Working on Commission:
Gorman, Langhals and Bennett
“Sometimes I get so angry with the simple life they lead
The shepherd’s smile seems to confirm my fears
They’ve never questioned anything, they’ve never disagreed
Sometimes I think they must have wool in their ears
And when you see a cane I see a crook
And when you see a crowd I see a flock
It’s sheep we’re up against”
- P.d. Heaton
Denise had seen the immediate windfall of clients via the Internet, even before her agency was incorporated, as shown by the posts she made to the parentsplace and adoptionguide bulletin boards in 1997. She could not abandon this resource when others agencies, as cutthroat and determined as she, were out trolling for clients.
She knows the URL for this site is sent to persons who enquire about agencies on the Internet. We also work with a loose network of people who share our site with anybody who dares to ask publicly about using Building Blocks for an adoption.
How could she counteract our Internet presence? Join us at our own game of course.
How could it be done? Simple. Denise put her satisfied, happy clients up to it. Insipid, obsequious “adoptive moms” acting as foot soldiers doing her bidding. They were the families who had happy adoption outcomes with BBAS (their kids didn’t die, weren’t paralyzed or have RAD), who could not believe the caring saint who had helped them bring their kids home was as bad as the person depicted on this website. In short, Denise believes her bored rhetoric and usual banter could blunt the “maliciousness” and “hate” of our website.
How would Denise get a family to be her foot soldier? Make it financially worth their while. Pay them a finder’s fee. We have no hard evidence to prove Denise pays successful clients to recruit for BBAS, yet there have been signs.
We are close to certain Denise has some financial arrangement with at least one of her post-Amrex clients. We have it on good authority Amrex encourages its member agencies to lure in more clients by using other clients and having the agency pay the foot soldiers a finders fee for every new client they rope in. This could be the reason we’ve seen so many illusory happy posts touting Genesis on many forums within the past year. These posts exploded not long after Susan Secor left, apparently acrimoniously, to found her own agency, One World Adoption Services, in January 2003.
If Genesis was attempting it, why not BBAS? What did BBAS have to lose?
Who then is this BBAS/Amrex foot soldier we are referring to? Pat Langhals of course.
We’ve clocked Langhals since late 2001 when she began posting on FRUA as “KazMama.” She stated quite clearly in her first few posts in January 2002 that she had used BBAS to adopt three children from Kazakhstan. At that time, she wasn’t yet selling for Denise, judging by these posts over on the Kazakhstan Board on FRUA dated Jan. 17 under “KazMama” under a thread she started as “How to find the agency a child is listed with???”
Hi All!!
I have some photos of children in the orphanage that I took when we adopted recently. I have shared these photos with family, friends and others who share a common interest.
There is one child imparticular that several families have inquired about. How do I go about finding out which agency concerning this child. I was told this child was “not available for adoption.” I know that is not true. I think they just say that because this particular child is not listed with their agency.
So now what do I do? I asked our facilitator about some of the children while we were in Almaty. She said sometimes the older children are not listed with an agency anymore. She said that any agency can list them if they are not already listed with a different one.
So….why can’t our agency find out about this child and list them? I have tried to contact our facilitator directly, but so far have been unsuccessfull. I know she is busy moving into a different home.
Has anyone else tried to do this? I have a photo and age of the child, so how can a family go about finding more info about him?
Thank you all for your help!!
She hadn’t perfected her sales technique. She appeared to believe the things she had been told by BBAS, Amrex & the facilitator in Almaty. She was still in post-adoption bliss mode, hoping to find the children left behind forever families. As her next posts will attest, she hadn’t a clue of what she was saying.
Friday, January 18, 2002
I know for a fact from talking with our facilitator in Almaty that this particular little boy is available for adoption. Also, it really doesn’t matter if the parents sign off on the child anyway.
First off, the fathers in Kaz have no rights from my understanding.
Secondly, if the mother does not sign off rights, but abandons the child, then they can legally be adopted. This is assuming that no one has been visiting with the child while they were in the orphanage. How should I go about contacting the orphanage director? I don’t even think they have phone books over there. Any ideas???
Are we supposed to stand in awe at her encyclopedic knowledge of Kazakhstan adoption?
