Chapter Twenty-Six:

The Truth Shall Set You Free

    Before we left for Western New York, on Dec. 4, I sent Denise a letter telling her that we fully intended to go through with Anguel’s adoption and that we expected updated videos and photos of him when she saw him in Burgas for the Christmas gift party.  

    She received that on Dec. 6 (there is some confusion about this in Denise’s response to our ODHS complaint, perhaps inadvertent for once).

     The very next day, Linda Wright saw the following on Dr. Downing’s website:

Posted by Liz on December 05, 1999 at 10:37:56:

My husband and I were scheduled to go to Perm this week to adopt our beautiful baby boy.  However, the agency called us three days ago and told us that the Perm courts have shut down indefinitely due to an investigation.  Has anyone else heard of this or been effected by this?  Obviously, we are heartbroken!!!

    It had begun. Linda, Daniel and I decided that somebody had to inform Liz about why there was an investigation going on. We could no longer be good little clients and keep quiet. After what we had seen and been through, we owed our fellow PAPs.

    It was obvious to us that “Liz’”s agency wasn’t going to help her or tell her the TRUTH about the orphanage and Cyril’s death. God knows what lies they would tell these people.

    What if what killed Cyril had been a communicable disease? What if other babies had died after him? It wouldn’t have surprised us if any had. This family had a right to know the underlying reasons for this “investigation” in Perm.

    Unfortunately, “Liz” didn’t leave her email address, and Daniel, Linda and I, attempted to contact her in as low-key a manner as possible. I posted the following, using my maiden name:

Liz:  Please, please e-mail me privately.  I believe I can shed some light on your predictament.  EMS –

    To which Liz responded:

Please shed your light here.  Others may find it helpful.  What type of information do you have and how are you in the position to have such information?  Any and all information will be appreciated.  I have also contacted various embassies and offices for help.  Hopefully, we will gain more insight.  Thank you.

  This was maddening. We couldn’t post publicly about Cyril’s death right then.  It still hurt too much, and Anguel was now at the forefront of our minds.

    So we responded:

Liz, you can contact all you need to contact.  What happened to us may very well be the reason there is an investigation going on.  We cannot post publicly because we are doing another adoption and what we have to tell you may put a cloud over that adoption.  Please.  E-mail us if you want to know – at least for the sake of your son in Perm.

    What else could we say? Would she bite?

    She did. Fifteen minutes later, Liz emailed us. We quickly exchanged telephone numbers and arranged to talk that very evening.

    Liz and her husband lived in a suburb outside of New York City, not too far from us actually.  They were using the agency Alliance for Children, the very same agency Daniel and I had first checked out and rejected for advertising on an anti-abortion website.

    They had been set to travel for their seven-month old baby boy, when Alliance contacted them and told them about the Perm orphanage investigation. Alliance had told them that another family who had been in Perm when we were there had been instructed to take their baby back to the orphanage immediately upon Cyril’s death.

     Then, Alliance had told them that an American couple (us) had been detained!  What kinds of lies were being propagated?  

    I called Alliance for Children myself and set the record straight. The woman at the other end of the phone was stammering “oh oh oh, we heard …that you had been arrested.” I cut her off and told her bluntly that we hadn’t and that we were home and to please make sure the information they gave out to clients was correct.

     Liz was sick about it.  Just like us, they had invested a lot of money, heartache and time in this child’s adoption; when we told her our story, she was stunned and livid that Alliance had kept this from them.

    After speaking with us, Liz called Alliance and demanded information. This time, they were more forthcoming with information.  

    It seemed that several babies were taken out of the orphanage and hospitalized. Their tissue samples were taken and sent off to Moscow for analysis. Their son was not, I believe, one of the children hospitalized.

     Please understand that it was through Alliance for Children that Daniel, Linda and I received this information. Not through Building Blocks, our own agency.

     She said she had requested to have their dossier moved to Moscow. I told her that she didn’t have to do that because if her baby was okay, there was no need to worry. Cyril, I said, was an isolated case, and she should stick with their baby.  

    She was stunned by Cyril’s death, but more sickened by the attitudes shown to her by her agency and the Russians.  Why the silence?  Why the unwillingness to share information?      

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