From the New York Times piece-

Texas Loses Court Ruling Over Taking of Children

HOUSTON — Bringing polygamist families closer to regaining custody of their children, a divided Supreme Court of Texas agreed Thursday that the state had illegally seized 468 girls and boys from a West Texas ranch last month on unproven grounds of physical and sexual abuse.

State officials said they would move swiftly to return the children.

The decision upholding a ruling of the Third Court of Appeals last week directed a state judge to revoke the custody order taking the children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado.

But it gave no timetable for their return and said that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services could still seek authority to protect any of the children in individual cases.

…

“They confirmed what the Court of Appeals said, which is that the children were taken from their parents illegally and they must be returned,” Mr. Parker said by telephone from San Angelo, where the custody hearings were held before the children were sent to foster homes across Texas.

In its ruling on May 22, the Third Court of Appeals, in Austin, said the state had failed to establish any immediate danger to the children and called their seizing illegal. The state appealed.

…

Some lawyers representing children were torn. Mary Jo McCurley, a Dallas lawyer and a former chairwoman of the state bar’s family law section, was appointed legal guardian of three of the children, including a daughter of the church’s prophet-leader Warren Jeffs, who is now in prison. Although the state did not win its case, Ms. McCurley said, it was important to remember that there were signs of abuse uncovered.

State and federal criminal investigations are under way and could still produce criminal charges.

“It’s really unfortunate, because obviously there are some children who have been sexually abused,” Ms. McCurley said. “But this doesn’t keep them from coming back and having another hearing. They could get their proof together, for example have a doctor come in and say this child is 13 years old and she has already given birth to another child, and the father of that child is 46 years old.”

So I suppose short of something happening, most of the kids go right on back in.

Apparently underage girls giving birth is no biggie. The State has apparently decided to look the other way, at least for the time being.

Guess that makes it official- age of consent laws are now pretty much null and void.

Which considering their history, (Go read “Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920” by Mary E. Odem) certainly makes for an interesting.

This is one of several posts that I made private between May 31rst 2008 and July 22, 2008. (This represents the time period between my resigning from working on the Adoptee Rights Demonstration / Day for Adoptee Rights, (ARD / DAR) and it actually taking place in New Orleans.)

The piece below was originally posted May 28th, 2008.

I changed its status to public view with this disclaimer added July 22nd. Now that the event has passed I am restoring my earlier writings towards the purposes of restoring the historical record.

They were taken down as they reflected my original support for and work towards ARD/DAR prior to my resignation. In late May, I resigned, and I did not wish these pieces to be mistaken for active recruitment to the event in the period between late May and the event in July.

Part of my reasoning was due to a technical quirk of blogging itself; each post stands alone, decontextualized from the larger narrative. As these older pieces could be viewed via web searches etc. as distinct and apart from the context that I had since resigned, I made them private until after the event had passed.

My single post history of ARD/DAR and the events leading up to it can be found here. The post below should be viewed in the context of the events explained in it. Additional posts concerning ARD/DAR particularly from July 22nd forward can be found by utilizing the Adoptee Rights Demonstration tag (results will appear in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.) They too, should be understood within that larger context.

Original text of the post, as it appeared prior to being made private appears in full below.

(Please distribute widely)

Adoptee Rights Demonstration Call for Volunteers
Seeking March and Protest Monitors for New Orleans

The Adoptee Rights Demonstration/Day for Adoptee Rights seeks March and Protest Volunteer Monitors to help co-ordinate the Tuesday July 22nd, 2008 March from Lafayette Square to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, in New Orleans. The same team of volunteer monitors will also help during the Educational Picket outside the convention center which will take place immediately following the March.

Monitors will help with crowd control before and during the protest. They will also keep folks marching to the Morial Center from straying from the approved route, and once at the Convention Center will ensure that picketing is done legally.

No previous experience or special skills are needed. Training and specific duties instruction will be provided the night before in a brief but mandatory break out training during Monday night’s Sign/Banner making gathering.

