Hands Across the Water

I was waiting to write about hands across the water agency from Ann Arbor Michigan until our post reports were finished. Now that they are completed. I would never recommend this homestudy agency to anyone.

They often made errors. They didn’t have a strong grasp on filling out the paper work for the dossier/ requesting a courier to take our documents to the embassy. Things were so incorrect we had to re do the paper work and have it overnighted ( of course things were very close to 6 month mark). The extra costs and also the lack of urgency and guidance was mind blowing. They caused extra stress and panic often. We had 3 social workers assigned to us over the 3 year process. There were 2 directors over that time. I’ve called and asked questions and they often didn’t know the answers because the staff was always fresh out of college didn’t know how the adoption programs worked per country. My favorite was when the social worker asked me for the step by step for the Korean program.

At the end my social worker was a contract worker and I was not allowed to have her phone number- I could only email her if I needed something. It made setting up post adoption meetings more of a hassle trying to coordinate everyone’s schedule. Also if we were struggling in our first year - it did not seem like they were there to support us.

They also waited to the last second for every post adoption report- seemed disorganized and the final product would come looking unprofessional - they printed cover letters from previous notifications - and than using ink pens crossing out the errors (instead of fixing and reprinting the document)

I hope they take this feedback and decide to make improvements to their agency for future families

This is the third foster agency we have worked with since 2012, and I have been nothing but impressed with the professionalism, knowledgeability, and dedication of our licensing worker, foster care worker, recruitment specialist, and foster care worker's supervisor (all of whom we have worked with directly - I am confident they are not the only capable people working here!) If, on the rare occasion I can't reach our worker, I've had to call the main office for assistance, I have been answered every time by a live person, not a voicemail box. I will probably never work with another agency after our experience here - they've got me! I take every opportunity to brag on our experience with them to others who are considering foster care or adoption. Hands Across the Water is hands down the best agency to work with!

This is the worst adoption agency ever my family has gone through 2 years of redoing paperwork because they either “lost it” or it “expired” so they say.. They never respond to any messages for weeks or months then they want to call.. when you talk with a supervisor they just blow it off.. I don’t suggest anyone go through this agency at all unless you just want to be jerked around..

From the very beginning HATW and the people there have been spectacular. They truly took care of our family through the whole foster care and adoption process. Not only did they recognize the kids needs, but mine and my husbands as well. Could not find a better group anywhere! Thank you!

I applied to their foster to adopt program in October of last year (seven months ago). From day one, communication has been nil. I will regularly have to contact them half a dozen times over two weeks before I get even an acknowledgement. At one point, my home study was complete except for my fingerprints which "should be arriving any day now; [my case worker] will have it completed that same day." Two and a half months later, I've contacted four different people, including the supervisor, several times each, and received literally no response--as in, "this organization has fallen off the edge of the world" no response. Finally, I reached out to another organization and only then did I find out the supervisor, my case worker, had left. Thanks for letting me know during my dozens of attempts at contact! Even just an acknowledgement of receipt ("sorry, this happened, we'll get to it as soon as possible") would have placated me. I'm pretty forgiving, but I can't think of a single excuse for not getting even this much, especially over two and a half months, after I contacted them multiple times. I then found out I would have to repeat several steps of the process--by this time, it's been three months since "any day now." I only continued because I figured it had to be better than starting over. It's been two weeks and four emails, and I have yet to get ab response--three of these emails were submitting documents, so you'd think I'd at least get an acknowledgement of receipt, or an answer to my question about the last document needed. I can't imagine any excuses, and I can't imagine going through this process with this kind of "help". It's worth the headache, and would probably be faster, to start over with a different agency. I hope this is an extreme outlier rather than the norm.