Valley Of Hope Adoption Deceptive business practices, refund refused in the amount of $5,000, unprofessional, do not return calls, and horrible to their birthmothers Woodstock Georgia

I am the Chairman of the board of directors of Valley of Hope. Having looked into these claims, I must take issue with them. It is truly regrettable that this couple appears to have a negative perception of their experience with Valley of Hope. I know of 100+ couples who have had a very positive experiene with Valley of Hope and have been successfully matched with children. And I know of multiple birth moms who have been supported financially and otherwise by Valley of Hope although they chose not to give up their child to abortion, and this support continued even after the decision to keep the child. This support came our of Valley of Hope funds.

I also point out that Valley of Hope's adoption fee is not $5,000. It is less than 1/2 that. And yes, Erin's mother did accompany her on a visit to the birth mom because Erin spent all day taking the birthmom to look for a place to live. Erin's mom kept the birthmom's other child so that she could spend time with Erin finding a place to live. So I don't understand the birthmom's issue with Erin's mother being on that visit since her mother was there to support their finding a place to live by baby sitting the birthmom's child. The birthmom's statement in this case is very disappointing considering the time and expense Valley of Hope provided her.
Further rebuttal will be provided addressing each of the other issues presented by this couple. Again, I regret the perception they have presented here, for I know that Valley of Hope has treated this process much more as a ministry than a business.

Go to ValleyofHope.net to see the many very positive testimonials about how Valley of Hope has worked with many adoptive parents.

There are many untruths in this complaint. For the first very obvious one, our application fee is not now, nor never has been, $5,000. I am very familiar with this situation because I was the mother (and also employee) that went along on a visit to help the birthmother find housing. This was a pretty hopeless cause due to the birthmom's bad credit record. We (Erin and I) spent the entire day in sections of town that were very unfamiliar to us.

The day I accompanied Erin, I entertained the birthmother's son while Erin and birthmom made calls, seached newspaper ads, and visited apartment complexes. We took them to lunch, and I bought her son an There are many untruths in this complaint. For the first very obvious one, our application fee is not now, nor never has been, $5,000. I am very familiar with this situation because I was the mother (and also employee) that went along on a visit to help the birthmother find housing. This was a pretty hopeless cause due to the birthmom's bad credit record. We (Erin and I) spent the entire day in sections of town that were very unfamiliar to us.

The day I accompanied Erin, I entertained the birthmother's son while Erin and birthmom made calls, seached newspaper ads, and visited apartment complexes. We took them to lunch, and I bought her son an ice cream cone after he finished his lunch---he was so happy. This occurred right before Christmas. I only spent one day searching for housing, but Erin spent several. Her husband also accompanied her one day. I feel it is safer for a young woman to have someone with her in these situations. Erin is devoted to doing things like this for birthmoms that are far above and beyond her duty, and she does not always return calls immediately. Her priority is the birthmoms. The electricity was turned off in the house this birthmom and her children were staying in. We offered to have her come stay in Erin's home through Christmas until we could find a place for her to live. She IS a very private person and refused our offer. For several nights, she and her little children went to bed at dark to keep warm due to no electricity. When we became aware of this, we put birthmom and children up in a motel type accomodation. The birthmom did initially request a closed adoption but, as many do, she began to change as time went on. This is verified by the fact that the complaintants had conversations with the birthmom, which DOES NOT happen in a closed adoption The couple who is complaining and has written this report are angry because instead of letting us rollover their investment and rematch them, they chose a situation with another agency. The contract they signed with VHA stated that fees are not refundable. I don't know of a single agency who refunds fees when the client chooses to go elsewhere. It is worth noting that birthmoms are very unpredictable and many times unstable due to their upbringing, education, and situation of (usually) abandonment. Adoption involves risk. This couple lost money due to leaving Valley of Hope, and their intent is to harm our reputation. We are a Christian agency and seek to honor God in all that we do.ice cream cone after he finished his lunch---he was so happy. This occurred right before Christmas. I only spent one day searching for housing, but Erin spent several. Her husband also accompanied her one day. I feel it is safer for a young woman to have someone with her in these situations. Erin is devoted to doing things like this for birthmoms that are far above and beyond her duty, and she does not always return calls immediately. Her priority is the birthmoms. The electricity was turned off in the house this birthmom and her children were staying in. We offered to have her come stay in Erin's home through Christmas until we could find a place for her to live. She IS a very private person and refused our offer. For several nights, she and her little children went to bed at dark to keep warm due to no electricity. When we became aware of this, we put birthmom and children up in a motel type accomodation. The birthmom did initially request a closed adoption but, as many do, she began to change as time went on. This is verified by the fact that the complaintants had conversations with the birthmom, which DOES NOT happen in a closed adoption The couple who is complaining and has written this report are angry because instead of letting us rollover their investment and rematch them, they chose a situation with another agency. The contract they signed with VHA stated that fees are not refundable. I don't know of a single agency who refunds fees when the client chooses to go elsewhere. It is worth noting that birthmoms are very unpredictable and many times unstable due to their upbringing, education, and situation of (usually) abandonment. Adoption involves risk. This couple lost money due to leaving Valley of Hope, and their intent is to harm our reputation. We are a Christian agency and seek to honor God in all that we do. If you wish to discuss this rebuttal please call Gloria at 770-479-0559. I would welcome any call, especially from the author of this ripoff report.

