Same Stuff, Different Year
Thought that never changes remains a stupid lie
It’s never been quite the same…
Rise and fall of shame, search that shall remain…”
-New Order
This website made a premature public debut on FRUA in October 2002. Not by us, but by our greatest, steadfast fan and reader Teri Atkinson (HI Teri!), as we’ve learned from reading our hit stats. We believe Teri received the URL privately by an individual whose identity we can only surmise. Once our site was just outta beta, we privately sent the link to sundry recipients. The moment Teri received the link in her InBox, she wasted no time in running over to FRUA to post it, presumably to steal our thunder (although one could tell she had never actually expected us to do what we had been talking about for so long).
There are changes we’d like to make to the site, but owing to the sheer volume of and the fact we have other pursuits in our lives now, it will take time. We need to add and change rotted links, and find a way to create .PDFs for easier reading. Teri Atkinson’s premature unveiling on FRUA was just the beginning for this website, the sordid, greedy tale of one small, proletarian-run adoption agency in Medina, Ohio.
This update to focuses on BBAS activities in 2003. There have been changes both at BBAS and in some international adoption programs.
Guatemala was Denise’s program to move in 2003, though the doors always remained open for Russia when Guatemala hit a few snags in the spring.
During the year, BBAS’s sales tactics became coarser and more desperate. People reported to us that upon first contacting BBAS about their Guatemalan program via email, Denise’s response contained attached photos of Guatemalan babies available. Many stated they were repulsed by receiving the unsolicited referral photos. They felt it exploited Guatemalan children and did nothing to show how much Denise or her workers cared about the integrity of the adoption process. People who contacted BBAS about Guatemala were looking for a child the ethical way, not the BBAS way.
It cost less to email photos of very young Guatemalan infants than it does to photolist them on Rainbowkids and Precious In His Sight. The cost of photolisting is several hundred dollars a month as compared to next to nothing to stick them in an email attachment to prospective clients.
We noticed BBAS no longer advertised the children for sale on either one of those high-traffic, high cost and unethically run photolisting services. Since at least the spring, we did see BBAS selling Guatemalan babies or Amrex Russian and Kazakhstan children.
It was only inevitable that Denise’s business practices would have their effect, and families in crisis started searching the web and came knocking on our door. So we have set up a new section of the site devoted to BBAS’s Guatemalan program.
The next positive was Debbie Bollinger's departure. We later learned more here. Her replacement was another well-qualified “adoptive mom” suited to helping Denise Hubbard lure local Ohio families into international adoption with BBAS.
Our greatest victory was that Denise Lynn Harding-Hubbard and Richard J. Marco, Jr. did not attempt any legal action against us over this site. We did expect a summons or a cease and desist letter, yet none has arrived. Score one for the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
On Oct. 17, 2002, BBAS had had a business structural change. Their Articles of Incorporation had changed from Denise L. Hubbard to Richard J. Marco, Jr at his law offices. The ICCF domain remained in Denise’s name at BBAS P.O. Box. [RE-ExpLAINATION]
Not all 2003 changes were positive. As a matter of fact, some things stayed the same.
Denise still promoted adoption programs in countries that were on the brink of shutting down, leaving her clients the only option of switching from one international program to another when the connections fail and rules change.
In early February I saw a post on the Russian Adoption Yahoo! list from a “Maria” titled “Switching from Kaz to Russia Also”. Maria stated her agency was Building Blocks. Their was homestudy was completed in September 2002 and they were waiting for two referrals from Kazakhstan. Then Denise dropped the bomb on them.
“We were anxiously awaiting a call for referrals” she wrote. “Then last Wednesday, my husband and I received a call from our agency. She said she had some news for us. I was thrilled and that thrill suddenly took a sudden dive as I listened to her tell me that Kazakhstan laws would be changing and we would not be able to adopt 2 children from Kazakhstan. Amrex, where our paperwork was sitting, were telling families they would only be able to adopt one child. So we decided to change to Russia, which was our original choice…and children being healthier in Kazakhstan, we chose Kazakhstan…Our agency has not specifically given us a travel time line other than maybe late June or July.”
The more things changed, the more things stayed the same. Spot all of the Denise Hubbard chicanery in this one post.
I haven’t seen a post since from Maria. Did they travel to Russia to adopt two of those healthy Amrex kids?
Later that same month, Mary Mooney sent us an email from a family in Ohio who had adopted a girl from Cambodia. They had learned their daughter had two sisters and wanted to pursue their adoption.
They were just in the homestudy stage. For their original adoption, they had used Carol Wilson of Adoption Specialists, Inc. for their homestudy. They contacted Carol again and she readily agreed to do it for them.