On Jan. 19, 2002, Langhals (aka KazMama) proclaimed: “I just wanted you all know that I was able to contact our facilitator in Almaty. This child is being adopted by a local family – yea!!!!!”
Yea!!!!! Did she really believe that? Yes, she did.
Her next post astounded us. She publicly admits before she had approached her agency (Building Blocks) she had never heard of the country of Kazakhstan! It was the agency who suggested Kazakhstan to the Langhals family!
Saturday, January 19, 2002
Oh – I totally agree!! I remember this little boy from the last time we adopted. I was heartbroken to see that he was still there when we adopted again. I took a few pictures and shared them with family, friends, etc.
Two families were interested in him. He is a doll!! I am so happy for that little boy!! I saw many children who just touched my heart. I wish I could help them all.
The only thing I know how to do is promote international adoption in general, and then mention more specifically the children in Kaz. I had never even heard of Kaz before our agency suggested it to us. It took me two days to learn to pronounce the country! Ha!!
Every child needs a chance! I was distressed to hear from our facilitator that some of the children (the older once) are not listed with an agency anymore. They evidently must drop the older children in favor of getting the new infants. Does anybody know how that works?
I know several agencies that have access to the children in this particular orphanage. I’m still trying to figure out how the whole process works – and we’ve adopted 3 children from there!! There is so much to learn!
Good God in Heaven. She was promoting something she didn’t understood or care to. Did she even know the name of the President or Prime Minister of Kazakhstan? All she could see were poor, pathetic little children (dolls) who needed homes with deserving Americans waving dollars. She was so unimaginative, she refused to see what a goldmine those child-dolls were for the Almaty #1 orphanage, the facilitators working with the orphanage and for Amrex.
Since then it’s been infuriating to see the new Kazakhstan adoption expert Langhals in 2003, luring the unsuspecting into the moneymaking machine for Amrex and BBAS. Many who read her posts or whom she mails privately, have no idea they are dealing with somebody as ignorant as themselves about adoption.
By March 2003, Langhals was everywhere online attempting to blunt our influence. In December 2002, she had given birth and become the mother of five kids, so by 2003, she had time to be on the Internet trolling for Denise. The elder kids were in school, the baby was asleep, so what better way to earn some extra income?
She trolled the Kazakhstan and Guatemalan email lists and held court on the Kazakhstan adoption.forums.com board, in May 2003 giving herself the title of “Adoption Expert”. Cheerfully she offers advice and shamelessly plugs BBAS in her myriad posts. She also made a brief appearance on the Yahoo! Adoption Agency Research list.
Her introductory posts are uniform. She must copy, clip and paste the same message from one board and one email to the next. Here is an example of her the standard message she either privately or publicly sends out when somebody new inquires about adoption agencies to use. This following was posted to a Guatemala listserv, but similar posts appeared on the Adoption Agency Research Yahoo! list and in private emails.
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 14:01:45 -0400
From: Pat LanghalsSubject: Re: New here :-)
Hi Barbara!
My husband and I live in NW Ohio and we have 5 children, 3 of whom were adopted from Kazakhstan using Building Blocks Adoption Service from Medina, OH. We adopted Tayte (9m) and Karenna (23m) in Jan 2001. Their adoptions took 7 m from start to finish. Then we were returned to adopt Garrett (33m) in Dec 2001. His adoption took only 5 m to complete because we already had INS approval from the first time. All three of our adopted children were from baby house #1 in Almaty.
We were very happy with BBAS and highly recommend them! They were very helpful and answered all our questions as quickly as possible. We had a wonderful experience! They kept in touch with us often and were always ready to answer our questions. Our paperwork went very smoothly! I found Denise & Wendy to be very personable. I felt very comfortable talking with them and never felt "alone" in during the process.
BBAS also has a Guatemala program. You can check them out at www.bbas.org
or call them toll free for an info packet at 866-321-ADOPT.
If you have any questions about BBAS or Kaz adoptions, please let me know!
Best wishes,
Pat
We suspect the children she adopted from Kazakhstan were the same three children proposed to the Badys who turned them down owing to the fact they could not take on three at the same time. It wouldn’t if Denise merely moved the children to the Langhals after the Badys said no to them.
