Most of the other agencies working in the same countries don't have the problems they do. This is just how they do business. They sound nice on the phone, promise you what you want to hear, collect your money, and then the problems begin. Having been burned by them many years ago, and as a member of the adoption community for almost 8 years now, I continue to be amazed at the HORROR stories of families that have been hurt by them. For any country that they have a program in and you are thinking of adoption from, I would warn you TO FIND ANOTHER AGENCY! There are agencies out there with good reputations and ethical programs. You don't want to get involved with this group, nor do you want to bring a child into your home through their contacts and means.