Author: jennifer

Chosen Parents has been informed. over the years, of multiple families adopting babies from women from the Marshall Islands. Primarily , we were contacted by Mennonite families that had either adopted themselves, or who knew someone that had.

Our research showed that these expecting mothers were giving birth in the United States, and that there was at least one attorney that was involved with just these types of adoptions . Some of the stories that we heard were concerning , but adoptions were all handled by attorneys, and so there was no reason for Chosen Parents to think anything illegal was happening . Rumors abounded that the women may have been getting pregnant purposely in order to receive monies for giving their babies up for adoption. The attorneys that were involved, we were told, were located in the states of Arkansas and Arizona . It appeared that somehow, this attorney (s) had a connection to these women.

It was all very confusing , as to where these women were coming from , how they were getting in to the country , and why so many were having babies and giving them up for adoption .

All of that changed today when we saw the folowing article .

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/09/768533784/arizona-official-arrested-in-multi-million-dollar-baby-mill-adoption-fraud-schem

Apparently , an attorney that was licensed in Arkansas and Arizona, Paul Peterson , who also happens to be the County Assessor in Maricopa County Az, spoke Marshalese and had set up a whole enterprise wherein he brought these pregnant Marshalese women over during the pregnancy , housed them , and then made a lot of money adopting out their newborns. In an impoverished country , the amount of money that these women received would surely encourage others to do the same in order to support their family , or to even go through it multiple times.

It was alleged that he housed more than 15 pregnant women in a house that he owned in Utah , referred to by some as a “baby mill”. Utah authorities stated that almost 3 million dollars was funneled into his bank account due to this “smuggling” operation. It is a very sad story to have to tell a child as to how they found their forever home.

Chosen Parents Adoptions went through the last 600 “matches ” that we have been involved in . ( That is , we referred expecting mothers to attorneys, agencies and facilitators ) . We found that the percentage rate of failed adoptions is 30%, Meaning that approximately one out of every three of all adoption plans fail at sometime prior to the signing of the consent. We saw no difference in failure rate whether the professional involved was a licensed agency , an attorney or a facilitator, thus we have debunked the myth that agencies have a lower failure rate due to their “extensive ” involvement and oftentimes mandatory counseling. In addition to the 600 that we have first hand knowledge of, we did some research with other professionals and that enforced the 30% overall rate . Our clients are very large national agencies, one or two man agencies, lareg attorney and small attorney firms. We know those numbers are reason for concern. We did notice that no other adoption service was willing to put these numbers in print , but we believe in transparency . We believe that anyone that is investing emotionally and financially to this degree , should understand the risk involved before moving forward.

These “failures” , or adoption disruptions consist of expecting mothers who had changed their minds within days or weeks of their commitment , those that had changed their minds after months of being matched , and those that had changed their minds after delivery , and even after the family has taken the baby home in some cases. Although the highest placement rate came from women that suffered from substance abuse addictions, we found that in many cases , women with substance abuse issues that could not bring their baby home from the hospital, had allowed the child to go into government foster care with the hopes that they may reunite at a later date rather than allow the family that they had chosen to adopt the baby. Women that have placed children for adoption multiple times changed their minds for a third or fourth adoption plan. In addidtion , we found that women that made an adoption plan early in pregnancy were no more likely to disrupt than those that made a plan late in pregnancy. We realize that some of these women may have never had any intention of placement , but have no way of knowing who they were , so they are lumped in with the ones that may have had every intention of placing .

In closing , there is never any way of knowing which case is going to be successful, and which one will not be. We encourage everyone to be optimistic , but to remember that the maternal instinct is extremely powerful, and not even the expectant mother may know how she is going to feel .

Surprisingly , there is a program that is in place that may help you financially in your adoption journey. The program allows for a monthy dollar amount as well as possible partial payment for agency/attorney fees. The program is set up only for situations wherein the child was likely to have been placed into the foster care system , as in the fact that the mother is homeless, suffers mental illness or substance abuse issues, etc. Obviously , if you are looking to adopt but are not open to these types of cases, then this would not be an option for your adoption. There are some hoops to jump through, but if you have the time, and if you are low on funds, it may be very well worth your while.

“State funded adoption assistance ” may be available for a child that you adopt privately, not just through the state’s foster care system. Every state has different stipulations, and here is a link (option A) That will tell you what those stipulations are.

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/adopt-assistance/

It appears that , in most cases, a licensed child placement needs to be involved, rather than just an attorney .The agency should be what is termed Title IV-E approved, meaning that the agency is approved by the state to assist in state foster care. Aside form the agency, this program appears to allow for the state to pay for 1/2 of the attorney fees as well. Here is a link to the American bar Association.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/child_law/resources/child_law_practiceonline/january—december-2019/claiming-title-iv-e-funds-to-pay-for-parents-and-childrens-attor/

Chosen Parents reached out to a licensed agency in the state of California who is a participant in this program , and they validated that , indeed, this is available. They stated that they had not done a lot of these cases . only 4 or so as it was time consuming and there tends to be some roadblocks. It could also be , that most adopting parents don’t know about this program. If you contact your adoption attorney to inquire , don’t be surprised if they have no knowledge , as we had never heard of it until now and we have been in business for 35 years. In addition , none of the adoption attorneys that we work with were aware of it. Instead, contact a large agency that also deals with foster care in your state.