Unfortunately for Langhals, we have an ally on the Guatemalan list serve. An ally who posts this URL whenever BBAS is mentioned. One woman emailed us after receiving Langhals sales pitch AND the post for this URL. She contacted us after reading our site. She stated Langhals had contacted her blindly. The woman told us she asked Langhals about our website and a few complaints on file with the Akron, Ohio BBB. She forwarded Langhals response to us, including BBAS spin on us and our truthful website.
To:
From: Pat Langhals
Subject: Re: Building Blocks Adoption Service
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 18:55:23 -0400
Hi!
I also checked with the BBB about Building Blocks. They have a satisfactory record with the bureau. In fact, they only had 3 complaints total within the last 3 years. I consider that excellent!
As far as the Case family is concerned, I know their story. I truly feel for them and the loss of their son. However, I see no connection with the loss of their son and BBAS. I have reviewed their website. It is full of hate and malice towards BBAS and Denise (the BBAS director).
We have been to the BBAS picnic that they have for their adoptive families. I have literally seen hundreds of happy families that adopted using BBAS. We used them for all three of our adoptions and wouldn't hesitate to use them again!!
I know they have a smooth running Guatemala program. I'm not sure what other agencies are telling you. It may be worth the call to BBAS to ask them about their program.
Best Wishes to you!!
Pat
The usual banter from BBAS, most likely added in by Denise and forwarded on to Langhals. Denise and her damned summer picnic! Time to give it up. The same for our hate and malice. They haven’t even begun to challenge one fact in the evidence we have on this website. What else could they say to counteract us?
For the record, after this exchange with Langhals, the woman mailed us the BBAS information packet that we reviewed above. She was disgusted by the obvious sales pitch and was glad to be rid of Pat – and the information packet.
Langhals continues to write people the same boilerplate for Denise. Couldn’t they change tactics already? The faux-glowing reviews of the agency …it shrieks Denise Lynn Harding-Hubbard.
***
Denise managed to install another foot soldier on the Russian Adoption Yahoo! list. You wouldn’t know this family was Denise’s by their posts, but they’re out there. They live in New Hampshire and they have done a seminar for BBAS. I wager the family is part of the “Parent Support Network” described in BBAS pamphlet.
In what can only be described as Denise-speak I found the following post to the Yahoo! Russian Adoption list in August 2003 from this family. Notice they do not use the name of the agency. What made alerted me was the city their daughter was adopted from – Blagoveshchensk.
The strangely seductively, come hither approach to the post and the public displaying of their blow-by-blow adoption journal to adopt their child in 2001 reminded me of – Been to Blago.
From: vicorman2003
Date: Friday July 25, 2003 8:25 pm
Subject: re: Vladivostok
Hello Deb,
I have added our journal of our adoption from Blagoveshchensk (near Vladivostok) in the files section. This link should take you there:
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/Russian_Adoption/files/Gorman%20Family%20Story%and%20pic%27s
If it does not take you to the correct location go to the files link and look for “Gorman Family Story and pic’s Our Journal (27 pages) on our Journey to get Kira in Blagoveshchensk (Far East Russia). Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with me after reading it. My wife wrote it and did a fantastic job. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts about it seeing as you were from Russia.
We will be going back to Russia again as we are adopting a 5 year old special needs (dual leg amputee) girl this winter. She is beautiful and her name will be Kalia Maria. We can’t wait to bring her home. This time we will be going to Samara, about 2 hour flight from Moscow and 2 trips.
Happy reading
Kris
Dad of Ashley 11 (USA), Kira 3, (Blago) and soon Kalia 5 (Samara)
How did I know that Kris was Kris Gorman who had used BBAS for Kira’s adoption? Easy. Their names were on BBAS website under “Why You Should Choose Building Blocks” and the same exact quote was contained within BBAS pamphlet. This is their gushing recommendation:
“Kira is the answer to 6 long years of prayer and disappointment. She is healthy, vibrant and absolutely beautiful! She brings us joy every day. The expertise, care and devotion of the staff at Building Blocks was the key to making our dream come true! Thanks for all the support. We are forever greatful to you!”
Their name was also associated with a seminar held in New Hampshire. I concluded the Gormans were getting the word out for Denise Lynn Harding-Hubbard and luring more into the fray.
I wondered too how much of a discount they were getting for their new daughter from Samara. Was their discount $1,500 per leg? (Yeah, that’s cruel, but after what we have seen and heard you really have to wonder how these fees are arrived at).
