Anyone familiar with La Vida International???Cambodia adoptions???

[momathome]

I have just started doing research on adoption and came across this agency which operates out of King of Prussia, PA. They have been in business a long time (1982) and advertise pretty heavily in my area. They deal with internatinal adoptions involving China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. After doing the research, I now realize we have to rule China out - I did not know that they have a minimum age requirement of 30 years old - I am 26. I am somewhat interested in Cambodia. Has anyone worked with or heard of this agency? Has anyone adopted from Cambodia??? I am still going through diagnostic testing with a fertility specialist right now but I thought I might start to gather information about adopting a child. TIA!!!
-Lauren

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

Lauren,
I have no idea, but wanted to respond. Check and check references on whoever you are looking at in an agency. If you missed my first experience in researching adoptions I got interested in a 5 year old with a HUGE agency that is very corrupt!!!! Infact I have researched so much that I recently found a families bio who was under the impression they were getting this little boy I love so much. When my contact at the corrupt agency (Yuona) quit and started visting one of my Ukraine boards I called her on it...and she came right out and admited to me that this little boy was probably not really avaialble and "promised" to many couples...
I don't want to scare you from the situation, but want to alert you to research agencies...

There are yahoo groups out the ying yang on adoptions...I would search ones for Cambodia out...it will take many many hours of research and reading to see "real stories" but you will notice patterns etc...in agencies and cost and experience.

This is why I started my long thread on Ukraine, because I realized how long it takes and felt it would help others to share that info here so they know where to start.

So as you get info I'd bring your new knowledge here under a thread of the country or whatever...I go back to mine often to help me!!!!

Good luck and keep us posted if you don't hear back from anyone here on this...keep in mind our little forum is so new...

If I hear anything I'll let you know!!!!
Hugs,


Neve
http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan
AKA "mama2be"-forgot password
and Baby Boy Tristan born @UNC
Feb 25, 2003
Brother to 3 pups "gees" and 2 kitties

[momathome]

Thanks for the info and heads-up, Neve!!! What would you recomend I do to find out more about the reputation of this agency? Is there a website to check such things? Just curious!
-Lauren

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

I don't know how accurate this is I did a quick search in the search engine of yahoo groups....

http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=Cambodia+adoption&submit=Search
Neve
http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan
AKA "mama2be"-forgot password
and Baby Boy Tristan born @UNC
Feb 25, 2003
Brother to 3 pups "gees" and 2 kitties

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

I would go on those and from there actually ask about them...and take notes on others mentioned.
I tried to do a search in the search engine of the agency and I kept getting a "server down" message...

Maybe "google" the agency name or do a yahoo search engine search that way...
Neve
http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan
AKA "mama2be"-forgot password
and Baby Boy Tristan born @UNC
Feb 25, 2003
Brother to 3 pups "gees" and 2 kitties

[momathome]

I'll check it out tomorrow!
-Lauren

[Karenn]

Lauren,
I'm 95% certain that Cambodia is currently closed to adoptions right now. One of my best girlfriends adopted a little girl from Cambodia about a year & a half ago and had a HORRIBLE experience. After they were matched with their daughter, there were scandles involving black market babies so the US & Cambodia stopped all adoptions. My friend had been matched with this beautiful baby daughter but was unable to bring her home because of the legal mess between Cambodia and the US. They ended uprooting their family (2 other school age bio. children) and moving to Cambodia for several months to be with the daughter until they could get through all of the red tape. It ended happily in that they were finally able to bring their little girl home, but it was a real mess and I'm fairly certain that there have not been any Cambodian babies placed with families since last year.

