We have been home for 2 1/2 months now and the girls are doing very well. I am closing in on finishing my book about our experience and thought I should share something with any family about to embark on the Ukraine adoption process.
I won't go into detail here but if you contact me I will be happy to tell you what happened to us. Additionally it will be in my book "76 Days on Mars" " A Ukraine Adoption Tale"
Konstatin Yakubenko - Please do not hire this man as your facilitator. He is dishonest and misleading.( Documented by over 15 families I have talked to) He works both alone and through the International Family Services. He cost us 2 failed adoptions, and over $40,000. We contacted IFS and they said basically "Sorry, but even though Konstantin blew it that they would not refund one penny of our money and we would need to travel to Texas to file a compliant.
IFS has a contract that allows for no legal action on your part even if they mishandle your adoption... so beware of both Konstatin Yakubenko and International Family Services
6 comments:
It's great to hear that everything is going so well! We are not included in the 15 families; however, we also had a bad experience with that facilitator.
HI, I am considering using Dima for my adoption. I have 3 basic questions:
1) Do you recomend him enough?
2) There are a lot of expenses not included in his fee... Do you think it is realistic to adopt 2 kids from the same orphanage for $20000 (if all goes well on the first attempt, of course).
3) How much did you take with you to Ukraine for expenses such as lodging, meals, transportation, donation, etc?
Sorry so many questions but we are trying to calculate cost and see if we can really afford the process.
thank you!!!!
Sandy,
You can email me your contact info at mike@mymusicsource.com. I have some information for you :)MR
I have been asked to elaborate on our experience with IFS International Family Services and our facilitator Konstantin by may people who have viewed this blog.
Let me just say this for now. We had a very , very bad experience with both of them, they were not truthful, and not forthcoming with regards to charges, and mostly were not there for us when things started to fall apart. You will have to make up your own mind.
I do however strongly recommend Frontier horizons for hosting and adoption facilitator help.
http://www.frontierhorizon.org/?page_id=44
Contact Maggie Scobie - great lady , cares for the children and honest
Thats it for now
Congrats on your adoption Paula and Michael.. I am so sorry about your experience with this facilitator, it happens alot. We have stressed to others about certain facilitators and ask everyone to receive as many referrences as possible before commiting to anyone. Our fist adoption took place over ten years ago and we also ended up totallly screwed. Currently we advise others to honest facilitators in Ukraine. It is great that you are posting important information to save others the same heartache. I only wished someone could ahve warned us. Denise @ nachalaadopt@hotmail.com
I just came across your blog today. My family is also from the Cleveland. We hosted thru Frontier this summer, and have 4 kids at home, 2 adopted from Ukraine. Congratulations to you and your family!
Kelly Selkirk
kelly_selkirk at hotmail dot com
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