[Momtosons]

Our adoption agency, that we paid a lot of money to, has decided to go out of business(not bankruptcy) and allow their adoption license to expire.
OF COURSE they do this WITHOUT signing the paperwork they need to. The sole owner of the agency wrote us an email saying she was unwilling to help us and to not contact her again...

SO, without writing 10 pages to tell you all about everything, I will say that now we will have to pay another adoption agency to take custody of our DD AND pay for another 6mths of Post Placement visits. Bottom line....we can't afford it. We already have a large loan b/c she came to us so quickly. And we cannot afford another $15,000(projected) for this adoption. We have no one that can lend us money and no bank will help us. SO...the bottom bottom line...we are out $26,000(already) and now we won't be able to afford to make our DD ours b/c some stupid, selfish adoption agency went out of business.

There's a lot more to this story but I just don't have the heart to write it all out...we have consulted 2 lawyers and they both agree that our current route is the only one available to us now. Our only hope is that an adoption agency will feel sorry for us and not charge us. But we still can't afford another $3000 in social worker charges AND our lawyers(who still want $3000). Plus, we have our very large loan that is sapping us...we thought that we would only to pay it for a few months until we could file our taxes and get our adoption credit. But the lawyers say that if all went well with the route we are going to have to take, that this could take up a year to complete....

[BlessedbySnuggs]

OMG! I just wanted to say how sorry I am to hear this. I can't even find the right words to write. I am just so sorry. I truly hope everything works out for you and your family.

[sheababy]

I would call a local news station and tell them the story-investigative reporters love stuff like this and I would not be above asking for help when it comes to finalizing with your DD.

[Momtosons]

Originally Posted by sheababy

I would call a local news station and tell them the story-investigative reporters love stuff like this and I would not be above asking for help when it comes to finalizing with your DD.

My DH had the same idea....except the adoption agency is in PA and we didn't think any of our local networks would be willing to travel that far for a story....

[aclee]

I guess I'm not sure about this...So what happens? She's just in your care, and they are going to...what? They have legal custody of her...they have to deal with this! Isn't it abandonment if they don't??

I don't understand how they can just walk away from this. That's insane. Can you contact whoever licensed them? ICPC? They made certain agreements through ICPC too that they would provide follow up.

Give me a couple other pieces of information. Where are you, where is the baby now, how old is the baby, where was the baby born.

Not to discount what the attny's told you, but they don't always know everything about agencies...and I can't imagine any of them have experience with this sort of situation since I've never heard of it before...

This is insane, I feel so badly for you!

[leenie71]

OMG, I am so sorry this is happening....I agree with the pp who mentioned about contacting a local news station, but contact one in PA. I'm in the Philadelphia area and I would be very willing to contact one for you. Are they in the Philly area? Because the news stations here love that stuff...

Again, so very sorry that you have to go through this. It's so unfair and I don't know how they can get away with it. I wonder how the owner can sleep at night...

[DancinBear63]

I am so sorry that you are dealing with this. Unbelievable! Do you have any names of other families that might be in a similar situation? There's power in numbers. Also, can your DSS help out? Or maybe an agency that is linked to a civic group or religious organization can help you out, as part of their mission work?

Best of luck!!!

[jcm]

There was a video on CNN today about an adoption agency that went bankrupt.

Even if the agency you used is not in your home state, I'd call or email the news stations. Evidently, this has been happening a lot in the last six months.

I feel for you, so sorry this happened! GOOD LUCK!

[ChromaKelly]

So is it the placing agency or your homestudy agency that went out of business? I imagine this is leaving a lot of babies in limbo with unfinalized adoptions. Can you contact social services in PA? Maybe they can step in. I can't see why you would have to redo all 6 post-placement visits. How come the adoption wasn't finalized by now?

Sorry, I don't mean to throw a bunch of questions at you, just trying to understand and help if it all possible. That really sucks that they are treating adoptive families (and the babies!) like this. They owe it to you all to at least complete the adoptions, or line up another agency to take over.