The Adoptee Rights Demonstration (ARD) runs on Volunteers. Volunteers are those who make the entire event come together. If you want the day to be a success, get involved in making it happen.

By volunteering as a March/Protest Monitor you’ll join a team of people committed to making the Day for Adoptee Rights an organized, strong, and visible presence in the streets and outside the site of the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting which begins the following day.

Further, volunteering will be a fantastic way to meet people from all over who care passionately about access to our records all while knowing you’ve been an important part of making these special days a success.

Be a part of open records history, get involved!

***

The Adoptee Rights Demonstration continues to seek Volunteers for other positions as well, contact either:

Ron with ARD at bb_church@adopteerights.net (link disabled 7/22/08)

or Bastard Nation at bn@bastards.org (link disabled 7/22/08)

for details. Please add the word “Monitors” in your e-mail subject line if you are volunteering to be a March/Protest Monitor.

Allow me to add my personal thanks to everyone working to make these events come together and run smoothly.

-Lauren Sabina Kneisly
(aka Baby Love Child)
ARD March/Protest Volunteer Trainer and Head Monitor

This is one of several posts that I made private between May 31rst 2008 and July 22, 2008. (This represents the time period between my resigning from working on the Adoptee Rights Demonstration / Day for Adoptee Rights, (ARD / DAR) and it actually taking place in New Orleans.)

The piece below was originally posted May 27th, 2008.

I changed its status to public view with this disclaimer added July 22nd. Now that the event has passed I am restoring my earlier writings towards the purposes of restoring the historical record.

They were taken down as they reflected my original support for and work towards ARD/DAR prior to my resignation. In late May, I resigned, and I did not wish these pieces to be mistaken for active recruitment to the event in the period between late May and the event in July.

Part of my reasoning was due to a technical quirk of blogging itself; each post stands alone, decontextualized from the larger narrative. As these older pieces could be viewed via web searches etc. as distinct and apart from the context that I had since resigned, I made them private until after the event had passed.

My single post history of ARD/DAR and the events leading up to it can be found here. The post below should be viewed in the context of the events explained in it. Additional posts concerning ARD/DAR particularly from July 22nd forward can be found by utilizing the Adoptee Rights Demonstration tag (results will appear in reverse chronological order, from newest to oldest.) They too, should be understood within that larger context.

Original text of the post, as it appeared prior to being made private appears in full below.

I hope to work up some more materials in relation to the upcoming events in New Orleans, but for the moment, I wanted to once again draw readers’ attention to the Adoptee Rights Demonstration/Day for Adoptee Rights.

Dates-

As of today, we’re one month, 26 days away from the main event, the March and educational picket! It’s time to get your plans together!

While a final schedule is still being hammered out, I’m personally advising people to focus on aiming to be in New Orleans somewhere between Friday, July 18th (2008) and Friday the 25th, with a heavy emphasis on the 18th through the 23rd, unless you’ll be working in the booth at the convention itself. Bastards will certainly be in town, doing ARD/DAR related work the entire week, though.

Of those the most critical days will be:

Sunday the 20th for the Teach-in, a really important day to be there for!

Monday the 21rst, for volunteer trainings and the sign making get together,

and the most important day of all, Tuesday the 22nd, for the rally and March from Lafayette Park to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center where the National Conference of State Legislatures (the legislators who make the laws determining whether we gain access to our records- or not) annual meeting will be taking place. The March will then culminate in an educational picket outside the convention center.

Official ARD/DAR websites-

The official ARD/DAR protest website homepage

Bastard Nation’s NATIONAL DAY OF ADOPTEE RIGHTS PROTEST webpage

Bastard Nation’s Day for Adoptee Rights blog (with their most up to date news)

Hotels-

There are two primary hotels with blocks specifically set aside for ARD/DAR participants:

Best Western St. Christopher is the hotel many participants will be staying at. See the official Adoptee Rights Demonstration hotel page for details on reserving a space there.

Additionally, Bastard Nation has a block of rooms set aside (initially) for BN members in the Country Inn & Suites by Carlson, New Orleans, French Quarter. (This will be where the Sunday teach-in will be held.)