Cambodian adoption was plunged into a scandal at the time and was subsequently shut down. Since we are not conversant with Cambodian adoption, we can’t do justice to the horrible practices involving the placement of Cambodian children with foreigners. We contacted a few people who had adopted from Cambodia, and they provided the following links for us to illustrate what this family was up against in trying to adopt the girls. We thought Russia cornered the market on corruption. After reading about Cambodia and the buying of young babies, we realized Cambodia had the market cornered.
For the current homestudy, Carol said she would charge the family $300. This was a deal. Tragedy soon struck. Just after her first visit to their home, Carol was diagnosed with the cancer that would claim her life seven months later and had to back out of the assignment.
At a loss, the family asked an associate of Carol’s for the referral of another agency and social worker to complete the homestudy. Without hesitation, Carol’s associate recommended BBAS. BBAS had begun doing its own homestudies for an higher fees than other Ohio agencies. Within a 100 mile round trip of the social worker’s residence, the BBAS Homestudy Assessment would be $1,300 for an international adoption. If a family lived outside the 100 mile round trip of the social worker’s home, their international homestudy would be $1,500.
Those were steep figures for an Ohio homestudy.
So began the family’s very brief relationship with Denise Hubbard and her crack team of adoption professionals. They tried calling BBAS for about a month to get a hold of somebody at BBAS offices to do their homestudy. The family claims they got the run-around from the get-go. They state they had exactly ONE conversation with Denise Hubbard, not about their homestudy, but about Cambodian adoption.
During this single conversation, the wife found Denise to be “obnoxious, pushy and full of herself”. She says she was “shocked” Carol Wilson had ever worked with Denise Hubbard – or even refer clients to her.
As they spoke, Denise was pumped them for information about Cambodian adoption! How then could this family use BBAS Cambodian program if as Denise claimed, she was just starting up her Cambodian program?
Denise asked the couple about the people she was using as her facilitator for Cambodia a woman by the name of Lee Slater. Lee Slater operated an agency in Hawaii called Lee Slater Adoption Services of Honolulu. She had been credited for opening up Cambodia for American adoption in 1990.
Lee worked primarily with Lauryn Galindo, America’s number one hula-dancing Cambodian facilitator, best known for facilitating actress Angelina Jolie’s adoption. Unfortunately for Lee Slater and Denise Hubbard, Lauryn Galindo was the epicenter of the Cambodian adoption implosion.
Lee's site listed programs in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan Ukraine and Cambodia. It makes clear that she is affiliated with Lauryn Galindo:
Lee Slater and Lauryn Galindo, the in-country adoption facilitator, have worked together over the past 10 years doing adoptions from Cambodia. Together we have successfully guided, step by step, many, many families through the adoption process and without fail have provided each family with a child they so hopefully desired.
Lauryn's main focus in Cambodia is to coordinate your in-country adoption process. Her over 10 year experience in adoption work in Cambodia has made her very skilled in moving your in-country adoption paperwork process as quickly as possible. Lauryn will make all arrangements necessary for your stay in Cambodia and the completion of your in-country process.
The children reside in several orphanages that we work with. All the orphanages we work with are regulated and permitted to do international adoptions. We assist and support the orphanages we work with by giving support for the care, nutritional and medical needs of the children. ..
At the beginning of January 2004, the noose tightened on Lauryn Galindo. Her sister Lynn Devin who was running her own for-profit adoption agency in Washington State, pled guilty in Seattle federal court to conspiracy charges for falsely representing Cambodian children as orphans. Strong allegations were made against Galindo for literally paying Cambodian birth parents off to relinquish their babies. She would eventually be indicted herself on similar charges that spring.
Galindo turned herself over to federal authorities from her home in Hanalei, Hawaii. She was stunned by the accusations brought against her and dismayed her sister pled guilty when “no crime had been committed.” I must live in a different ethical plane than Galindo, for paying off birth parents for their babies and selling the babies to Americans is a crime. Obviously, Galindo doesn’t see it that way. Most criminals don’t see their behavior in those terms.
In summer 2004, Galindo came around, followed her sister’s lead and pled guilty to multiple counts of visa fraud and conspiring to launder money. She agreed to forfeit one luxury car, her Hawaii home valued at over a million dollars and the contents of several bank accounts located in various countries, all things she had apparently earned through her “saintly” endeavors. She is currently scheduled to be sentenced in November; her sister was sentenced to only probation after collaborating with prosecutors in her sister’s sentencing (no honor among thieves!).
Denise Hubbard would have found a soul mate in Lauryn Galindo if they had been able to work together. Slime mixes with slime when desperate agency directors need to find products to place. Any baby, any facilitator, any country will do. Just ask her about Dennis Gornostaev, Amrex, and Valeri Kamenov.
It’s like we’d hit rewind on BBAS videotape. Jump in first, screw clients second, ask questions next and cash their checks.
