Bethany Christian Services review: Adoption

Bethany did not give me a fair chance of getting my nieces. All Lexie was doing was getting information from me. To finish her report about where Kaydance and Madeline were born and who their brothers and sisters were. Lexie never gave me a home study. I went down and got my background check done with the fingerprint. I told her where to call to get the records. She did not make time to do this. Lexie had already said to me that she would refer the foster family. Even knowing that we have been in contact from day one trying to get the children. I even flew there in July to talk with Devin. She had told me that she was going to get a caseworker on an interstate adoption for me. Devin said it is just as easy to adopt from California as it was to adopt in Michigan. My mother had texted Lexie from Charlie St John about how we got Kaydance and Madeline back in 2019. We have been involved with Kaydance and Madeline from the beginning. I was there in Michigan to go to court twice with Sarah and Chris to talk with the judge about getting the children, but it was canceled due to COVID-19.

When we visited Kaydance and Madeline, the foster mother told my mother that she was sorry she did not know that a family wanted the children. And that was not the case. I have filled out three times papers to be in foster care for my nieces. My mother had her cousin drive there to Muskegon, Michigan, as a foster caregiver. She filled out the papers, was approved, and never heard anything from them. Kaydance and Madeline had come home on January 22, 2019, so we thought everything was okay. Still, they went back to foster care on March 9, 2019, and then my mother went in May to see about the children. She stayed there for two months, seeing what she could do. Kaydance and Madeline have been with the foster family for almost two years through Bethany. We put our family on hold and pushed off this whole time by losing time with our family. It shouldn't matter if the girls were in family reunification or not. The girls shouldn't have been placed in foster care. Our family has been there from the beginning, trying to get temporary. Custody till Chris and Sarah got their act together. DHHS and Bethany were fully aware of us, and we have just been pushed aside till we could go to court or till Chris and Sarah's parent's rights were terminated. They were giving us all this time to benefit only the temp—foster parents more time with the girls and give us no family, NO CHANCE. #1 Covid-19 #2 Family was in reunification. So this has been the excuse why we have been pushed aside.

My mom and I went to Michigan again this summer and went to Bethany. We got to talk to the head supervisor there. Her name was Devon. We had asked her how and what the procedure was for getting the girls. Devin told us if Sarah and Chris gave up their rights, it would be faster for us to adopt them. We could do nothing until the parent's rights were terminated, and once that was done, we could adopt the children faster. That is what we were going to do. The parents had another court date in September, so my mother and I flew back to Michigan to attend a court with Sarah and Chris.

Furthermore, the court was pushed to another date, which was supposed to be held at the end of October, around 24- 28. But it turns out that the courts sprung a date earlier than what was told, with no notification to the parents or family that they terminated the parents' rights in early October, around the 9th to the 16th. Bethany and adoption services disregarded that there was family around. I was also in the program to be one of the foster parents' adoptees. Bethany says we were forgotten, and there were no notes by anyone on their end that we had been in the picture.

We found out later from Lexie that the new caseworker assigned was the supervisor, Devon, who went on maternity leave for the second time. This happened to us the 1st time we had Samatha Crosley, who left on maternity leave in Dec.2019. After that, we had Brianna tell us that the parent's rights were terminated, though the family was not reached out to or contacted. Procedure or any of that was done. We found out in November that we had a new worker, Lexi. No one even knew of us. Bethany did their own business and did not even look back on notes or family placement. They just went ahead and kidnapped my niece and sold them through foster care and adoption service and had pushed us far away now when they denied me benefits through adopting my nieces. I thought that the family was reached out or contacted. Procedure or any of that was done. I know this must be a little confusing. I am trying to give you some idea of what is going on. I am so confused. My mother is going out there to Michigan. She thinks it will be better if I move out there, and I will know what it takes to get my nieces. I want to know if what they are doing is legal if my constitutional rights have been broken, and if even what Bethany preaches has been broken. They have not followed through with what they post.

Krystal Dewolfe