Within roughly a week or so BN will be opening up anything left in their block of rooms to other non-member protesters, so if you’re a BN member and you want to be in the BN block get your room NOW! Go see the Bastard Nation NOLA page for details on reserving a room at the Country Inn and Suites.

Volunteering-

The Demonstration and events surrounding it will only happen if we all work to make it happen. While that means attending, it also means that it will be an event running on the efforts of volunteers. Volunteers helping with all kinds of tasks both large and small, everything from rides for Bastards to and from the airport, to helping keep the park clean, etc.

I will be working with a team of volunteers, the Protest Monitors, to help ensure the march and picket go smoothly.

There are all kinds of opportunities from media relations to graphics.

Even if you’re unable to attend the event in NOLA there are ways you can help make the Adoptee Rights Demonstration a success.

And folks, if you’re coming to NOLA please seriously consider volunteering to help make these events really come together. A small investment of time on your part can add up to make a tremendous difference for everyone.

Email Ron with ARD at bb_church@adopteerights.net (link disabled 7/22/08)

or Bastard Nation at bn@bastards.org(link disabled 7/22/08)

Donations-

Of course, one of the most important things you can do whether you’ll be joining us in NOLA or not will be to continue to financially support the ARD/DAR.

For a donation of $10 you can be included in the New Orleans Times-Picayune ad that will run during the Legislator’s conference. The ad will feature the names of adoptees, their friends and family who support Open records. Be part of history for just ten bucks.

Whether for the Newspaper ad or not make a donation to the ARD/DAR.

You can donate online directly to the Adoptee Rights Demonstration through the webpage. (link disabled 7/22/08)

Or through Bastard Nation’s Who’s Next Fund. (link disabled 7/22/08)

While you’re supporting the Adoptee Rights Demonstration, get some fine Bastard gear to sport on the streets:

All proceeds for sales from the Bastard Boutique (link disabled 7/22/08) up to July 31, 2008 will go directly to cover the cost of A DAY FOR ADOPTEE RIGHTS Contact Mccmtmd@aol.com for availability and shipping costs

***

July 22nd is an important date in the history of the work toward the restoration of the right to unconditional access to our records.

The events surrounding it, particularly the teach-in present important opportunities for you to gain skills to take home to work for open records in your region. I hope I’ll be seeing you in the trainings and in the streets in New Orleans!

I first made mention of Claar and Novak in my May 7th entry, News- Adoption agencies under fire (Colorado) without going into much detail. By way of introduction, I’ll quote the article I was blogging at the time:

(Speaking of the few CO agencies that actually bothered to report employee salaries to the state audit,)

Of the 14 agencies that did, the Claar Foundation reported paying the highest annual salary: $169,350.

Claar’s director, Novak, has been charged with two counts of theft and one count of fraud, and the agency has closed. She was accused of taking thousands of dollars from prospective parents but never completing adoptions. A preliminary hearing is scheduled May 19 in Boulder.

This Longmont Times Call article, Adoption theft hearing will resume Friday, goes into a fair amount of detail about that hearing. I’d advise you just go look at the full article to get a real feel for how this went down, but this will give you the gist of it:

Boulder County Judge Care Hoye Enichen stepped in several times to calm tensions between Novak’s attorney Lance Goff and witness Jaspal Singh as the man testified about his troubles with the Claar Foundation and Novak.

At one point, Goff asked if Singh understood he could not “purchase” a child.

“This is not a purchase, sir,” Singh told the attorney, obviously upset.

Novak, a former Erie trustee, is facing charges of theft and check fraud. She is accused of taking money from hopeful adoptive parents who used the Claar Foundation to try to adopt children from other countries. Singh’s testimony came during a preliminary hearing on one of the theft charges. The hearing is scheduled to continue Friday.

Singh, 32, told a Boulder judge that he and his wife, 61, spent two years and more than $61,000 to adopt a Guatemalan boy through Lisa Novak at the Claar Foundation agency, but that process was riddled with mistakes, mounting unexpected fees and unfulfilled promises.