Kris Gorman deserves some credit for spelling “Blagoveshchensk” correctly in his post. Everywhere else I’ve seen it written by Aparents, it’s been spelled “Blagoveschensk” – an “s” without the “h”.
We dug further. Through a good Google search, I found Louise Gorman’s journal online (it is no longer up, but remains in the archive of the Russianadopt group on Yahoo!).
I printed out a copy and didn’t give it away like I had done with the Kings’ website in 2001. Unlike the Kings’ site, Louise Gorman does not mention the name of the adoption agency.
After reading through it, we determined the name of the site should have been: Ignorant Americans Go Over to Russia to Buy a Poor Orphan Girl at a Crappy Orphanage and Ignore Obvious Corruption, Graft and Neglect.
Are Americans adopting from Russia this clueless, this blissfully blind about the country where their children are from? Are Americans this isolated about the rest of the world, not just Russia? Louise Gorman’s adoption account was just one in a long line of Internet adoption websites which I’ve read in the past five years (to say nothing of the one narrative actually published as a book, Janis Cooke Newman’s The Russian Word for Snow. Dan’s Amazon review says it all as far as that one goes)
After reading her thoughts about Russia and Russians, it dawned on me why Americans have a rep as being arrogant prigs and why the Russians see us as cash cows for their child selling pursuits. We are willingly, knowingly and happily traveling with thousands of dollars in our pockets which we are giving to them with no questions asked. None at all. We take it upon their word what we and they are is right and true.
The entertainment begins on page 2 as the Gormans get a call to leave suddenly on Dec. 10, 2001 for Moscow. Their Amrex translator, the young, attractive Maria, meets them at the airport, “all dressed in a luxurious red fox fur coat.” She speaks flawless English. They are then shuffled off to the Marriott Grand Hotel to “gradually break” themselves into Russian culture.
While at the hotel, they meet three other families who are adopting from the Baby Home in Blagoveshchensk. Do I need to convince anybody anymore that Amrex and Tatyana Dmitrievya was cramming Amrex families into Amur to increase their bottom lines?
Other hilarity ensues, such as a warning not to eat on the Russian airplane, and meeting an obviously attachment-problem prone adoptee in the foyer of the Marriott. I was LOLing reading the SHOCK of their landing in the connecting airport and the people not speaking English in the airport! My God, how could those Russians have not known English! How did they get along!
Louise Gorman compares seeing the Russians standing around in long fur coats and hats to a scene from Dr. Zhivago. But Omar Sharif isn’t Russian and a better film for her to have seen might have been The Battleship Potemkin. Tatyana meets and greets them once they land in Blagoveshchesk. Louise Gorman describes her as a “sweet middle-aged woman who is well versed in what she does. She is astute and organized and had very detailed instructions for all of us.”
Tatyana had her instructions, and she made her new charges follow them to the letter.
At the hotel, again “no one speaks English”. How sad! She describes the Baby Home, located next to a power plant and a hospital, as being derelict. The smell of the baby home itself sounds nauseating. On p. 8 we finally get to the oft-heard observation of so many Americans going to the orphanage for the first time: “the kids are well cared for and there seems to be plenty of toys …there is a shortage of clothing food, medicine and other supplies for the children and this is apparent when you see the children.”
TIME OUT. How much money had Tatyana made from selling children from this baby home? How many children times how much of the “orphanage donation” was willingly taken from Aparents since 1999? Why was there such a lack of basic supplies for those children? What of all the medicines, clothes, food items, vitamins etc that Americans have lovingly donated to the place? Where had all of that gone? Did the Gormans not see this? Did they not even think about it? Did they not stop and question the amount of money they were forking over to BBAS and the Amrex Amur team as their “orphanage donation” and multiply it by the other families they were traveling with?
Once you don’t ask the questions or even search for the answers, you become part of the problem.
I must stress in the Gorman’s story as it relates to our story of Cyril. On page 9 Mrs. Gorman writes of Kira’s attire when she was brought out to them: “she was dressed in a thin cotton summer dress and thick white tights. Kira had no diaper on her.”
