An Ottawa woman's hopes for adopting a child from Africa have been dashed after an Ontario adoption agency went bankrupt.
"I cried . . . I just cried," said Kimberly Easy, a client of Imagine Adoption.
Easy is one of about 400 clients who were left empty handed when Kids Link, which operates as the Imagine adoption agency based in Cambridge, Ont., posted a bankruptcy notice on its website earlier this week. The website is no longer active.
"The Board of Directors met on Friday, July 10 to discuss the financial situation of Kids Link," said the notice written by Susan Taves, the senior vice president of financial recovery company BDO Dunwoody Ltd.
"It was clear that the funds in the bank accounts are not sufficient to service the families in the Kids Link program," she wrote.
Now, BDO Dunwoody is working with the federal government to see if families that were already matched with a child can salvage their adoptions.
"There are families matched with those children. We again, are dealing with the adoption licensing agencies here through Immigration Canada . . . trying to see if we can expediate papers through the high commissioner over in Africa," Taves said on Thursday.
The situation has shone light on how the province grants licenses to adoption agencies. The minister in charge of children and youth says that process needs to be examined.
"I think we have to review that. And we're actually looking to the trustee and bankruptcy BDO Dunwoody to give us some help on that," said Deb Mathews, Ontario minister of children and youth.
Still, Easy said her dream of becoming a mother is not over.
Even though she could be out $10,000 that she already put towards the cost of adopting a child, she said she will now explore the possibility of adopting a son or daughter from Haiti, which is one of the few remaining countries that allow single parents over the age of 40 to adopt a child.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Kimothy Walker