Novak and her husband Marty Claar often shook their heads or smiled at Singh’s testimony. Enichen warned Goff that Novak’s “incessant” comments to him were distracting her from Singh’s testimony.

The Rocky Mountain News in its piece Ex-trustee in court over adoption fraud, explained the heart of the Novak defense:

Novak’s lawyer, Lance Goff, said the Singhs’ contract explicitly refused to guarantee successful adoptions. He suggested that it was the Singhs who bumbled the adoption bureaucracy.

Which is to say, yet again, Prospective Adopter, the watchword when dealing with agencies is “caveat emptor,” let the buyer beware. Flowery promises from agencies mean nothing, watch what you’re signing, and forking over cash to the tune of $61,000 with nothing to show for it pretty much means you may well be boned.

But again, this has yet to go through the courts, and Novak defense aside, I’m willing to bet there’s a heck of a lot more to it than that. In order to keep the Singhs on the hook, no doubt certain things WERE promised or at bare minimum given the full appearance of promises. (So stay tunned kiddies, this promises to be quite the show.)

After that initial hearing, the judge ruled the case against Lisa Novak can go forward. (See for example the Tribune’s piece, Woman could stand trial in adoption fraud case.)

See just when you thought I’d finally be doing an entry on domestic adoption, we’re back to Guatemala YET AGAIN! Because at the heart of the Claar foundation charges are of promised Guatemalan adoptees who never materialized, the money for such also appears to have ‘disappeared.’

Lisa Novak of Erie is accused of failing to deliver on adoptions promised to two families through an orphanage in Guatemala. The families say they never got their money back. The 48-year-old Novak was charged with two counts of felony theft and one county of felony fraud.

So why Guatemala, why are we always back here again?

The short answer is that Guatemala was a ‘quick and easy’ compared to some other ‘sending countries.’ In light of its reputation, it was then easy to bilk potential adopters with the lure of a Guatemalan adoption purely based on the reputation of how ‘probable’ such would be.

The word was out, on the street on the net, adoptions from Guatemala were relatively easy, restrictions were more lax, they went through relatively quickly, and the supply of Guatemalan kids up until very recently appeared endless. Guatemala was the second largest market for American adopters.

As for Novak, she’ll be entering her plea in a June 20th court date. She is currently free on bail.

I know folks are searching for the current status of all these bills, I’ve been meaning to get to blog entries on all of ’em so here’s one big post for all of ’em plus by way of bonus, further blog reading on IL’s Confidential Intermediary disaster.

Let’s start by saying I oppose every single one of the 4 title pieces of legislation. I advise work to defeat them all.

Next, let’s begin by mapping out what this maze of bill numbers relate to.

IL HB 4623 (Adoption, psuedo records information access, etc a false substitute for a genuine records access bill, a new twist on the broken system that continues to lock bastards away from full unhindered access to our own information. Supportive of various industries, such as pro-searchers, not Bastards.)

OH substitute HB 7 / LSC 127 0671-3 (A mess of a bill, lousy legislation put forward by an abortion opponent who views his adoption work as some kind of zero-sum game to abortion. By way of one ever so temporary bright spot, it originally had full records access on it, but the records access was then yanked in the Health Committee, leaving it a bill about everything but the kitchen sink; from sticking ‘adoption education’, i.e. adoption marketing to young womyn or pregnant womyn, into pretty much any program they can think of on through to foster care restructuring, parental rights termination, and putting together a committee to make recommendations on moving kids out of foster care into permanent placements with no adoptee voices on it at all, plenty of industry voices though.)

And finally the paired OH HB 485 & OH SB 304 (the State House and Senate versions pushing the expansion of Ohio’s babydump/Baby Moses Law bill, They would both enlarge the potential dump period from up to 3 days after giving birth to as short as 6 days on up to 30. I know- I haven’t had time to blog these two bills yet either- but go search by “Ohio”, or “Safe Haven”, or the bill numbers on Bastardette, she’s got plenty, particularly her May16th piece “Ohio: State Secrets protect deadbeat dumpers“.)