On p. 14: “As we were playing tonight, Kira pushed herself off my lap to reach for a toy on the table. As she did, she started to tinkle all over the floor. Russian kids don’t wear diapers so they just pee through their clothing…I picked Kira up and brought her back to the playroom to get a caregiver to clean her. They simply took the tights off, used the tights to clean the chair and then put a clean pair of tights on Kira. They didn’t even bother to wipe her clean. Then they got a rag to wipe up the floor.”
Confirmation from an unlikely source about whether or not Russian children wear diapers in the orphanage. Now we know why Cyril had a killer diaper rash. He never should have been wearing one to begin with.
I won’t review the Gormans time with Kira, but if you are just adopting, note how Kira acts towards her father the first few visits. Shades of Natasha Ponish were present.
The descriptions of the other children in Kira’s group and the caregivers on pages 14 and 16 are spot on. Here we have a fine example of the loving caregivers in action, and how much the loved the children. Why do so many close their eyes when reality plays out in front of them?
During their adoption, Tatyana Dmitrieyeva abandons them to Svetlana, the other facilitator to take them about town. Svetlana ingratiated herself and became the Gorman’s “Russian Mom.”
On Dec. 18, 2001, the court date, they give their hosts and driver gifts. “We also included a few dollars for them.” Man, these Tatyana people were living large with those greenbacks. Keep them Americans coming! And how grateful the driver was for his gift!
The Gormans give themselves a huge, condescending pat on the back. “The poverty level is high and there is little money for people here even when they work. We’ve done whatever we can to provide for them while we are here. You would think that we have given them their life.”
Was the only industry paying hard currency in Blagoveshchensk the human farming industry? They were giving them their life alright – the godalmighty DOLLAR.
Happily, the judge waived their 10 days. They were probably one of the last families to have their 10 days waived.
Svetlana, their Amrex shadow translator, was also well compensated by the Gormans for her job tending to them. Cash, gifts from the seemingly rich Americans – was their no end to our generosity when we got our kids? And Svetlana loves to sell her fellow citizens for the almighty dollar. She tells the Gormans the children have no future in Blagoveshchensk, that Americans were giving the children a life full of love. True, but why didn’t they strive to make life better for their citizens instead of profiting from their misery?
Weren’t the Gormans such saviors to spare Kira from the poverty-striken life of her biological parents, those people who were living poorly in Blagoveshchensk, with little money, scarce food, scraped-together houses without “luxuries like cars, computers, microwaves, cell phones and all the other things we take for granted.”
We are blessed in America, but did it enter into their thinking that the rest of the world lived like this and they weren’t saving their new daughter but only offering her an opportunity to better herself?
On p. 26 the Gormans are tired, excited and happy to have Kira with them, almost at the end of their adoption journey in Moscow. However, I’d like to get one thing straight: our adopted children are not gifts from God. I get so sick of reading this in adoption accounts. Children are people not gifts or pretty commodities for us to ooh and ahh over.
This website/journal was one to read because it so perfectly illustrates the kind of BBAS client Denise suckers in – and keeps.
Two years later, Louise Gorman discovered this page and sent us the bitterest piece of hate mail we’ve yet gotten over this site.
***
There is another perfectly zoned-out BBAS client who repeatedly sings BBAS praises going by the name of “Bennett”. This Bennett posts over on adoption.forums.com, another denizen of good internet adoption Babylon. Bennett is different from the other BBAS clients highlighted on our website – she is one of the rare Guatemalan clients who sees no evil, speaks no evil and sure has hell won’t look at any evil, even when it’s put in front of her.
We like to call it living in Adoption La La Land.
Bennett lives in the Northeast and in real life appears to dabble in equestrian pursuits. She and her husband were adopting a little boy from Guatemala using BBAS. We became aware of Bennett in April 2003 via the same person who had the email conversation with Langhals and who ended up mailing us the 2003 BBAS pamphlet.
BBAS was this past spring undertaking a flurry of marketing activity, using its shinny happy people and happily ever after adoption tales. The woman mentioned above had seen one of Bennett’s posts on the Guatemalan board of adoption.forums and posted our website. She also posted the fact the BBB in Akron had three complaints against them, something she felt did not reflect well on the agency.
Bennett saw her posts and our URL and must have gone whining to the board moderators, for the woman’s posts were summarily deleted. The woman, new to international adoption internet intrigue, was incensed and said so publicly; she hadn’t realized she couldn’t publicize the malicious, hateful, cruel Cases’ website on adoption.forums, or that BBAS was one of its advertisers.
