Land of Crickets Update

So we are officially on a freeze with our adoption agency, who I have begun to refer to as Land of Crickets (as in our 23.5 months as a waiting family with them we heard nothing but crickets).  We received a formal letter acknowledging our freeze at the beginning of September.  September has been crazy with back to school, starting classes and my ongoing love/hate relationship with food and other pregnancy symptoms.  So it took us a few weeks to finally process the contents of the letter.  Once we processed; however, we were not happy (to say the least).


Since the beginning we have been told that our contract is for two years, but as long as we followed their advice they would continue to offer us 6 month extensions until we had completed an adoption.  Apparently becoming pregnant goes against their "advice" as our ability to be granted an extension appears to be in jeopardy (our family will no longer look as it did when we signed on 2 years ago--apparently in the Land of Crickets they do truly believe that time stands still).  To that end, they are only guaranteeing us the final month that was remaining on our contract.


This means that there is a very good chance that we have paid them tens of thousands of dollars to do NOTHING.  Legally, I will admit, the contract we signed does cover them as it notes they do not guarantee a placement and "changing your family characteristics “may result in a longer wait time or reduce client(s) opportunities for success.”.  However, in our defense we failed to realize that "reduced opportunities for success" somehow translated to termination of services. 


However, when viewing their practices ethically, morally, and as a Christian based organization I believe they are leaving themselves wide open for criticism and the potential for negative publicity should anyone choose to make these practices known.  The next step currently is that our coordinator is going to look into the possibility of the extension review committee meeting on us sooner rather than waiting on our freeze to end.  I certainly hope for their sake that they see the light so to speak otherwise I may be using some of my newly formed advocacy skills to attempt to terminate Land of Crickets from operating with future families in the state of NC and to ensure those looking to adopt through them are aware of our experience.  I may not have a lot of spare time on my hands, but if this ends in our contract being terminated I will make time.