The wife told us Denise was “very protective of Lee Slater and insisted she wasn’t an attorney.” The wife smelled a rat. They were not in the mood for being pumped for information on the Cambodian process – they just wanted to complete their homestudy for the sisters.
On Feb. 21, the Ohio family spoke with BBAS secretary about the costs for completing the homestudy. The secretary said the charge would be $750. Then, with Denise chatting away on another call, it changed it to $650. On top of this mutable figure, Denise wanted a non-refundable $75 dollar fee. Denise, too busy with her other call, told the secretary to mail them an info packet containing homstudy fees.
This didn’t set well; they felt since Carol had referred them and had taken $300 for her first visit, the $75 application fee had already been paid.
On a Monday they received the packet with a letter from Denise stating if they used BBAS Cambodian program, their homestudy would be $1,375. If they did not use BBAS for Cambodia, their homestudy would cost them $1,875. It was almost doubled from the price quoted on the telephone!
Obviously, they did not sign up with BBAS for either the homestudy or the girls’ adoption. They were disgusted by Denise’s attitude, banter, lack of knowledge and price gouging.
The next country’s program to disappear in 2003 was Georgia. Not that Denise had a program in the former Soviet Republic. Georgia had been locked up by three other agencies: Carolina Adoption Services, Adoptions & Aid International (AAI) and Adoption Pros. These agencies were promoting their Georgian programs with the lure of young, healthy infants below six months of age.
Smaller adoption agencies such as the now-defunct 1st Steps and RAFS had Georgian programs, but few adoptions were completed.
It was with a sense of glee I found posts dated July 22, 2003 in December 2003 from a hapless family posting to the Yahoo! Republic of Georgia Adoption list of their starting the paper chase for a Georgian adoption. The wife’s first posted brimmed with excitement as she asked about the Georgian process.
She inquired about the time line and wait for a referral. Their social worker would be making her first visit soon. In the next post, two hours later, I saw the question five months too late to warn them: “I just want it all to go as quickly as possible. Has anyone worked with Building Blocks Adoption Services out of Medina OH? We have been pleased so far with them…I would love to meet anyone that has adopted from Georgia that lives in southern Ohio.”
Her next post addressed a woman who stated it had taken her 10 months to adopt a little girl. She quoted verbatim a Denise Hubbard excuse: “I am hoping to be able to send our papers over the first of October. They said that they shut down in the month of Sept. in Rep. of Georgia. Our agency has told us maybe by February we might be able to go.”
Another poster shot back – “Why does the country shut down in September? Does this also mean there are no adoptions done in September? This is some pretty disturbing information.”
Denise was patently lying to her green clients, yet her crystal ball must have been working well that day. Not only would Georgia shut down in September, but it would be closed for the foreseeable future.
In mid-September the entire Georgian adoption community was greatly disturbed when Mariza, a facilitator for Carolina Adoption Services, was arrested. According to an email sent to CAS families on Sept. 25, 2003, Mariza was charged with “warehousing babies.” CAS had instituted a foster care program for birth mothers who wished to relinquished their babies upon birth. Other charges against Mariza included “accepting a baby with a falsified birth certificate” and a nurse provided Mariza with referrals. CAS maintained many of these charges did not exist under the Georgian family code and hence, were bogus.
11 CAS families were able to adopt infants directly after Mariza’s arrest, and after that, Georgia shut down for international adoptions. CAS has ceased to take applications for their Georgian program.
We do not know if Mariza has been released.
If Denise ever had a Georgian program, she did not have one after September 2003.
It wasn’t a shock to see the following post made by the BBAS Georgian family to the Yahoo! Russian Adoption list on Monday, November 3, 2003:
Hi Everyone,
We just wanted to introduce ourselves. We have recently changed from the Republic of Georgia to Russia for our adoption. We are frantically working to get our paperwork changed and additional forms completed for Russia. I look forward to gaining lots of new insight from those in this group. We are working with Building Blocks Adoption Services in Ohio. I was wondering if anyone else has worked with them? We have been please so far.
Real pleased. Real pleased to change their paperwork to a program hadn’t even signed up for. Real pleased to believe every word Denise Hubbard and Wendy Stamper was going to tell them about the health of their Amrex Russian referrals. Real pleased to know what a caring, wonderful agency they had chosen to lie to them and lead them astray.
When I came upon their posts, I emailed them this URL. They did not respond, but we knew they were looking at this site. And if they ever read it again, just remember: your money is going towards this greedy, hurtful woman and her facilitator in Alpharetta, GA.
In April 2003, we received BBAS’s current information packet from a PAP who had been turned off by BBAS hard sell, and utterly repulsed when she received the attached photos of waiting Guatemalan instant referrals.
