So there is a lot of talk on here about how families are choosing adoption agencies by their humanitarian work. I will say that drew us into Acres of Hope because we thought that they were really helping the surrounding community a lot, especially with a feeding program that fed 8,000 children a day. Their fees were reasonable at the time for international adoption, and within a budget range we could afford. We read many great things about Patty Anglin and Acres of Hope and all the great work they are doing to care for orphans and help them get adopted. We thought it was a dream come true agency. Well, we wanted to say that our experience with our adoption through Acres of Hope was a horrible one. We can say that because the end result was no children ever came to our home through Acres of Hope. We will never recommend them to anyone. (Why doesn't this scoring system have a zero start rating?)
Unfortunately there ARE NOT any (other) ethical, responsible adoption agencies in Liberia. In fact, Acres is the only agency that takes special needs infants because they are so expensive to maintain. International adoption is NEVER a cakewalk and especially in war-torn countries. Actually, domectic adoptions are full of 'surprises, also. I've truthfuly NEVER seen an adoption without challenges, including my own six domestic adoptions. With Liberia's 16+ years of civil war, one can barely drive down the street in Liberia, (I've been there) much less do all the good work Acres and Patty Anglin are doing. Why are you discreting an entire organization because of some 'misunderstandings?' And how many children will not find good homes because of it, (or is it slander?)
I'm sorry, but you didn't mention if you had adopted through AoH. The moderator has said that reviews from those without personal experience and first hand knowledge are not useful and this is not the place for it. In fact, you misquoted those of us who HAVE adopted through Acres and been to Liberia. We are NOT slandering anyone. We are simply stating facts. Replacing the word "lie" with misunderstanding is definitely a way to downplay things. The truth is that we (adoptive parents) were told that there was a feeding program. After much research (from employees of the org and contacting the org that was supposedly sending the food) we discovered that the feeding program did not exist. It was after those discoveries came out that the organization itself (from the founder's words) told us all that in fact the feeding program was NOT running as described. (this was after I had heard from her own voice that it did exist and I was raising money for it). Please do not dismiss our concerns without factual knowledge. In fact, you are free to read my research that has been posted at www.homehopeandfuture.blogspot.com (top left side has a link to it).
The fact is that I do believe it is possible to run an ethical agency in a war torn country. Difficult? yes, but possible? most definitely. In fact, I have heard no bad things about Adopt Int'l as of yet.
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Reviews
Don't adopt with Acres of Hope
So there is a lot of talk on here about how families are choosing adoption agencies by their humanitarian work. I will say that drew us into Acres of Hope because we thought that they were really helping the surrounding community a lot, especially with a feeding program that fed 8,000 children a day. Their fees were reasonable at the time for international adoption, and within a budget range we could afford. We read many great things about Patty Anglin and Acres of Hope and all the great work they are doing to care for orphans and help them get adopted. We thought it was a dream come true agency. Well, we wanted to say that our experience with our adoption through Acres of Hope was a horrible one. We can say that because the end result was no children ever came to our home through Acres of Hope. We will never recommend them to anyone. (Why doesn't this scoring system have a zero start rating?)
Acres of Hope
Unfortunately there ARE NOT any (other) ethical, responsible adoption agencies in Liberia. In fact, Acres is the only agency that takes special needs infants because they are so expensive to maintain. International adoption is NEVER a cakewalk and especially in war-torn countries. Actually, domectic adoptions are full of 'surprises, also. I've truthfuly NEVER seen an adoption without challenges, including my own six domestic adoptions. With Liberia's 16+ years of civil war, one can barely drive down the street in Liberia, (I've been there) much less do all the good work Acres and Patty Anglin are doing. Why are you discreting an entire organization because of some 'misunderstandings?' And how many children will not find good homes because of it, (or is it slander?)
Relevance?
I'm sorry, but you didn't mention if you had adopted through AoH. The moderator has said that reviews from those without personal experience and first hand knowledge are not useful and this is not the place for it. In fact, you misquoted those of us who HAVE adopted through Acres and been to Liberia. We are NOT slandering anyone. We are simply stating facts. Replacing the word "lie" with misunderstanding is definitely a way to downplay things. The truth is that we (adoptive parents) were told that there was a feeding program. After much research (from employees of the org and contacting the org that was supposedly sending the food) we discovered that the feeding program did not exist. It was after those discoveries came out that the organization itself (from the founder's words) told us all that in fact the feeding program was NOT running as described. (this was after I had heard from her own voice that it did exist and I was raising money for it). Please do not dismiss our concerns without factual knowledge. In fact, you are free to read my research that has been posted at www.homehopeandfuture.blogspot.com (top left side has a link to it).
The fact is that I do believe it is possible to run an ethical agency in a war torn country. Difficult? yes, but possible? most definitely. In fact, I have heard no bad things about Adopt Int'l as of yet.