I am in the process of adopting from Russia and am currently using Faithful Adoption, however I'm very close to forfeiting my 2000 and going with another agency. My experience thus far is not particularly positive.
When I started this process I thought that an agency would be helpful and answer any and all questions I might have. I was not notified until AFTER I paid my 2000 that all correspondence would be via email not verbally. I'm 8 months into the process and still trying to get my paperwork completed. Thus far they have been of no assistance other than emailing me a list of Yarslov requirements. (probably could have got that on my own via the net)
No one answers the phones on the website--I go straight to voice mail and my calls are not returned. I was comforted a bit by hearing good comments about Olga as that is who I'm working with. However, I sent email over 2 weeks ago and have heard nothing from her. It has reached the point where it is 1 1/2 to 2 weeks before I get anything from the agency and it is pretty much the same email every time.
There is also some information that they request that seems to be unique to their agency per people in the industry. Upon the advice of several professionals I questioned as to why they want this info and I have yet to receive an answer.
I hate to throw away 2000 but right now I'm thinking better 2000 than 20,000.
My advice to anyone that has not signed on the dotted line yet...
1) pick an agency that is within a distance you are willing to drive so if needs be you can go to their offices.
2) pick an agency that is capable of doing the homestudy as well. That way you do not have the constant back and forth between the adoption agency and the Homestudy agency as to how the documents should look, how many copies etc. (what I have discovered is that if the adoption agency is also licensed to do home studies they will contract with various social workers in your area to do the actual home study)
3) make sure they are Hague certified! (Something that Faithful has yet to confirm or deny for me as of this posting)
Bottom line...if I had it to do over I would not select Faithful as my agency.
DOUBLE DITTO to "Proceed with Caution". I spent sooo much time on the phone with a Russian woman from the agency. She always answered my phone calls and I often spoke to her at length. (I don't remember her name. I would have to pull out my file). AFTER I sent in my $2K, then I was told I would now need to direct all inquiries to Olga. I did speak to Olga once or twice, but I was not pleased with the communication arrangement. I actually had to halt the process due to a change in my employment status. I did not move forward. I "thought" I had spent a lot of time researching various agencies, etc. prior to signing up with them, but I was scammed! I think the Russian woman really roped me in over a period of time and I really trusted her. Shame on me for being so stupid! No other legitmate agency asks for $2K up front. They usually ask for a small fee ranging from $100 to $200. That should have been a red flag to me from Day One! Thank God, that's all I lost! From what I understand, they are now out of business.
I've been reading the posts and it seems that families who adopt from Guatemala are not very happy. However I've already talked to 4 families who have adopted through Faithful adoption from Russia within last 3-4 months and they had to say only good words. Everyone was especially happy about Olga. As far as I understand she is a case worker for their Russian program. What i would like to know is if anyone has had any bad experience with their Russian program. I would appreciate to hear from those who used them in the last 12 months. Marie.
Could anyone give me feed back on the approval process of prospective adoptive parents? How thorough is this agency??????
Do you feel they legitimately want to select the best qualified individuals or mearly "close a deal"?
If you are considering adopt PLEASE! do not use Faithful Adoption, you will not have good comunication from them either will get response to the call you will make, information will be mixed and very confused about your process and many troubles involved in your case. The director Sally Bretl seems does not know nothing about your child either you and never will have good information for you.
You are right... you should go alone along the process!
We've just come home from Yaroslavl with our son! He is 11 months. The only person in the agency we worked with was Olga, and she was great! I don't now anything about Sally or anyone else on US side but I can certainly talk about Olga and Faithful's staff in Yaroslavl and Moscow, and they all were awesome!
We submitted our dossier for translation to go to Kazakhstan, and after many delays were told to switch to Russia. Now we are workign through additional paperwork for that, and I am worried. We submitted our dossier to them back in early May, and it's not moved anywhere. Can you tell me if they sent you your paperwork back or did you have to start your dossier over again?
I couldn't be more disappointed with an agency than we were with Faithful. Everything seemed wonderful, great coordinator regarding paperwork. When they got our money and our completed, apostilled dossier, then it happened. Oh, well, were are not certified but we will be shortly....any day now.....and after more than one year, still not certified. When we decided to move to a different agency, we lost every single hard earned penny we gave them even though they never did anything other than give us a list of paperwork to compile, copy, apostille, and send to them. I think they spent about 2 or 3 hours working our phone calls. All that for two thousand dollars. Refund? You get more back in change at McDonalds. If you are considering Faithful, think of them as....not so much.