In Ohio alone, there’s nothing like having to fight on essentially two adoption related fronts (both the original records access/and the horrible neutered of access bill it has devolved down into AND babydump expansion bills) at once. Unless of course, it’s having to fight on both fronts, in separate Committee hearings for both on the same day! Welcome to Bastard hell.

***

So Current status? Let’s start with Ohio:

There is still time to write legislators to ask they kill Ohio substitute HB 7 (LSC 127 0671-3,) Ohio HB 485,(Ohio House of Representatives) and Ohio SB 304! (Ohio Senators)

On May 14th, the stripped of records access version of HB 7 (LSC 127 0671-3) was voted out of the Health Committee out to the full House floor. Despite all the contact legislators received and testimony in support of restoring Ohio adoptee’s access to our own birth certificates back onto the bill and the fact that no one came to publicly testify against such, the bill that originally had our access on it was passed out without us. Thus leaving Ohio Bastards behind to languish in the mess of Ohio’s existing arbitrary and discriminatory tri-tier black hole system yet again.

Our rights continue to be passed over, while the ongoing march to ‘make more’ continues unabated. Apparently ‘abstinence dis-education’ which is also on the bill far outweighs the rights of the people born as a result of such. (Yes folks, ‘abstinence education’ is a recipe for pregnancy- unwanted pregnancy, which only means more of us.)

It’s an otherwise disastrous bill that will still make for plenty of adoption related misery, far beyond our access no longer being on it.

Meanwhile, that same day (May 14th), the Ohio Senate Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee passed SB 304 out to the full Senate. (The Baby Moses Law/Babydump bill expansion that ups the dump time limit from 3 to 30 days.)

(see Bastardette’s Ohio: Bad News for Buckeyes for her recap on both of the Committee passings)

Buckeyes for Equal Access (BEA) who I’ve blogged about before is the Ohio based group working for records access and working against the Baby Moses Law/ Baby Dump expansion.

***

Now, turning to Illinois, IL HB 4623 has received a third extension, extending work on it out to May 31rst. (The IL session is scheduled to adjourn Friday May 29th.) As of 5/22 a notation was added that two new sponsors had been added on the 21rst. (I’m still working to get the new sponsors names, sorry.)

So there’s still time to write IL legislators and work to stop the bill. You can use Bastard Nation’s IL HB 4623 Action Alert up on IL Open’s blog and Bastardette’s search tag on IL HB 4623 as a starting places to help you understand the background and the issues.

Illinois Open are the folks doing the work there.

73adoptee also has a brief piece up urging people, it’s “Not Too Late For Adoptees’ Rights! Write Illinois Legislators Opposing HB 4623”

***

So, by way of that “& More” I promised, allow me to set the legislation aside for one moment.

To understand and learn more about how broken Illinois’ current Confidential Intermediary system is (which relates to CI systems more generally), but also to get up to speed about the state of the existing system, and how it treats Bastards I’ve got some further blog reading for you.

I’ve already pointed readers at Triona Guidry’s (73adoptee’s) incredible piece about her Kafka-esque experience with the Illinois Confidential Intermediary system, but I’ll do it again as it’s simply must read material. I’ll also point you at her previous entries, particularly Caveat Emptor On Confidential Intermediary Programs.

That said, Bastard Grannie Annie has another wonderful post out today on her experience with IL’s CI system here: The Cheese Stands Alone. She too, speaks eloquently about how IL’s current Confidential Intermediary system, passed in the name of ‘helping adoptees’ does anything but.

So go, read, feed your brain, but then ACT!

Because mere anguish is not enough.

Well, I WAS all set to put up a nice cheery little blog entry this morning, so much for that. Instead, we’ll turn to more pressing matters. Expect the happy happy sunshine little blog post at a later, much more appropriate date.

No this morning, we turn our attention to further horror in the Guatemalan ‘adoption’ community: the death of Enna Barreto a 2 year old ‘adoptee’. Originally from Guatemala, her death ruled a homicide, her ‘adopters’ now face possible murder charges.