She tried posting again, and again, her posts were deleted. In a private email conversation with us, she stated:
It is because of you (and Daniel) that my husband and I are much better prepared to continue on with our plans to adopt. Prior to finding your bewareofbbas site and having my postings deleted, I was under the extremely naive impression that the world of adoption was "above board" - the agencies were doing this for the sake of children and families - yes?
Reading about your experience and experiencing the "sanitization" of the adoption discussion boards has really woken me up the reality of adoption!Curious enough, the same day I received the information packet from BBAS was the very day I found your bewareofbbas site on theadoptionguide.com site. I then went to the www.bbb.org site and found that they have a tarnished record there as well
I decided to go
over and see what the fuss was about for myself. I did not know this Bennett
person (but I was to learn she was nothing but an unthinking Aparent automaton)
for, honestly, BBAS’s Guatemalan program was off our radar at that point in time. We knew BBAS
wasn’t cornering the market on Guatemala. There was stiff competition amongst
the agencies having strong Guatemalan programs. BBAS wasn’t placing many
Guatemalan children – selling them via email and the Internet, but not moving
them as they thought they could.
We are not fully conversant with the Guatemalan adoption process – just what we had others share with us and Linda Wright’s adoption for her daughter. Yet it was a surprise to come across Bennett who was so blind and silly –her needs above all others. I thought these types of Aparents had gone out with closed adoption.
We were mistaken.
I did not print out the thread when I came across, but since Bennett’s email was included with her “Profile” I emailed her privately. Her emails in private proved to be as insipid and mind-boggling as her public posts. Do people like this exist, or are the caricatures of what the rest of the world thinks about Americans?
Her response to my private email was, on April 10, 2003 – “how much does she owe you?”
Money money money, always sunny – it’s a rich adoption agency owner’s world! My response was $40,000. Totally ignored my point about Denise Hubbard and BBAS in adoptions for the money it generated.
Our exchange went on for a few moments as an Instant Message conversation.
It was like talking to the wall. A brick wall 15 feet thick. By the time it ended, my head was in an extreme pounding headache. Yes, people this stupid do exist and I was voluntarily corresponding with one.
I told her that we hadn’t sued BBAS – read the website. I told her we had adopted Anguel with BBAS – read the website. I told her BBAS Guatemalan team was better than some – not on this website.
She told me she couldn’t read the website because it was too long and too nasty and she was too distracted – couldn’t we tone it down? Didn’t we want to see the BABIES adopted? Couldn’t we DELETE THE WEBSITE and FORGIVE Denise “for the sake of the little babies over there????”
Ugh. Where does Denise Hubbard hoodwink these PAPs? Is this the reason BBAS isn’t out of business – those who want to believe and will cover their eyes to the truth about Denise Hubbard and international adoptions? That Denise Hubbard and her ilk are really and truly, without a doubt HELPING GOD’S ORPHANGED CHILDREN? I know for a fact, in Guatemala, they’re helping a few lucky adoption attorneys keep their coffers and foster homes full.
By the end, because she just couldn’t see where I was coming from (700 pages plus – must have needed time to read this site – maybe we have composed it for the thinking literate) I had her shouting at me:
I DONT KNOW
SHE OFFERED THE MONEY BACK AND I THINK THAT IS YOUR BIGGEST
REGRET BESIDES THE LOSS OF THAT LITTLE BOY
YOU DIDNT TAKE IT
YOU MAY STILL BE ABLE TO GET IT
YOU HAVE NOT FORGIVEN ANYONE
YOU SOUND AS MAD AND UPSET AS YOU MUST HAVE BEEN
BACK IN 1999
I THINK IF YOU ADOPT AGAIN YOU SHOULD USE THAT MONEY THAT YOU SAY DENISE
OFFERED YOU BACK AND ADOPT AGAIN. THEN YOU WOULD HAVE REALLY FORGIVEN HER AND GOT A BABY A NICE HOME
GOOD LUCK WITH YOU I REALLY DO WISH YOU WELL AND GOOD HEALTH
IN THE BODY AND THE MIND...
