I was surprised to see all the negative posts about CCI - we are working with Sue (the agency is not just made up of Sue, though most people don't mention anyone else) for our second adoption and really feel that CCI is one of the best adoption agencies out there, especially when working with Guatemala. International adoption will always leave lots of question marks when waiting, but our caseworker tries her best to get answers to our questions from the information available by our attorney. The caseworker and agency director have been very honest and open regarding the changes taking place in Guatemala and the chance that we never may bring our second child home. Working with an agency based on Christian values is a plus for us and the support group (chats and message boards) are full of wonderful Christians who want to support each other before and after their children come home. Sue and staff are dealing with a LOT of children and want the best for each of them - when dealing with that many children it must be very hard to give each child individual attention but Sue manages to get photos and video to each family to ease the wait. The fees are reasonable and the in-country assistance is great. I highly recommend Celebrate Children (and Sue) to anyone looking to adopt from Guatemala.
In country assistance is great? Maybe if you have in country assistance! We were told that we would NOT have any assistance in country for our P/U trip... WHAT?! I complained bitterly as it was told to us that we would and was included in our fees. I was told "sorry S in busy. If you pay $50, she may be able to help." Again, I threw a fit... and refused to pay. We were told that we could then "brave the Embassy yourselves".
S did show up (I did not know she would be there). I had already hired a translater with my own money. Our lawyer and FM were going to be late, so S showed up with M.J. to take her place. Once it was known that they would be late, M.J. said that she did not have time to wait around. Told us that S would pick us up in the AM for our appointment. So we were left alone with our "hired" translator, who WAS fabulous!!
S turned out to be very good. Just wish I would have known before hand that she WOULD be helping us and that it would have been for the entire time.
We had someone (through CCI, we did not have to pay extra) pick us up at the hotel, take us to the Embassy, handle all the paperwork for us, and we just signed a couple of places and went home with our baby boy. The CCI staff in Guatemala is great - I've never heard of Sue actually going to do the embassy appointment herself, but that would be neat. I am sorry to hear you didn't have better coordination on your embassy day - we had been worried about it but the in-country staff made it a breeze! (the in-country staff also showed us around a little, took us shopping, and made us feel very comfortable with Guatemala.
Printer-friendly version
Reviews
Celebrate Children International
I was surprised to see all the negative posts about CCI - we are working with Sue (the agency is not just made up of Sue, though most people don't mention anyone else) for our second adoption and really feel that CCI is one of the best adoption agencies out there, especially when working with Guatemala. International adoption will always leave lots of question marks when waiting, but our caseworker tries her best to get answers to our questions from the information available by our attorney. The caseworker and agency director have been very honest and open regarding the changes taking place in Guatemala and the chance that we never may bring our second child home. Working with an agency based on Christian values is a plus for us and the support group (chats and message boards) are full of wonderful Christians who want to support each other before and after their children come home. Sue and staff are dealing with a LOT of children and want the best for each of them - when dealing with that many children it must be very hard to give each child individual attention but Sue manages to get photos and video to each family to ease the wait. The fees are reasonable and the in-country assistance is great. I highly recommend Celebrate Children (and Sue) to anyone looking to adopt from Guatemala.
In country assistance is
In country assistance is great? Maybe if you have in country assistance! We were told that we would NOT have any assistance in country for our P/U trip... WHAT?! I complained bitterly as it was told to us that we would and was included in our fees. I was told "sorry S in busy. If you pay $50, she may be able to help." Again, I threw a fit... and refused to pay. We were told that we could then "brave the Embassy yourselves".
S did show up (I did not know she would be there). I had already hired a translater with my own money. Our lawyer and FM were going to be late, so S showed up with M.J. to take her place. Once it was known that they would be late, M.J. said that she did not have time to wait around. Told us that S would pick us up in the AM for our appointment. So we were left alone with our "hired" translator, who WAS fabulous!!
S turned out to be very good. Just wish I would have known before hand that she WOULD be helping us and that it would have been for the entire time.
In country assistance with CCI
We had someone (through CCI, we did not have to pay extra) pick us up at the hotel, take us to the Embassy, handle all the paperwork for us, and we just signed a couple of places and went home with our baby boy. The CCI staff in Guatemala is great - I've never heard of Sue actually going to do the embassy appointment herself, but that would be neat. I am sorry to hear you didn't have better coordination on your embassy day - we had been worried about it but the in-country staff made it a breeze! (the in-country staff also showed us around a little, took us shopping, and made us feel very comfortable with Guatemala.