There are many untruths in this complaint. For the first very obvious one, our application fee is not now, nor never has been, $5,000. I am very familiar with this situation because I was the mother (and also employee) that went along on a visit to help the birthmother find housing. This was a pretty hopeless cause due to the birthmom's bad credit record. We (Erin and I) spent the entire day in sections of town that were very unfamiliar to us.

The day I accompanied Erin, I entertained the birthmother's son while Erin and birthmom made calls, seached newspaper ads, and visited apartment complexes. We took them to lunch, and I bought her son an ice cream cone after he finished his lunch---he was so happy. This occurred right before Christmas. I only spent one day searching for housing, but Erin spent several. Her husband also accompanied her one day. I feel it is safer for a young woman to have someone with her in the Atlanta area.

Erin is devoted to doing things like this for birthmoms that are far above and beyond her duty, and she does not always return calls immediately. Her priority is the birthmoms. The electricity was turned off in the house where this birthmom and her children were staying. We offered to have her come stay in Erin's home through Christmas until we could find a place for her to live. She IS a very private person and refused our offer. For several nights, she and her little children went to bed at dark to keep warm due to no electricity. When we became aware of this, we put birthmom and children up in a motel type accomodation.

The birthmom did initially request a closed adoption but, as many do, she began to change as time went on. This is verified by the fact that the complaintants had conversations with the birthmom, which DOES NOT happen in a closed adoption

The couple who is complaining and has written this report are angry because instead of letting us rollover their investment and rematch them, they chose a situation with another agency. The contract they signed with VHA stated that fees are not refundable. I don't know of a SINGLE agency who refunds fees when the client chooses to go elsewhere. It is worth noting that birthmoms are very unpredictable and many times unstable due to their upbringing, education, and situation of (usually) abandonment. Adoption involves risk. This couple lost money due to leaving Valley of Hope, and their intent is to harm our reputation.

We are a Christian agency and seek to honor God in all that we do. If you wish to discuss this rebuttal please call Gloria at 770-479-0559. I would welcome any call, especially from the author of this ripoff report.

One other thing I would like to clear up--Erin was not fired from her previous job. They became angry that Erin was starting her own agency and stopped payment on her paychecks when she was the sole support of a family of four. This agency continues to this day to unethically spread libelous untruths about Erin.

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 2009, 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 (1/2 of the $10,000 placement 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 placement 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. David and christi Dallas, Texas

First of all, let me say to David and Christi I am sorry you had a negative experience.  Our first adoption agency was a very negative experience for us and we lost a total of $32,400.  I totally uderstand your heartbreak and disappointment.

However, my husband and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Chirs, Erin, and Gloria.  We worked very close with each of them and adopted our son in October of 2009.  After total devastation and heartbreak we did not know where to turn.  We found Valley of Hope and it changed our lives. 

We did not pay a $5000 agency fee.  We were always given plenty of notice when birthmother fees where going to be due.  We made payments through out the process as the money became needed.  Any other agency we looked into asked for a large amount up front and Vally of Hope did not do that.  I have NEVER heard of an agency reufnding money but all (including Valley of Hope) will transfer you agency fees to another situation.  It is standard practice in every agency (and very common becasue of the risk of a birth mother changing her mind) to not refund birth mother expenses.

We were match with a birthmother that lived very far away and it was not an easy sitruation for any of us however Gloria (who was our case worker) heald our hands and walked us through every step of the way.  She even flew to our birthmothers hometown and was there with us for the delivery of our baby.  Once we hit a bump in the road after leaving the hospital she came back and helped us and the birthmother through the hard situation.

I know from personal experience that the phone calls can not be returned fast enough when you have a problem or question while going through this process.  You never feel like you are doing enough and you are never sure if it is the right thing but we were never lead astray by anyone at Valley of Hope.

We found this agency and it's staff to be very dedicated to both the birthmothers and adoptive parents.  They are a great Christian family who is trying to better the lives of everyone involved in the adoption process - the adoptive couple, the baby, and the birthmother.  We would adopt through Valley of Hope again in a heart beat!  We are VERY thankful for our son and for the life long friendships we have formed with the staff at Valley of Hope.

 

Jeff and Kim - Memphis Tennessee

The rebuttal that was sent by the Chairman of the board is nonsense! They say that the fees are half of $5,000! That is totally untrue! The fee for a white baby runs around $40,000 and the fee for a black baby runs around $17,000. They also charge for birhmom expenses, so where does all the money go? They are getting rich off of parents that desperately want a baby and young girls that can't keep their baby! It is black market baby selling! I have all the proof, as I do have all the e-mails that were sent back and forth about the fees. It is outrageous that the lawmakers have turned their backs on this, but, it will eventually catch up to them if more people would just stand up and fight this! We would love to adopt 2 more children, but, we don't want to buy a baby! The money that Erin Chafee takes, could go toward the college accounts for the children!