Bethany Christian Services- Guatemala- anyone?

jen-duck · 12-28-2002, 04:00 AM

Dh and I have decided to use
Bethany Christian Services for our agency
and also selected international- and
are going for Guatemala.

We just attended the orientation meeting- gave
our preliminary application and $50- waiting
for the approval/acceptance into the program.
(December 16th) and still waiting.

The social worker that lead the meeting said
that it would be around 18 MONTHS- from start of Homestudy
to when the child is with us in our home-

I hear of 5-12 months- for things- but is the 18 months more
realistic.

Just been such a roller coaster already- with the infertiltiy treatments- and all- would Love to have a child in my arms sooner-

Love Love Love-
jen

Juana Baby · 12-28-2002, 11:28 PM

Jen, I would like to follow your progress. DH and I are very interested in Guatamala, when/if we are able to adopt. Good luck to you! I wish I had more information other than I have heard good things about Bethany.

laural

ScrapbookChick · 12-29-2002, 02:07 PM

Dear Jen,

Congrats on choosing Guatemala! My two angels have been home for five months now and life is wonderful. (Even with an International move thrown into the mix.)

18 months sounds like a very realistic--maybe too long--time frame. For us it was 14 months from first phone call to the day we met our children. However, we were unusual because we changed agencies three times; the first because of getting tired of a six month waiting list, the second because of losing a referral. (And I know now that wait was God's way of having be available at the time for the children He chose for us to have to be born.)

If we'd started out with the agency we ultimately went with, we'd have had a referral within days to weeks of getting our INS approval and Homestudy complete. (Which actually only took 3 months start to finish.) Most people with this agency have babies in arms 6-11 months from first phone call/paperwork. I'd say 4-7 months is the current average case time while the baby is in foster care in Guate.

I hope it's OK with the moderators if I post the name--I know lurkers and others may be interested. The agency is Children of the World in Clayton, MO. The website is www.childrenoftheworldnet.com. I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has privately. (Just PM me). DH and I were HIGHLY satisfied with our experience. The owner is a practicing attorney and speaks fluent Spanish and goes monthly to Guatemala to take updated pictures for waiting families, check on the babies and assist famlies there picking up their babies. (We did NOTHING but sign on the dotted line at the Embassy. He just had us sit with the kids and took our money and paperwork up. Talk about stress free!) It's a smaller, family type, high attention agency.

My son just started walking last week--at 10 months old, and my baby girl is cutting teeth, eating solids and starting to show her preferences--as in she SHOVES something away if she doesn't want it. Both kids are amazingly healthy--not even a cold or ear infection since coming home. They've bonded with us with no problem and everyone comments on what happy and intelligent babies they are. I know a big part of that is the above average care they received with their foster families, and our agency is very picky about who the caregivers are.

I wish you much luck and support in your journey! I'm sure God has a child in mind for you and you'll be led to the right agency and baby at the right time. I can't wait to read about your journey along the way.

Happy New Year!

beth30 · 01-02-2003, 01:23 PM

Jen,
DH and I will be going through BCS in Plymoth too. We have one more FET cycle and then we'll try a embryo donation cycle and then if that fails we'll be on to BCS. We want to do infant, domestic adoption. I'd love it if you'd keep me informed about your experiences with it and what you think of the agency. Good luck with your adoption process.

Beth

jen-duck · 01-02-2003, 04:50 PM

Beth-
I tried to pm you but your box is full-

I had the worst morning-

Amy called from BCS and she's leaving next week to go to a different agency. TOPS it CAKE-

but then we went to the orientation meeting on the 11th? of December and turned in our first application- but never heard- so monday my dh called and asked about it

amy called this morning and said that they didn't accept us (international people) because we listed PCOS on our application.
they thought it was cancer so TWICE today I talked to people- and basically because I take medication (actos) then I have to have ob/gyn and the endo write letters explaining that pcos won't affect me being a good parent- it just causes infertitly

so I asked even with the letters then- would we get accepted then- and she said "maybe not because of still a health issue"

dh is MAD and wanted to call and talk to her- but I want him to wait- until Monday- so he can calm down-

