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Adoption
Bethany Christian Services?
I saw here were a couple of people are using them. If you don't mind me asking, can you share your experience with them so far. While we are just in the beginning stages I do have 2 agencies in mind and they are one of them. The other is a local agency that a good friend/old co-worker adopted from last year. I guess from what I read my 2 concerns with Bethany are: 1.) Having to belong to a church (from what I understand, I may be wrong). We do not belong to a church. However, we do believe in God, pray, attend church here and there but not faithfully to be quite honest. 2.) There is a preliminary application-what is the reasoning for that? TIA!
Many failed IUI's (medicated and unmedicated)
IVF#1-Micro-dose Lupron protocol: BFN
IVF#2-Antagonist Protocol-transferred 1 8-cell grade A embryo: BFP!
Missed Miscarriage- D&C 4/2011
IVF#3-Antagonist protocol again but no bcp's: August 2011
DOR, endo and cervical stenosis
ER 8/16/11 3 er 3 fert w/icsi
ET 8/19/11-assisted hatching- transferred (2) 8 cell embryos!
9/1/11=Beta#1=824
9/6/11=Beta#2=7337
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Re: Bethany Christian Services?
Before I begin, I just want to say that this is our experience with our local Bethany Agency, so it may vary slightly in your state.
So far so good for us. We turned in our paperwork 6 weeks ago. I did wish they would e-mail with progress, but I realize they are busy, and I am trying to not think about it, as I know I need to be patient.
The preliminary application is really nothing, It took me 5 mins to fill out online. Once our caseworker got it she emailed and called me the next day to schedule a meeting. At the meeting we went over all of the paperwork that needed to be filled out for the full application. She also star-ed the items that she needed first as they took longer to process.
She is always telling us that we are right on top of things, and that after our two day training class (hopefully at the end of Feb, beginning of March) we should be ready to start our homestudy. It took me a good 8 hours to fill out all the paperwork, which I did over my christmas vacation.
As far a being a member of the church, I think they have valid reasons, as they are a christian agency their purpose is that children be raised in christian homes. It is good to have the support of a church group that can help instill those values. They also used our pastor as one of our 8 references.
I would be happy to answer any more questions, but others who have been all the way through the process might be more helpful.
We called them because a friend had successfully IA'd from them. The church requirement was an issue for us. So we moved on.
I believe the Agency has to send you a link to it on their webpage. It is just general information, name, address, how long you have been married, what you do, etc.
Ok, thanks!
We are happy with Bethany so far. (HElizabethDU - I bet you $10 we are using the same office!!)
Application to homestudy approval was about 6 months - but that also included changing caseworkers (ours moved out of state to be near family), so I think that may have added to the wait. Plus, one set of fingerprints took three tries to get approved (not Bethany's fault). Ugh!
Our office does have a number of families waiting right now, so we were quoted a 6-24 month wait. The wait is making me antsy, and I'm thinking of reaching out at the 1 year mark for other situations. But, my husband is good and kind and patient - and encouraging me to let Bethany do their thing.
As far as the religion thing, we were right where you are!! I was concerned because we were not regular chuch-goers. They encouraged us to try some area churches and find a "home" that suited us - and we did! One of the pastors was even nice enough to do the reference for us after we got to know him.
We are also using Bethany. So far, we have had a great experience and are very happy with them overall. We have a rather new caseworker who is a little slow about getting things done but other than that, we have been very pleased! The pre-application isn't anything at all. It will literally take 5 minutes to fill out! Our office took weeks to respond to our pre-application but I think again that was because of our caseworker being so new. I think one thing that I like the most about Bethany is how they treat their birthparents. They give them lots of support and from what I've heard from Bethany workers & birthparents that have placed thru them, they want what's best for the child and want to make sure that the birthmother is secure in whatever decision she makes.
As far as the church requirement. One of the references from us had to be our pastor. I know all offices do things a little different though so you will probably just want to talk to your office. I think they mostly want to make sure you are a Christian but like the PP said, they might want you to try to find a church home. We were new to our church so we actually used my DH's family church pastor as our reference and there wasn't any problem with that! Good Luck to you in your decision. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me! ( just let me know if you do because I'm horrible about checking it!)
Same for us!
We used Bethany and had a great experience as well. We had just started attending a new church when we started our paperwork, but our office required that we both be members of the same church. At the time, we weren't ready to join the church, so we starting meeting with the pastor regularly. That helped us get to know him and he get to know us. We didn't want to be forced to join a church we didn't feel lead to join, and before that didn't feel comfortable asking him to do a referral for us if he didn't know us. After several meetings though, everything felt completely natural and we joined knowing it's where we were supposed to be.
As far as the rest of the paperwork/staff/etc., everyone was GREAT to work with. Our situation was a little different, since all of ours had to be expedited (we weren't homestudy approved when we were chosen to parent the twins). The entire staff worked to help us complete our homestudy in about a week so that we could bring our babies home asap. They were all so helpful. We also love that they really advocate for birthparents. We were told on numerous occasions that their job is not to find us a baby, their job is to make sure that baby makes it home to an educated parent, whether that be with their birthparent or their adoptive parent. We fully support that.