I am so glad to see someone finally put these people on this site. Faithful Adoptions is anything but what their name implies. They took the first half of our money and then left us to go it alone in Guatemala. My wife and I do not speak Spanish, past ordering from a menu, and guess what, neither does anyone from Faithful Adoptions. How can an organization working in Latin America not have someone that speaks Spanish? The lady that heads up the Guatemalan (and now Russian) adoptions, is the most unorganized person I have ever had to deal with. She doesn't remember your name (or your childs name) from one conversation to the next. Past sending emails to help you put your dossier together they were simply no help at all. The head of this outfit is at least from Russa and I'm sure he can speak the language, but past that he is just simply spineless. When our case began to fall apart he was nowhere to be found. Wouldn't answer the phone or emails...just worthless. With the support group that we have found on our own we could start our own adoption agency. Which is what we have almost had to do to complete the process and bring our baby home. I could write you the worst adoption horror story about this bunch except for the one single fact that they did give us a referral on the most beautiful, happy child. There are alot of agencies and we will certainly look for a different one if we adopt again internationally.
We do not recommend Faithful Adoptions, if you are adopting from Guatemala, unless you want to complete your adoption yourself. We have had to go to Guatemala, meet with our attorney there, and do our own leg work (or hire someone else )so that our adoption process would actually start moving after 8 months. The agency was very detailed with getting us all the information needed to complete our dossier and collect $. However, once we rec'd our referral they became AWOL. You could have a different experience if you adopt from a country other than Guatemala, but we have found the director of the agency to be unhelpful as well.
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Reviews
Proceed With Caution
I am in the process of adopting from Russia and am currently using Faithful Adoption, however I'm very close to forfeiting my 2000 and going with another agency. My experience thus far is not particularly positive.
When I started this process I thought that an agency would be helpful and answer any and all questions I might have. I was not notified until AFTER I paid my 2000 that all correspondence would be via email not verbally. I'm 8 months into the process and still trying to get my paperwork completed. Thus far they have been of no assistance other than emailing me a list of Yarslov requirements. (probably could have got that on my own via the net)
No one answers the phones on the website--I go straight to voice mail and my calls are not returned. I was comforted a bit by hearing good comments about Olga as that is who I'm working with. However, I sent email over 2 weeks ago and have heard nothing from her. It has reached the point where it is 1 1/2 to 2 weeks before I get anything from the agency and it is pretty much the same email every time.
There is also some information that they request that seems to be unique to their agency per people in the industry. Upon the advice of several professionals I questioned as to why they want this info and I have yet to receive an answer.
I hate to throw away 2000 but right now I'm thinking better 2000 than 20,000.
My advice to anyone that has not signed on the dotted line yet...
1) pick an agency that is within a distance you are willing to drive so if needs be you can go to their offices.
2) pick an agency that is capable of doing the homestudy as well. That way you do not have the constant back and forth between the adoption agency and the Homestudy agency as to how the documents should look, how many copies etc. (what I have discovered is that if the adoption agency is also licensed to do home studies they will contract with various social workers in your area to do the actual home study)
3) make sure they are Hague certified! (Something that Faithful has yet to confirm or deny for me as of this posting)
Bottom line...if I had it to do over I would not select Faithful as my agency.
Scammed
DOUBLE DITTO to "Proceed with Caution". I spent sooo much time on the phone with a Russian woman from the agency. She always answered my phone calls and I often spoke to her at length. (I don't remember her name. I would have to pull out my file). AFTER I sent in my $2K, then I was told I would now need to direct all inquiries to Olga. I did speak to Olga once or twice, but I was not pleased with the communication arrangement. I actually had to halt the process due to a change in my employment status. I did not move forward. I "thought" I had spent a lot of time researching various agencies, etc. prior to signing up with them, but I was scammed! I think the Russian woman really roped me in over a period of time and I really trusted her. Shame on me for being so stupid! No other legitmate agency asks for $2K up front. They usually ask for a small fee ranging from $100 to $200. That should have been a red flag to me from Day One! Thank God, that's all I lost! From what I understand, they are now out of business.