NEVER heard of pcos being a reason way you can't adopt- international or domestic-

domestic for us is scary - the fear of birth parents coming back and taking the child away- can't take even the thought of that-

I'm going to call Darlene Wetterstrom- she's the part time social worker for BCS. the one that told us about BCS in the first place. and see what she says- Her dh is the minister at the United Methodist Church in Monticello (he married dh and I in 2000) and my dh's BIL is the minister at the United Methodist Church in Rochester- SMALL world-

I'll keep in tough-
Jennifer

beth30 · 01-02-2003, 05:58 PM

Jen,
I'm so sorry to hear of all that you've gone through. I can't understand why they wouldn't accept you application because of PCOS. Don't you have to have a diagnosis of infertility in order to adopt from them? That's all PCOS is (well, kinda). I wouldn't consider it to be a "medical condition" that should prevent adoption. There are other cysters that have adopted from BCS and didn't have a problem that I'm aware of. I don't know what they wrote down in their medical section though. I hope everything gets cleared up. Hang in there.

Beth

lemondog · 01-02-2003, 06:06 PM

Jen, sorry but that is RIDICULOUS!!! Personally, I would look for another agency. There are plenty that would not even question the PCOS diagnosis. Why go through all this hassle when there are so many good agencies out there for whom PCOS is no problem. Not to mention, 18 months sounds like a REALLY long time for Guatemala. I know many who adopted from there much more quickly, usually within 12 months. Good luck!

angelzmom · 01-02-2003, 06:21 PM

Jen

I have adopted 2 children from Guatemala (two separate adoptions) and the first adoption took exactly 9 months the second took 7-1/2 months. I really don't think that a PCOS diagnosis should be a problem - our dr's letters had to say that we didn't have cancer or hepatitis. I was diagnosed after we adopted, so I don't know for sure.

Both of our kids are very healthy, and happy and have adjusted very well. I know what you mean about fear of a birthparent coming back into the picture. That is one of the reasons we chose international adoption.

Good luck and if you would like to ask me any questions you can email me at angelzmom96@yahoo.com

Kath

JenJen78 · 01-03-2003, 12:41 PM

Hi Jen,
I'm so sorry to hear about your upset. We attempted to go through BCS, but at the time they told us their Guatemala program was too full, so it was closed. We chose another agency instead of waiting for theirs to reopen.

I've never heard of PCOS affecting and adoption. The only thing that we had to have was our doctor to say that I was expected to live a normal life even though I'm overweight. PCOS was never an issue.

DH and I are currently adopting a baby boy from Guatemala. He is now 5 months old. So far our process has taken 3 months from the time we submitted our paperwork for our homestudy. We are currently about to exit Family Court.

I hope are able to adopt the child of your dreams. It is an amazing thing the first time you see that little babies picture and think about possibly becoming a Mom.

Good luck & God Bless,

jen-duck · 01-03-2003, 08:49 PM

Thanks everyone-
You've been a real support system for me-

Is there anywhere on this site where we can list
which agency we went with?

it would be nice to see a list of all agency that soul cysters
have used- so we can talk about the pros and cons of the agency.

??

thanks again
jen

Lisa67 · 01-03-2003, 11:53 PM

Jen,

That's a good idea, but I do recall Kat warning us once about listing our agencies. Her thought is that if we are still in the process and happen to gripe about our agency here....well, what if they got wind of it somehow and held it against you?

I know I've listed my agency before, but I don't have any problems and don't foresee having to rant about it here even if I do so I'd be OK listing my agency.

This is a tough call, you know what I mean? I wonder if there is a way to do this, though. Maybe if we put our brains together we can come up with something!!

Anyone else have any thoughts?