Recent information concerning our adoption agency

We have always had concerns about the finances and dealings our adoption agency, but believed that they were basically doing what they had to to bring children home. They charged an exorbitant amount of money for adoptions at a time when they weren't as expensive as they are now. However, they were successful at bringing our children home despite many difficulties & we will always be grateful for that. We have heard of many complaints about their finances, in addition to our own, and we heard that one of the directors had recently committed suicide. There was an article published in the paper today that indicates that their woes are not over. There are many unscrupulous agencies involved in adoption and unfortunately, we suspected that ours was one of them,. However, I do not believe that the blame lies at one door and the whole story has not yet emerged. It's a sad day for the adoption business in St. Louis and for the adoption community in general. Unfortunately, families are desperate to be completed and will allow themselves to be manipulated and exploited in order to being their children home. I had always said that if we were in any other type of transaction that we would have bailed many times over. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/7FDFEA96BFC055AC8625763D000E9F17?OpenDocument

Subsequently, an article in support of Slava was published.

http://www.stlbeacon.org/beacon_columnists/viacheslav_platonov_remembered

As I said before, the whole story has not emerged. At least something was written giving the other side. As with all situations like this one, it's ultimately the orphans that will suffer. Our agency is not unique, there are many agencies dealing with all kinds of charitable intentions that mismanage money and think of themselves first. We went into adoption fully aware that this was the case. However, the level of corruption (particularly during our first adoption) was more than even we had expected. During our second adoption, people played with our lives, juggling children around & employing bait & switch tactics. To me, that is worse than any money exchange that ever took place. Many people are just plain cold and don't care what happens to families during the adoption process or after. From what I have heard, SWAF has already gone some way to remedy this oversight & I hope they have learned from their mistakes. Somehow I doubt it.