I’m sad! I’m upset! I’m vindictive! I’m insane! Just adopt again! Adoption will solve all my problems. Forgive Arch Liar and low level adoption whore Denise Hubbard. Frig, in a heart beat we’d use a justifiable REFUND with NO STRINGS attached from Denise Hubbard if it was $20,000 and use that money to adopt with anybody else than Building Blocks Adoption Service. Couldn’t Denise sell her McMansion and give her screwed over clients some of the rightful proceeds? Why not! Perhaps I should have suggested it to Frau Bennett the Equestrian Countess!
I didn’t let her have it as I should have, but the final email I received from her had me totally shaking my head in amusement. Denise Hubbard wasn’t the only game in town in Guatemala. Far from it. And if Denise Hubbard’s agency couldn’t sell her a child a whole slew of other agencies could in the United States could. Guaranteed.
This is a classic:
SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW IM TALING TO YOU...
I WOULDNT WANT TO TAKE HER AWAY FROM HER TASK
AT FINDING THESE ORPHANS HOMES
IF IT WAS HAVING A NEGATIVE IMPACT ..I WOULD NOT BE
IN SUPPORT OF WHAT SHE ULTIMATELY DOES
IN THE END
FIND ORPHANS HOMES...
The only “job” Denise Hubbard does (do I need to repeat myself?) is collect PAPs fees, cash their non-refundable checks, sit back, and pay the mortgage on the McMansion and her children’s educational funds. She does no favors by “finding orphans homes.” The only favors she performs is finding dupes like Bennett to pay the high fees of the Guatemalan attorneys and call it “adoption.”
Bennett is a piece of work. After that ditty, I emailed her back stating I wished her the best in her adoption. Bennett is still up to her ignorant adoption-glee tricks.
Later in July I read on alt.adoption that somebody had tried to post a contrary newspaper article on Guatemalan adoption to the adoption.forums Guatemala board. Bennett had the person’s post deleted, and the person banned from adoption.forums. Her tunnel-vision, teddy-bear, kid purchasing adoption view just was not going to be challenged by the unorthodox view.
These three examples are Denise’s shills on the Internet. Unimaginative, mommy-brained and verging on the cult of personality, they are the best Denise has to offer potential clients. Judging by their hackneyed sales pitches, they are not steering many people towards BBAS – or more money into Denise’s bank account.
We can hardly wait to see what 2004 brings our favorite adoption agency and child welfare advocate.
No sooner had I written the words above, when we received our January/February 2004 issue of Adoptive Families magazine in very early January 2004. We had subscribed after an appeal from FRUA that part of our subscription would go towards a worthy orphanage cause. Happily, I filled out the application form and mailed the check out.
I flipped through the issue, crammed full of interesting articles and obnoxious adoption industry advertisements and utterly missed one particular half-page ad on p. 17. Daniel caught it and left me a note.
I was darned! How could I have missed a HALF-PAGE AD in a national adoption magazine by Building Blocks Adoption Service? Maybe because the ad was not in full color and looked like the other happy smiling adoption agency ads scattered throughout the publication?
And if BBAS were having such difficulty in getting local Ohio families to sign up, they needed to advertise nationally. Placing a half page print ad in Adoptive Families was a more costly venture than selling children on the photolistings.
I was correct in my assumption that Denise was indeed focusing her attention on Guatemala; she had paid big bucks to somebody to design the ad, for it showed a sweet, curly haired, obviously Guatemalan little girl beaming (in what appeared to be a stock photograph). “Your world will revolve around her…” the white headline read. “Would you go to the ends of the earth for her?”
Denise was using a little girl to sell her agency, yet she had always cried about how little boys needed parents worse than little girls. More female exploitation in an industry saturated with it.
“There are thousands of children around the world waiting for someone willing to adopt them. Could you be the loving parent they’ve been waiting for?” it continued. Yes, YOU could be the loving parent a child needs, even in our own country. But you can and should do better than an agency that lies about the health of the children they are placing, and also places children with any parent who can pay the fees.
Peals of laughter escaped from our lips as we read the new BBAS slogan accompanying the ad: “Creating Families Through Adoption and Making the Impossible Possible.
Oh, they make the impossible possible all right. Sick and mentally hurt children, drained bank accounts, cruddy and shady facilitators and jailed adoptive parents. It’s a probability with Building Blocks!