On the positive side, I know that my friend is eagerly awaiting the time when Cambodia is reopened to adoptions because they are hoping to go back and adopt a little boy. Last I talked with her, she was hoping that this would be happening "soon" (within the year?), but I don't know the details. If you do decide to pursue Cambodia, PM me and I'll ask my friend for all of her contacts. She became an expert in Cambodian adoption over the course of her ordeal! In fact, she'd be mad at me for saying anything that might have possibly deterred you from pursuing Cambodian adoption! ;)

[smkinc]

I know nothing about this agency, but I also think Cambodia is closed because of investigations into possible corrupt adoptions.

Just to let you know. I had a similar experience to Neve's in that in my early adoption research experience I 'fell in love' with a little girl in a photolisting from Guatemala. Now I don't know if the agency was legit or not, but I did learn that most reputable agencies do NOT do photo-listings.

Also, when we started our adoption investigation, we were sure we wanted to do international adoption and that we wanted a girl. When we started the open adoption process we were sure we didn't want a child who had been exposed to drugs/alcohol in uetero. Two years later we adopted a boy through domestic open adoption, who due to several risk factors in his background, qualified as a special needs adoption in our state. He is the joy of our lives and we can't have imagined saying no to having him in our lives.

So start your research and go where your heart leads you!

HTH,

Mary
Mom to Jeremiah 2/4/03 (placed 3/6/03 domestic open adoption)
and our 'first' Curie (6 year old Golden Retriever)

[emmiem]

We have several adoptive children. We used Small Miracles International in Oklahoma for a Guatemalan adoption. Wonderful, caring, legit agency. We are currently using FTIA for a China adoption. They also have many other programs. I have found FTIA to be extremely thorough, detailed, and upfront in all aspects. If you can narrow down your country, then there are lots of listservs to give you support.
Michele

[momathome]

Thank you everyone for the information! Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember reading an article earlier this year about an investigation into a particular Cambodian adoption agency, but I did not realize that there had been a hault on all adoptions in the country. We are very much at the beginning of investigating adoption as a possibility as we are currently being treated for infertilty. I am just trying to gather information to decide if adoption would be an avenue that we would want to pursue. Thank you again!
-Lauren

[Kimberly H]

BIG posting on the main ChinaAdopt board that Yuona is being prosecuted at the state and possible federal level. No confirmation yet, but interesting...

[Kimberly H]

Lauren, how about talking to a large multi-country agency like Holt International? They'll be able to tell you what countries you can qualify for and what the various options are for other cicumstances, for example, I'm too overweight for us to adopt from Korea.

I've seen LaVida pop up on the China adoption boards but not terribly often as I think a lot of folks tend to use China-only agencies like we did, except for a few such as Holt that have really excellent reputations.

When we began looking at China, we requested a packet from Holt and it covered the basics of all of the countries they worked with so that might be a good starting place.

[crl]

In additon to asking on adoption boards, you can check locally for references. In many places there are local Families with Children from China groups, I think there are similar groups for other countries. The members of those groups can be a good source of information about agencies.

Also, check with the state licensing agency for adoption agencies. In VA, MD, DC and MA (the states I checked with because they are where my China agency and my local agency are licensed) they will tell you whether there are any complaints against an agency you are considering. (Depending on the person on the other end of the phone, you may get a bit more than just the facts too. When I called MA, the person said, Oh, they are a really big agency and we NEVER get any complaints about them. And the person in VA managed to convey a positive impression without "endorsing" the agency.)

Hope that helps,

[momathome]

Unfortunately, I do not think this agency will work for us right now for a few reasons. The countries they deal with are China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. From what I have read, as of right now, Cambodia and Vietnam are closed for adoptions. As far as China goes, as I mentioned, I am too young at 26 to adopt from there. I am also somewhat interested in Korea but I need to find a local agency that deals with Korean adoptions. The search continues...
-Lauren

[crl]

Hi,

Korean agencies are limited--the Korean government has set this up. Depending on where you live, you may not be able to find a local agency that does Korean adoptions. But people frequently use an out of town or out of state agency and contract with a local social worker. Holt is an agency that does Korean adoptions--I have no personal experience with Holt, just a name I know.

Good luck,