[britton]

Hi Folks,

Was wondering if anyone has had this experience.

I signed w/an agency that worked under an accredited agency.

Long story short, after months of communications and one 1 accepted and lost referral I decided to change agencies.

What I found out about my adoption after changing was mind boggling! Bottom line, the referral may not have been real..at all! In fact, my paperwork is still state side!

Anyway, anyone ever have this experience? What did you do?

Please PM me with anything you can share.

Thanks!
Brit

[votemom]

oh brit - what an awful experience. i am sorry.

i hope there are not a lot of responses just because i hope this is not a common problem.

[cynthiab]

That is horrible. I am so sorry this happened to you. I will keep you in my prayers.

[cathvash]

I also worked with a similar agency situation 3 years ago. My outcome was great- so I was thrilled. However, now that I am more informed, I realize that my "referral" process was "different". I am just lucky it turned out so well. I received "the call" within 2 days after I submitted my paperwork. I was "matched" with a girl through a direct phone call between my agency director and someone working at the baby home. She had been matched to someone who decided they were not yet ready, and apparently the employee of the baby home sent a correspondance out that she was available, and my agency called right away. My paperwork was also still state-side. I had no idea this was not business as usual.

What may have been acceptable 3 years ago is certainly no longer acceptable in this closely regulated process. The Russians are very serious about closing loopholes that allow referrals to go forward outside the process. My guess is that you also received an "unofficial" or "privately" arranged referral that fell through because it was not legitimate. Perhaps they "thought" they could make it work for you, but it didn't follow the rules. I don't know of any legitimate way nowadays that you could receive an official referral without your paperwork being there...

[britton]

Thanks for the replies! I've also received so PM's that I appreciate!

The agency I was utilizing was not an accredited agency but was umbrella'd under an accredited agency. And the accredited agency has no idea where the referral came from (didn't come from them) nor had the umbrella agency even asked for my docs to be translated or sent to Russia. Lots and lots of lies.......among other things.

And we thought infertility was bad?!

I'll post updates as this progresses so that others may learn from this situation. Understanding that all umbrella'd agencies are not the same....but given the state of adoptions from Russia at this time....they are becoming more risk (based on my experience/opinion).

Thanks again!
Brit

[nungesser]

Originally Posted by britton

Hi Folks,

Was wondering if anyone has had this experience.

I signed w/an agency that worked under an accredited agency.

Long story short, after months of communications and one 1 accepted and lost referral I decided to change agencies.

What I found out about my adoption after changing was mind boggling! Bottom line, the referral may not have been real..at all! In fact, my paperwork is still state side!

Anyway, anyone ever have this experience? What did you do?

Please PM me with anything you can share.

Thanks!
Brit

I had a similar experience, at least with a referral who may have never existed. DW is sure he never existed. Here is a link to the details: Report #5: Disappointed in Ulyanovsk

Please accept our best wishes for an improvemet with your new agency.