Why do I write ‘adoption’, ‘adoptee’, and ‘adopters’?

Because her paperwork, along with many of her ‘adopted’ “siblings'” appears to be wholly absent. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are trying to figure out the details of how and when the children were brought to the U.S. (legally or otherwise) for the Barreto ‘adoptions’.

At the moment, there’s no explanation of how the kids came to be in the country, let alone came to live with the ‘adoptive’ couple, Janet and Ramone Barreto. Investigators are trying to determine whether the kids were stolen or not.

But this is all merely the tip of the iceberg. The cruelty goes much deeper.

Yes, I consistently turn to Bastardette’s infinite wisdom, pointing my readers there often, but once again, she has written her post on Enna’s death and found the words I can’t even begin to.

Go across to her blog and read “Mississippi: of Puppy Mills and Baby Mills — If you can stomach it!”

Enna’s ‘adoptive’ ‘family’ consisted of 9 kids: 2 biological, 7, including Enna adopted/’adopted’ (the paperwork is missing on 5 of the kids.) The children are now in custody and investigators are looking into possible physical and sexual abuse.

While local news, here for example, is reporting the deeply disturbing conditions the surviving children are in:

(Union County Sheriff…)

Wilhite said one of the children, a three-year-old, only weighed 20 pounds. That child and two others didn’t make any sounds at all to communicate.

many of the stories tend to focus instead on the condition of the animals, not the children. As they cannot use video/photographs of the children, the gist of many of the reports have been on the abuse of the animals.

It’s very easy to shoot video of a dog with feces encrusted into its matted fur. Child abuse, even a 3 year old weighing a mere 20 lbs, on the other hand, particularly when there are no kids they can put in front of cameras, fades into the background.

While it may be more comfortable to focus on the animals, a cruelty people can on some level wrap their brains around, the condition of the children while fading to many, is every bit as brutal, as vicious, and as cruel, if not more so.

Stories such as this, where the first mention of Enna appears half way through the article, and only in passing, are much easier to think about. People are cruel to animals, we get that, but that ‘nice couple’ who were ‘loving enough to open their home to all that poor Guatemalan kids’? No. The couple down the road doing something like failing to get a twenty pound child medical care? That’s beyond our comprehension, far better to shut it out, brush it aside, and focus instead on the aspects we can concentrate on without causing our brains too much pain.

The television news can show pictures of trucks coming to take the dogs away, they can interview humane society workers who speak on behalf of the animals, but the death of Enna has no pictures. Pieces such as this, particularly the video entitled “Child, animal abuse in New Albany (05-21-08) are dog centric. When a dog buyer’s puppy dies not long after it’s ‘adoption’, the owner wishes she had ‘looked into it’ and advises potential puppy buyers to always go to the breeder’s home before forking over the cash.

Whitney Hurdle unknowingly adopted a seven week old puppy, Tootsie, from the Barretos. Hurdle said she found the couple through a classified ad.

“Only one close,” she said. “I could get it the next day. Didn’t look into it. Now I wish I had.”

Rather than get the puppy at the breeder’s house, the breeder had Hurdle meet her in a parking lot. That’s where Hurdle handed over $500 in cash- the only method of payment Barreto accepted.

“Had a child with her, a little girl,” Hurdle said. “Nine or ten. Little girl carrying the puppy. She seemed alright. Gave me the papers.”

When Hurdle took Tootsie to the vet for her boosters, the vet was concerned about the teacup yorkie’s size.

“He said he’d never seen one that small,” she said.

A day after the booster shots, Tootsie died. Hurdle said she hoped her experience would encourage others always go (to) the breeder’s home before buying a dog.

It’s advice that should be applied equally to child adopters.

Despite the 5 ‘adopted’ children’s missing paperwork, that still leaves 2 who were assumedly adopted with normal paperwork. So we’re back to my usual questions. Who the hell did the homestudy? What agency placed the kids with these monsters?

Does anyone care?

The one time puppy owner bemoans the small size of the dog.

