[patientlywaitin]

Has anyone tried to adopt from Guatemala without going through an agency? If so, please respond and let me know if it was easy or difficult. Thank you in advance for any information provided.


Amy

[4kids4meTN]

We will be adopting again soon, and we won't be using an agency. Our agency did absolutely nothing for us with our last adoption. I'm the one who stayed in contact with our attorney and our baby boy's doctor. I also had contact with our foster family. Luckily, our attorney speaks fluent English. We will do our dossier the exact same way. We never got kicked out of PGN...but, of course, things are different now. We received our son's referral on Oct. 30, 2002, and he came home on June 20th, 2003.

Good Luck!!

[janadd]

Adopting without an agency would frighten me. For those that have used an agency that did not go well I would say find a new agency. I was very happy witht he agency I used the first time that I did not think twice about using them again. I had updates often and was able to ask questions when ever I needed. I always had someone to talk to. When my caseworker was on vacation I had names of others to talk to. I am not saying that I always got the answers I wanted, not I did get answers.

Janadd

[csw]

Hi,
We had no connections in Guatemala, but if we had known of a reputable attorney ahead of time we would have not used an agency.. we knew exactly what documents we needed, and had already been through one international adoption. We could have saved the $4500 fee...I have used my own personal Fed Ex account to mail things to Guatemala,, we were told "we are on our own",,with the postage etc.. I am in contact directly with the parent coordinator over there etc...We also felt our agency for our Peruvian adoption did absolutely nothing for us..we did all the paperwork, mailings, lived in LA and pushed the facilitator over there,,and knew more about our case than the agency,,in fact..we would update them! Cathy

[4kids4meTN]

Cathy,
It sounds like your experience with Peru is exactly how our experience was with Guatemala. We knew what was going on with our case well before our agency did! Our attorney was wonderful, and well respected. His mother is also an attorney, and fosters also. I also have the contact info for the lady that translated all of our documents. She even came to the Marriott to meet me! She was sooo nice and helpful. So, since I have a wonderful attorney, I know the pediatrician he uses...I met him also, and I know the translator he uses....I am not worried one bit about doing our adoption w/o an agency. I feel like I did our last one alone anyway!!