We were looking to adopt a baby boy. We came across an advertisement from Valley of Hope Adoption stating that they had a birthmother that was due in March wanting a closed adoption, and is firm in her decision to place. We called and talked to the owner of Valley of Hope Adoptions, Erin Chaffee, and she said she would set up a phone call between us and the birthmother. We verified the details of the ad and Erin assured us that nothing had changed. We spoke with the birthmother, however we were very hesitant about asking her too much information since Erin had said she was a very private person. Weeks passed and we sent the first $1000 of birthmother expenses, along with the $5,000 agency fee. We kept calling Erin regarding what was going on with our situation and she would always take days to return any calls. We were emailing the birthmother and she would respond, however, unlike our first adoption, we had no way to call the birthmom to see how she was. Finally, February came and we received another bill for birthmother expenses of $1,000. We paid it on 02/12/09, but still no word from the birthmother, now not even through email. Erin finally called us, advising us that she had not spoke with the birthmom in a few weeks but she would be stopping by to see her. Days passed and no word from Erin after many messages left by us and emails to the birthmom. We also talked to Chris (her husband) who is also in the business, and he never knew anything. Erin finally called us back (again) and told us she still had not talked to the birthmom and she didn't have a chance to stop by a week ago, but she will try again this week. The next day we received an email from the birthmom. She informed us that she had decided to keep her baby and she had told the agency and did not understand why they had not told us. We were absolutely stunned. We went back to the paperwork we had received and managed to call the birthmom. Boy, were we in for a shock! First of all the birthmom forwarded a copy of the email she had sent to the agency. The she went on to tell us how Erin always brought someone else to her visits with her (mother, husband, etc.) and that is why she would not talk to her about anything. This was supposed to be a private matter. Erin was always late for times she said she would come by or the birthmom simply could not reach her and had to leave message after message. Then, the final shock. The birthmom said she was concerned with us since we never contacted her to see how she was doing. We explained to her that we were told that she wanted a "closed" adoption. The birthmom was shocked. She said she had always wanted an "open" adoption. She also mentioned how she had always asked Erin why she couldn't talk to us and why we did not call, but Erin would always say "I will get the two of you in contact with each other."
Needless to say, we immediately called Chris and Erin. As usual, we had to leave message after message. Finally, we had to block our phone number and one evening Erin answered. We told her we wanted our agency fee of $5,000 back. We spoke with her regarding the information we had come across and then Erin started bad mouthing the birthmom. Very, very unprofessional. Since we had already given them $7,000, we decided to ho ahead and do as Erin suggested, which was take the $5,000 and put it to another situation/or situations she might have coming up.
We then started looking again. We came across several situations that we might possibly afford, however losing those funds really hurt our budget. Then we came across some other agencies that knew Valley of Hope and Erin. No one had anything good to say. It is rumored she had been fired from her previous adoption place due to some unsavory ways of doing things. They have never adopted before themselves and appear to be in it just for the money to be made. We never realized how important that fact could be until it was already too late.
Again, with this new situation, Erin himmed and haaaaed about the information regarding the birthmoms. It took forever to return calls, etc., etc. Finally, we flat out just said we no longer wanted to deal with them and we just wanted our money. There was nothing in the contract preventing us from getting it back. Except for the fact that chris and erin gave us the run around and finally just kept the money, refusing again to return any calls.
this agency is not worth anything. They lie, cheat and steal to get business. The poor birthmoms end up involved with someone that doesn't care about them but puts on a good show. We adoptiove parents, well, you just cannot trust anything they say. Trust us, take your business elsewhere. We did and we still ended up adopting a beautiful baby boy in March like we planned.
We still speak with the earlier birthmom from time to time through email. She and her baby boy are doing well.
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