Faithful Adoption agency status confirmation
please look at this link to the government website to confirm the legitimacy of the agency
http://www.childwelfare.gov/nfcad/index.cfm?event=showDetail&nadID=13316...
you may need to hit refresh or reload if it doesn't come up the first time
http://adoption.state.gov/hag
http://adoption.state.gov/hague/accreditation/agencies.html
Russian program
I've been reading the posts and it seems that families who adopt from Guatemala are not very happy. However I've already talked to 4 families who have adopted through Faithful adoption from Russia within last 3-4 months and they had to say only good words. Everyone was especially happy about Olga. As far as I understand she is a case worker for their Russian program. What i would like to know is if anyone has had any bad experience with their Russian program. I would appreciate to hear from those who used them in the last 12 months. Marie.
questionable
Thank you, did they help you get your child?
Help.......
Could anyone give me feed back on the approval process of prospective adoptive parents? How thorough is this agency??????
Do you feel they legitimately want to select the best qualified individuals or mearly "close a deal"?
NOT RECOMENDED
If you are considering adopt PLEASE! do not use Faithful Adoption, you will not have good comunication from them either will get response to the call you will make, information will be mixed and very confused about your process and many troubles involved in your case. The director Sally Bretl seems does not know nothing about your child either you and never will have good information for you.
You are right... you should go alone along the process!
TAKE CARE, DO NOT USE THEM!!!!
great agency
We've just come home from Yaroslavl with our son! He is 11 months. The only person in the agency we worked with was Olga, and she was great! I don't now anything about Sally or anyone else on US side but I can certainly talk about Olga and Faithful's staff in Yaroslavl and Moscow, and they all were awesome!
oh my - we are in the process of getting run around now
We submitted our dossier for translation to go to Kazakhstan, and after many delays were told to switch to Russia. Now we are workign through additional paperwork for that, and I am worried. We submitted our dossier to them back in early May, and it's not moved anywhere. Can you tell me if they sent you your paperwork back or did you have to start your dossier over again?
Russian Adoption-Any day now!
I couldn't be more disappointed with an agency than we were with Faithful. Everything seemed wonderful, great coordinator regarding paperwork. When they got our money and our completed, apostilled dossier, then it happened. Oh, well, were are not certified but we will be shortly....any day now.....and after more than one year, still not certified. When we decided to move to a different agency, we lost every single hard earned penny we gave them even though they never did anything other than give us a list of paperwork to compile, copy, apostille, and send to them. I think they spent about 2 or 3 hours working our phone calls. All that for two thousand dollars. Refund? You get more back in change at McDonalds. If you are considering Faithful, think of them as....not so much.
Nightmare!!!!
I am so glad to see someone finally put these people on this site. Faithful Adoptions is anything but what their name implies. They took the first half of our money and then left us to go it alone in Guatemala. My wife and I do not speak Spanish, past ordering from a menu, and guess what, neither does anyone from Faithful Adoptions. How can an organization working in Latin America not have someone that speaks Spanish? The lady that heads up the Guatemalan (and now Russian) adoptions, is the most unorganized person I have ever had to deal with. She doesn't remember your name (or your childs name) from one conversation to the next. Past sending emails to help you put your dossier together they were simply no help at all. The head of this outfit is at least from Russa and I'm sure he can speak the language, but past that he is just simply spineless. When our case began to fall apart he was nowhere to be found. Wouldn't answer the phone or emails...just worthless. With the support group that we have found on our own we could start our own adoption agency. Which is what we have almost had to do to complete the process and bring our baby home. I could write you the worst adoption horror story about this bunch except for the one single fact that they did give us a referral on the most beautiful, happy child. There are alot of agencies and we will certainly look for a different one if we adopt again internationally.
Not recommended
We do not recommend Faithful Adoptions, if you are adopting from Guatemala, unless you want to complete your adoption yourself. We have had to go to Guatemala, meet with our attorney there, and do our own leg work (or hire someone else )so that our adoption process would actually start moving after 8 months. The agency was very detailed with getting us all the information needed to complete our dossier and collect $. However, once we rec'd our referral they became AWOL. You could have a different experience if you adopt from a country other than Guatemala, but we have found the director of the agency to be unhelpful as well.
bad
bad