If an adopting parent located their own child to adopt and the child qualified for the state adoption assistance program and then received a tax credit of up to $14080.00 , the answer to the question, “Can we adopt for free or very low cost ?” could very well be yes.

If you are a Christian family seeking to adopt, and like so many others are struggling to be able to financially afford to adopt, we want to direct yout o an organization that can assist you . https://lifesong.org/adoption/ . They give grants , loans, and fundraisers. They are experts in assisting you find finances in order to adopt.

We are pleased to announce that  Chosen Parents Adoptions is now approved to be able to assist families in the state of New York in their efforts to adopt.  To have a profile posted on our sister site Chosenparentsadoptions.com send us an email at [email protected] More information for adopting families can be found at chosenparents.com on the home page .

Just when we thought we had seen or heard every possible type of adoption scam , a new one pops up. Last week we were contacted by an adoption attorney who was concerned . She asked us if we had ever heard of an attorney in the state of Nevada by the name Adam Gough. She sent us a a link to his website , and explained that he had been contacting adopting couples directly through their advertising efforts stating that he had “many adoption situations” available.
The attorney that contacted me had never heard of this guy .Subsequently she could find no law license for him in the state of Nevada where he purported to be. We did some research and found that the photo used on the site was stolen from the site of a criminal attorney by another name in Kentucky . The entire set up is fraudulent and we want people to be warned. We only post situations on our site who have been verified as legal adoption entities.

The professionals at Chosen Parents Adoptions have been working in the field of adoptions for 35 years. In that time, there have  been periodic cases of  expectant mothers testing positive for sexually transmitted diseases. The most common have been genital herpes and chlamydia. Recently , in the past 6 months , we have seen an alarming upsurge in cases of syphilis and  gonorrhea.  Up until this time, we may have dealt with one or two cases  out of several thousand births. We have had three expectant mothers test positive in the last 30 days, for one or both of those diseases ,  which tells us that this is something that adopting parents should research while awaiting their adoption match , so that they are prepared in the case that they need to make a decision.

One of our Client attorneys tells the story of an Hispanic couple that gave birth to a baby girl  that was 3 months premature. The couple spoke only  Spanish , and there was no bilingual nurse or social worker available, so the couple’s teen aged daughter served as the interpreter between her parents and the doctors.

The scene was grave. The doctors explained that due to brain bleeds and from being on oxygen , their child would suffer from severe brain damage and would most likely never walk or learn to speak. She would probably need a feeding tube her entire life. They asked if the parents  wanted to allow the baby girl to succumb peacefully , or if they wanted them to do what they could to ensure her survival, now that they knew what the quality of life would be. They explained that there were families available that would be willing to adopt her even with the extreme disabilities , if they did not feel that they were capable of raising her. They needed an immediate answer.

After the daughter explained this to her parents , they spoke softly to each other for a few minutes , and  with tears , her father told his daughter in Spanish that they believed that it was best that they let the baby go to heaven.

Their daughter walked over to the doctors , and said that her parents had chosen life, and to please do whatever they could to save her.

Our client personally knows the family that has adopted her. She is now a healthy and happy normal 5 year old

We recently received an inquiry from an adoption professional that was offended by our use of the phrase ” give baby up for adoption”.  The following is their dialogue.

” As an adoption professional who has recently learned of your services, I wanted to contact you regarding the verbiage used on your website. Many members of the adoption triad bristle at the term “gave up a child” and it is considered outdated terminology in our field. I want to refer clients to your website, but I cannot do so with the terms used regarding making an adoption plan. Please take a moment to review the following links for more on this topic.
www.bravelove.org/our_words_surrounding_adoption
adoption.com/i-did-not-give-up-my-baby
www.parents.com/parenting/adoption/parenting/positive-adoption-language/
It is my hope that all birth moms are treated with respect and honor when making a plan and reassured the last thing they are doing is “giving up”. I know we can say those are just words, but words can be extremely important when discussing something as significant as adoption. ”

Below is Chosen Parents Adoptions response .

Tara Lee , the owner of  “Always Hope” Adoptions has been arrested for allegedly bilking adopting families out of thousands of dollars. Please remember to hire  only LICENSED adoption agencies and attorneys for your adoption journey . If in doubt , ask for a copy of their credentials. There are bad eggs that are licensed as well, but the risk may be  lessened as they have made an investment in their business. Chosen Parents Adoptions offers their heartfelt sympathy for those adoptive parents that have been victimized.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2019/01/11/tara-lee-adoption-new-haven-scam/2548766002/