Does anyone bemoan the fact that Enna is dead and that twenty pounds is no way to be a three-year-old?

Does anyone care?

**********

So allow me to add a few more links to follow with a few more details in addition to the ones off Bastardette, also keep an eye on her comment thread.

North Miss. sheriff says toddler’s death ruled a homicide 5/20

“We still don’t know what actually happened to this child,” Sheriff Tommy Wilhite said in a phone interview Tuesday night. “It’s one of the worst cases I’ve seen in my life.”

Sheriff’s deputies on Sunday raided the home of Janet and Ramone Barreto near New Albany after receiving a tip from doctors that the couple might have abused their daughter.

and

Wilhite said the Barreto’s 2-year-old daughter was taken from a local hospital to Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., for an unspecified reason. Doctors there suspected child neglect and tipped off Wilhite on Sunday night, when he got a warrant and raided the property.

The girl died Monday morning. Wilhite said Shelby County, Tenn., officials conducted an autopsy and told him Tuesday that the death had been ruled a homicide.

The sheriff said eight other children have been taken from the Barretos and put into foster care. He said the oldest is 17 and several of the others are younger than 5.

Funeral for 2-year-old today in Pontotoc 5/22

More neglect

Doctors had notified law enforcement officials of possible child abuse after Enna was taken to Memphis.

Pair’s bond $350,000 each on endangerment charges 5/23

Enna ‘is with Jesus’, preacher reminds 2-year-old’s mourners 5/23

Seriously folks, I was going to be cheery and have some fun with this morning’s entry, but when animal ‘adoptions’ take up more mental space than dead ‘adoptees’ a Bastard’s just gotta write.

Appalling.

Kafkaesque.

Driving one to the very brink of madness.

Indeed, one of the very few Bastard situations I can imagine more day to day hellish than even the insanity Black Hole Bastards like myself are trapped by are those poor souls ensnared by state’s Confidential Intermediary programs- aka Hell. (And no, I’m not talking the Norse Goddess, here, though Christianity does do its “borrowing” now doesn’t it?)

Words fail me in light of the twisted wreckage of endlessly navigating the M. C. Escher-esque corridors and staircases, each leading one into the other, with no clear up nor down, no beginning, and no end.

Flat out, I don’t know where Bastards find the strength to fight over and over again again against the impossibility of our situations, courtesy of State legislatures, who over and over again fail to show the (gender irrelevant) balls and clout it’d take to clean up the messes so many individual States have made. (The exceptions being Kansas and Alaska who somehow managed to withstand the pressure and NEVER seal their adoptees’ original unaltered birth certificates from their State’s Bastards. More recently, Oregon, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Maine have each reentered the real world, by restoring the right of access to their Bastards.)

All of which leads us to IL HB 4623, the latest in a long line of ‘deform’ bills which continue to screw IL born Bastards. As always, Bastardette has a far more comprehensive blog posts/pile of articles about this train wreck than I could ever even attempt, she’s been providing wonderful coverage. Just follow the link and read bottom to top if you want to read in chronological order.

Which brings me to what I really want to blog about, 73adoptee’s devastating deconstruction/autobiographical retelling of what IL’s Confidential Intermediary system (CI system) has meant in practical application for an IL born Adoptee living outside of their State of birth.

Go follow the link, I’ll wait.

Still here? If you never follow another link off my site, please, go read the piece, really, I can wait.

Ok, you back yet?

Not rocking back and forth, foaming at the mouth, in a straight jacket in a nice little rubber room yet?

Seriously.

This is the experience of an adoptee. This, in light of moronic statements like “… most adoptees in this state do have their birth parents names” from Melisha Mitchell (Exec. Dir. of the White Oak Foundation, author of IL HB 4623 with Rep. Sara Feigenholtz.)

Now honestly, were that true, how on earth would her organization even exist, seeing how they’re in the business of ‘searches’? If most IL adoptees already had their parents’ names, believe it or not we are just as ‘qualified’ to use Google as the next ‘professional search asshole’. Common sense anyone? Anyone…? Anyone…?

