I concur with what has already been posted about the agency director: she is inept, undiplomatic, rude, unprofessional, and incapable of holding the facilitators she uses accountable.
I lived in Guatemala for 4.5 months while waiting for my son's adoption to complete. I gained extensive first-hand experience with the facilitators who were known as the best she worked with at the time. One of them literally threatened me while I and my son were in the car with him. Although my husband reported this incident to the director, we were never followed up with as far as any action taken went. In fact, we were rarely followed-up with at all.
My husband and I hired Adoption Supervisors of Guatemala in our desperation as the adoption progressed into its fourteenth month. Because of ASGI knew three weeks before my agency director that my case was finished, and several days before our facilitators gave us the same information. I was told by our agency, on the day that I went (with the same facilitator who threatened me) to get my son's passport, that there was no news about whether our case was finished because the head facilitator was in another country. I saw and spoke to this woman in the parking lot of the agency that day. Someone was lying.
We were told lies and partial truths throughout our adoption process. Although we were told that our facilitators went daily to check on all cases, ASG found within two days of investigating that our case was literally lost in someone's desk. Had ASG not found this person and our file we would have waited indefinitely to bring our son home.
The agency director ridiculed us when we took steps to make sure we were legally in the country after the 90-day visit expired, telling us that neither she nor her travel agent had ever heard that people from the US need to apply for renewal to stay in the country past 90 days. When I emailed her the page out of the Lonely Planet Guatemala Guidebook that explained this, I got neither an apology nor an acknowledgement that the information had been received.
I can back up every assertion I have made with emails I have saved between myself and Hands Across the Water.
Our case was handled with gross ineptitude, complete disregard for the NASW code of ethics, and stunning dishonesty. Whether the dishonesty was primarily the fault of the facilitators in Guatemala or the director's own is irrelevant, given the director's outright refusal to hold the people she contracts with accountable. I can not stress enough the importance of staying away from this agency.
I can relate to the unprofessionalism of the agency. We were treated like criminals by the time everything was said and done with our non adoption. We had done absoultely nothing wrong, but the Domestic Adoption Supervisor turned on us big time. She became vindictive and punishing. She took a week long vacation during the middle of the mess, as did her sidekick. We were told directly "do not call the agency under any circumstances over the weekend." If a child breaks a leg over the weekend, you are going to call the agency. We were told by the director when we did call that they would take the child back immeidately and send the child back to wherever they came from. How's that for diplomacy. I had to talk the director out of that non sense. We too found the staff to be very uncooperative, extremely rude and totally incompetant. At one point, the domestic program supervisor began screaming at my husband and she accused me of wanting a "cute little girl." I told her I already had a cute little girl and I didn't need another one, I was simply concerned about the safety of the child we were involved with. She continued screaming at my husband and I. I finally hung up on her. She also screamed at us in person. I agree this agency needs to be brought into the light.
Hi, Anita,
The agency director yelled at my husband on the phone when he called her after hours (I think it was at 5 pm) because she had not followed up with him during the day about a possible emergency surgery she had asked us to agree to pay for the day before for our son. She yelled that if he trusted her he would know that she would have given us information if she had it, and since she didn't, we should know better than to expect a call from her or to call after hours. We went three days between her initial call and any kind of follow up as to his condition. We were fortunate that when she finally emailed us it was to tell us that the surgery turned out to be unnecessary. They were three of the most agonizing days of our lives.
I also met a couple while I was in Guatemala who told me that the director had screamed at her and her husband that they were "ruining her Guatemala program" when they pressed her for more advocacy. I don't know the ins and outs of this case but it made a vivid imprint on me, given our experiences.
Your story about the child who was placed with you over the weekend is just horrible. I know of several more which are not even posted here. I am sorry for what you went through.
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Reviews
Do Not Use this Agency
I concur with what has already been posted about the agency director: she is inept, undiplomatic, rude, unprofessional, and incapable of holding the facilitators she uses accountable.
I lived in Guatemala for 4.5 months while waiting for my son's adoption to complete. I gained extensive first-hand experience with the facilitators who were known as the best she worked with at the time. One of them literally threatened me while I and my son were in the car with him. Although my husband reported this incident to the director, we were never followed up with as far as any action taken went. In fact, we were rarely followed-up with at all.
My husband and I hired Adoption Supervisors of Guatemala in our desperation as the adoption progressed into its fourteenth month. Because of ASGI knew three weeks before my agency director that my case was finished, and several days before our facilitators gave us the same information. I was told by our agency, on the day that I went (with the same facilitator who threatened me) to get my son's passport, that there was no news about whether our case was finished because the head facilitator was in another country. I saw and spoke to this woman in the parking lot of the agency that day. Someone was lying.
We were told lies and partial truths throughout our adoption process. Although we were told that our facilitators went daily to check on all cases, ASG found within two days of investigating that our case was literally lost in someone's desk. Had ASG not found this person and our file we would have waited indefinitely to bring our son home.
The agency director ridiculed us when we took steps to make sure we were legally in the country after the 90-day visit expired, telling us that neither she nor her travel agent had ever heard that people from the US need to apply for renewal to stay in the country past 90 days. When I emailed her the page out of the Lonely Planet Guatemala Guidebook that explained this, I got neither an apology nor an acknowledgement that the information had been received.
I can back up every assertion I have made with emails I have saved between myself and Hands Across the Water.
Our case was handled with gross ineptitude, complete disregard for the NASW code of ethics, and stunning dishonesty. Whether the dishonesty was primarily the fault of the facilitators in Guatemala or the director's own is irrelevant, given the director's outright refusal to hold the people she contracts with accountable. I can not stress enough the importance of staying away from this agency.
Response
I can relate to the unprofessionalism of the agency. We were treated like criminals by the time everything was said and done with our non adoption. We had done absoultely nothing wrong, but the Domestic Adoption Supervisor turned on us big time. She became vindictive and punishing. She took a week long vacation during the middle of the mess, as did her sidekick. We were told directly "do not call the agency under any circumstances over the weekend." If a child breaks a leg over the weekend, you are going to call the agency. We were told by the director when we did call that they would take the child back immeidately and send the child back to wherever they came from. How's that for diplomacy. I had to talk the director out of that non sense. We too found the staff to be very uncooperative, extremely rude and totally incompetant. At one point, the domestic program supervisor began screaming at my husband and she accused me of wanting a "cute little girl." I told her I already had a cute little girl and I didn't need another one, I was simply concerned about the safety of the child we were involved with. She continued screaming at my husband and I. I finally hung up on her. She also screamed at us in person. I agree this agency needs to be brought into the light.
We were also yelled at
Hi, Anita,
The agency director yelled at my husband on the phone when he called her after hours (I think it was at 5 pm) because she had not followed up with him during the day about a possible emergency surgery she had asked us to agree to pay for the day before for our son. She yelled that if he trusted her he would know that she would have given us information if she had it, and since she didn't, we should know better than to expect a call from her or to call after hours. We went three days between her initial call and any kind of follow up as to his condition. We were fortunate that when she finally emailed us it was to tell us that the surgery turned out to be unnecessary. They were three of the most agonizing days of our lives.
I also met a couple while I was in Guatemala who told me that the director had screamed at her and her husband that they were "ruining her Guatemala program" when they pressed her for more advocacy. I don't know the ins and outs of this case but it made a vivid imprint on me, given our experiences.
Your story about the child who was placed with you over the weekend is just horrible. I know of several more which are not even posted here. I am sorry for what you went through.