[Momtosons]

Originally Posted by aclee

I guess I'm not sure about this...So what happens? She's just in your care, and they are going to...what? They have legal custody of her...they have to deal with this! Isn't it abandonment if they don't??

I don't understand how they can just walk away from this. That's insane. Can you contact whoever licensed them? ICPC? They made certain agreements through ICPC too that they would provide follow up.

Give me a couple other pieces of information. Where are you, where is the baby now, how old is the baby, where was the baby born.

Not to discount what the attny's told you, but they don't always know everything about agencies...and I can't imagine any of them have experience with this sort of situation since I've never heard of it before...

This is insane, I feel so badly for you!

Our DD is 10mths old and has lived with us here in VA since ICPC was granted. She was born in Philly.

B/c the agency went out of business and let their license lapse they are no longer considered an agency...therefore cannot hold legal custody b/c they don't exist anymore. So, technically, no one holds legal custody of her.

Now we are going to have to find the birth mother by claiming she abandoned our DD...when she didn't...but that's the only way to find her. Then we will have to get her to sign legal consent to another adoption agency....and the rest I spelled out in my OP.
It's more of a mess than I can describe...

The lawyers both agree that PA is not going to want to do anything to help us b/c she is in VA and has been for 10 mths.

I'm just so tired of fighting....

[Momtosons]

Originally Posted by ChromaKelly

So is it the placing agency or your homestudy agency that went out of business? I imagine this is leaving a lot of babies in limbo with unfinalized adoptions. Can you contact social services in PA? Maybe they can step in. I can't see why you would have to redo all 6 post-placement visits. How come the adoption wasn't finalized by now?

Sorry, I don't mean to throw a bunch of questions at you, just trying to understand and help if it all possible. That really sucks that they are treating adoptive families (and the babies!) like this. They owe it to you all to at least complete the adoptions, or line up another agency to take over.

It's the placing agency that left us. And we seem to be the only family that was hung out to dry.

It took a while b/c our HS agency wasn't the fastest thing in the world. And we just were not hurrying, ya know! We didn't forsee any problems, so we just took our time. And after the visits were done, a BIG miscommunication happened b/w our lawyer and our HS agency and we lost around 1.5 mths there...

[Fran27]

Can you contact Legal Aid? Or a damages lawyer that will have a free consult with you? If you signed a contract with the agency you should be able to sue them to at least get them to pay for the fees for another agency.

I hope you figure it out

[ChromaKelly]

Wow, what a mess! I am so sorry you are going through this, it totally sucks. I understand, I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought that things were slow, who thinks the agency is going to go out of business!

I hope you can get it all straightened out, and inexpensively.

[RavenSong]

Originally Posted by Momtosons

Now we are going to have to find the birth mother by claiming she abandoned our DD...when she didn't...but that's the only way to find her. Then we will have to get her to sign legal consent to another adoption agency...

I don't understand why a charge of child abandonment is being made against the birth mother in order to locate her. Surely your attorneys can use other methods of tracking her down. Will a claim of child abandonment now show up on this woman's record from now on? I just don't get it -- how can a claim of abandonment even be alleged if the birth mother relinquished her parental rights and assigned custodial rights of your daughter to the adoption agency?

[Momtosons]

Originally Posted by RavenSong

I don't understand why a charge of child abandonment is being made against the birth mother in order to locate her. Surely your attorneys can use other methods of tracking her down. Will a claim of child abandonment now show up on this woman's record from now on? I just don't get it -- how can a claim of abandonment even be alleged if the birth mother relinquished her parental rights and assigned custodial rights of your daughter to the adoption agency?

Excellent question and I don't have the answer. Believe me, we do not want to go this route b/c our birthmom was the sweetest person! It would make sense that it would stick on her record. That's why we are considering not going through with this.... we don't want to tarnish her record...she's too good of a person for us to do that to her.