But “…have their birth parents names.”

Really?

Gee thanks Melisha, I’m sure shovel loads of donkey dung like that certainly helps directly affected adopted people like 73adoptee come to realize their own experiences mean NOTHING, and must be nothing more than mere personal delusions. ‘Obviously’, we’re the ones who are insane, not the system built to contain us. Fortunately, we have softheaded fools like you working to ‘enhance’ our adoption experiences. All in the name of ‘helping’ us.

How quaint.

So, Illinois Open, is where to get up to speed and connect with others to restore Bastard rights, and IL’s adoption system to some semblance of sanity. 73adoptee, Bastard Granny Annie, Bastardette, Amy Adoptee, Rights of Adoptees, and others in the Bastard community are blogging and working against HB 4623.

For the moment, though, unless and until the existing tangle of a non-system, with no intake path into what little even exists for those who live out of state changes, to the very core, call it a lay diagnosis, but Bastards agree, IL’s adoption system makes us ILL.

The AP has a new piece out today about the annulment of 15 (so far) of the 2286 adoptions under review, roughly 10% of the 160 that have been investigated to date.

Guatemala annulls 15 adoption cases

What I found most concerning was this-

The babies whose cases have been annulled will be put in foster homes until a judge locates their parents. If their parents aren’t found, they will be put up for adoption again.

in light of this

The irregularities were serious enough that the attorney general filed criminal complaints against lawyers, doctors, social workers and birth mothers involved in the 15 cases, Meng said.

Great ‘solution’, eh?

Off ABC news-

U.S. Adoptions Fueled by Guatemalan Kidnappings

“Demand for Guatemalan Children Is So High, Baby Snatching Is Rampant”

Just go read it.

No commentary necessary, other than to point out the obvious, ANY agency “guaranteeing” much of ANYTHING in realtion to these kids in Guatemala is suspect.

Having not one, but (at least) two, this is their day. (It’s also just another Sunday.)

But it’s more than that.

I wrote yesterday about how today is all too often painful for many different kinds of Mothers for many different reasons.

What I didn’t mention though, are a particular subset of (Original) Mothers, those who for good or ill happen to have given birth on Mother’s Day.

Oh yes, birth happens on that second Sunday in May, just as any other day. So there are Mother’s Day Original Mothers/”Birthmothers”; those womyn who gave birth on Mother’s Day, who place or find their children in adoptions. Some even blog about their experiences, here for example.

Thus Mother’s Day takes on whole new levels of meaning for those “lucky” few.

Why write about them on a day like to today, a day all about Spring flowers and Sunday Brunches and all the heartwarming good feelings people fixate upon when they hear the words “Mother’s Day?” I mean come on, womyn losing their kids permanently, and into things like sealed adoptions? What a downer. Who the hell wants to talk about things like that on a day like this?

Well, I do, but not only out of empathy.

For you see, one of those few Mothers who gave birth on Mother’s Day in the late 1960’s in Ohio just happened to be my Mother. Which means Mother’s Day, also happens to fall on my Birthday many years. The particular day I was born, for example.

Being a product of a sealed adoption I can only imagine what that has meant to her decade after decade (both the good, and the potential anguish, perhaps even anguish a bit above and beyond the usual due to the arbitrary significance of said date.)

I certainly know what it meant to me. Being a sealed records adoptee who has a Birthday as Mother’s Day is it’s own particular hell.

I’ve also had somewhat of an insight into what it’s meant for my Adoptive Mother, though I won’t presume to speak for her, or to her feelings on this.

So today I can only make one phone call, when the reality is, I need to make two.

Though odds are I’d be willing to bet My Original Mother wishes she could call and wish me “Happy Birthday” as well, (although she too has been unable to cross the divide Ohio’s sealed records have created.) As is, I have no way of knowing whether or not she even knows whether I’m still alive.

So for the Mother I’ve never known, (having the Ohio sealed records system to ‘thank’ for that) all I can do is send my “Happy Mother’s Day” out across the net.

You deserved better than that.