1250 Piedmont Ave.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
United States
(404) 815-1599
info@illienadoptions.org http://www.illienadoptions.org
Type: Private Agency
Average Ratings Based On All Reviews
Review by aengle submitted on March, 21, 2010 at 02:13 PM
Adoption Details:
Child's Age: 13y 0m
Start Date: Sep 2008
Status: Finalized
Completion Date: Jul 2009
Time Until Placement: 10 months
Type: Closed, International
Special Needs: No
Child from Ethiopia
Pros: Overall, they process children through the system more quickly than many larger agencies do.
Cons: First, my child’s child profile report listed him as five years younger than he actually was. Despite the fact that Illien at that point already knew that his orphanage was untrustworthy, no one from the Illien staff questioned or tried to confirm my child’s age. I only found out that he was 13 (and not 8 as listed) from the child himself after he passed court and I was in Ethiopia picking him up. He said that no one had ever asked him his real age. It was easy to see how Americans could be misled about his age, because upon arriving home, he was only in the 30th percentile for height for a 10 year old, and not even on the chart for a 13 year old. However, based on comments I heard, it became obvious to me when I was picking him up that Illien’s Ethiopian staff knew he was older. This age difference made his placement in the home of a single mom very questionable, since many Ethiopian males, including my older son, believe that they have already become men at age 13—and they do not necessarily want to accept authority from a woman. At no point did anyone from the Illien staff counsel or warn me about any of these issues.
The second issue had to do with my second child’s emotional state. Everyone, Illien workers and visiting Americans alike, had praised him as emotionally stable and mature. The child profile report described him as “happy,” showing no “signs of low self-esteem,” and “full of energy.” He is actually a really sweet and generous child. But he admitted to me after the adoption that he exhibited aggressive behavior towards adults (an orphanage worker and a teacher) at least twice during the year I was adopting him, and no one told me anything about that behavior. In addition, he has been through extensive abuse in his early life and was diagnosed within a month of being in the U.S. with post-traumatic stress disorder. During the four months he lived in my home, he exhibited signs of PTSD ranging from suicidal behavior to hallucinations to sleep and eating disorders. Unfortunately, he ultimately became a threat to the point that I had to dissolve the adoption.
Amazingly, a single male friend of mine stepped up and adopted my second son, and he is now doing better. However, I would never want anyone to experience the hell I went through, and I feel that it could have been easily prevented. I received no updates about his behavior during the year I adopted him, and my son says he would have admitted his age if anyone had asked. With more accurate information, I would have called off the adoption. Worse, during the months in which I was investigating how to get help and end the adoption if I needed to, Illien was almost no help at all. Websites on dissolving adoptions say that the first step is to contact your adoption agency for help. However, in this case, the head of Illien’s Ethiopia program was emotionally supportive but had very few practical tips, while the head of the agency was really uncaring. They left me on my own to deal with an explosive situation, even though the Ethiopia program director admitted that the placement was “inappropriate.”
Reviews: I strongly advise anyone considering adoption, especially adoption of older children, to avoid Illien. They do tend to be faster than many bigger agencies, but they don’t verify information, they’re not proactive, and if you have a problem, they will not help you.
