Wednesday, June 11, 2008

America World Goes To Bat For Us

On Monday evening, we received an e-mail from America World stating that we were in fact only going to receive the lessened amount due to an error in communication. Well, this didn't sit too well with us - "oops" just wasn't going to cut it. So, late that evening (after tempers had cooled), I sent an e-mail back to America World detailing why were so upset. There was a lot that went on from mid-Dec. of 2007 until we exited the program in mid-April of 2008 that has not been discussed with the general public.

We spent A LOT of money completely redoing our home study and dossier at the instruction of Yuri (our facilitator) and our family coordinator (who has since left AWAA). We didn't find out until the end of March that in early Dec., Yuri had received a letter stating that we were not going to be given a child matching our request and that updated docs weren't going to be accepted. The kicker for us is that while he received the letter in December, we were not told about it and even after we received our copy (in Urkainian) and faxed it to him in March, he still never informed us of the contents. Both our family coordinator and Yuri knew that we were alarmed because of not knowing the contents, however our questions to them were not answered. All we heard from America World is that everything was fine and not to worry but no specifics were given - I'm not even sure that our family coordinator knew of the actual content of the letter. Fortunately, we were able to have the letter translated locally, so we knew the contents at that point in time. If only we would have known back in December what was happening with our case, we would have switched countries back then and not paid to redo the dossier for Ukraine. Frustrations, frustrations...the sad part is, the person the only person in Ukraine that we thought we could truly trust was the one who caused the frustration because he was not straightforward with us.

I just spoke with an America World representative who stated that until she received our rather detailed e-mail that she had no idea of all that our family went through. Unfortunately, when she was given our file before our family coordinator left the agency, she was only given the bare basics. I am thank to report that Yuri is going to agree to pay $400.00 more than he last stated and America World is going to credit to our Ethiopian adoption the remaining $600.00. We sincerely appreciate America World going to bat for us with Yuri as well as picking-up the slack.

I did ask the AWAA rep. as to whether or not they will continue to use Yuri's services and was told that at this time, the Ukraine program is not moving nor is it expected to move anytime soon. Over the last several months, Ukraine has gotten worse, not better, so the agency does not foresee new families entering the program. If Ukraine begins to move in a positive direction and the program is revitalized, then IF they consider using Yuri's services again, there will be a lot tighter restrictions on when he receives money from a family. I was told that a lot will change IF that happens but right now, that is not even on the radar. If it were me, I would not use his services ever again, however when I voiced that opinion, I was told that he has been an agent for AWAA for several years and it is not until now that they have started experiencing problems with his services however the agency has learned a lot through our experience.

For us, we are glad to put this scenario behind us. We should receive our money soon (by the end of the week we are told), so I am looking forward to posting that our business in Ukraine is complete!

Thank you America World for standing by us!

Thank you, family and friends, for all your prayers.

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