The information packet contained a 16-page pamphlet and six pages of information for programs, prices and federal program information.
The pamphlet was similar to the 2001 version, but cheaper looking. It was “copywrited” 04/02. Gone were the colored A B C building blocks of the logo; only black and white A B C blocks stood. No more color, just the same logo and the same “Adoptions Because we Care” with the added phrase: “We provide pre and post adoptive counseling, homestudy assessments and postplacement services.”
It was printed on higher quality paper than the previous editions, but it lacked a professional, glossy sheen. Programs were offered in Haiti, Cambodia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, and Guatemala.
A full page of laughter inducing “Testimonials” from satisfied, happy BBAS was next. One of the testimonials from a Bulgaria family who wouldn’t use BBAS for any adoption after the lies they were told in adopting their son was quoted. The Atkinsons were there, as were a few more BBAS apologists.
On p. 13 was the same exact paragraph found in their previous literature promoting ICCF. What was up with that ICCF? Why is BBAS still promoting it?
In December, as we were writing up this part of the website, we found out by surfing over to BBAS “What’s New” page that Carol Wilson, on Aug. 26, 2003, had succumbed to the cancer that had plagued her. What a blow, but yet, BBAS placed the following on their website, using the ICCF as a front for donations.
September 2003
In loving memory..... Building Blocks Adoption Service has lost a loved one and a co-worker. Carol Wilson MSW passed away after a courageous battle with breast cancer on Friday August 29, 2003. Carol was a great asset to our agency as well as a caring loving person. Carol has completed many Homestudy assessments and assisted in creating hundreds of families. Carol will truly be missed. In memory of Carol, her family has requested that a fund be started in order to build a play structure at one of the orphanages overseas in Carols name. If you would like to donate to this cause, please send your donation to: ICCF, Inc. 52 Public Sq. Medina, Ohio 44256 C/O Carol Wilson. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.
Why was the ICCF’s address given as Richard Marco’s work address? And if any donations had been received, what orphanage was to be granted the new playground in Carol’s name? Had Jim Wilson, Carol’s husband, endorsed this?
The last two page of the pamphlet was given over to “Our Staff” listing the usual gang of qualified people:
Denise Hubbard, Executive Director and adoptive mother
Richard J. Marco, Jr. legal consultant
Thomas Rotunda Administrative Director, adoptive father
Wendy Stamper International Adoption Director
Sandra Harding Administrative Assistant, Adoptive Grandmother
Carla Everstijn, M.Ed., LISW Director of Social Services adoption assessor and adoptive mother
The last topic of this wonderfully informative publication on p. 16 was the PARENT SUPPORT NETWORK. “BBAS, Inc. is pleased to introduce our latest addition in services. We now offer a unique Parent Support Network to assist adoptive parents with the international adoption process.” It began. “Parent Support Networks are currently available in several states and the networks are growing steadily. Each Parent Support Office is maintained by a Regional Director, who is equipped to perform seminars, and provide personal guidance and assistance with documentation requirements…Our Parent Support Network consists of adoptive parents who have ‘been there, done that’ and know the ropes of international adoption…”
How come the Cases weren’t contacted to head up the NYS chapter of the PSN? We were, after all, the most knowledgeable clients BBAS ever had. Think of the information we could share with PAPs!
Enclosed with the shoddy pamphlet were hard-to-read, small -onted pages listing various information.
The initial welcoming letter was written in an 8 point bold Arial font containing the usual boilerplate, claiming BBAS had placed over 300 children since 1997, signed by Denise L. Hubbard. What color the pamphlet main page lacked, the initial letter had in full force. No more coarse speckled grey paper.
The next sheet was BBAS Application for Adoption stating a $225 non-refundable fee. BBAS did drop the application fee to $75. You can download the form directly from BBAS website.
The Fee Schedules page was a confusing and optical mess. Prices and programs were crunched together in impossibly small areas of the page. One could not make heads or tail out of it. The fees were current as of 1-3-03 and they had moved into accepting credit cards: “Visa, MC, AMEX accepted. An additional 4% will be added to the total for processing fee.”
BBAS was still charging a dubious $650 fee, not a “translation fee” as we had paid, but renamed a “Dossier Preparation Fee”. This was due upon the submission of the dossier for ALL COUNTRIES. Let’s not forget, non-refundable Dossier Preparation Fee.
The $800 non refundable (Amrex) Post Placement fee was in place, but the name “Amrex” was not mentioned, nor did it mention this $800 fee was for Russia and Kazakhstan.
Total adoption costs had gone up for Russia and Bulgaria since we had signed on in 1999. Russia’s total adoption costs for one child ranged from $25,000 - $28,000 (this was indeed more than we spent on Cyril’s adoption). Bulgaria’s fees had risen to $20,000 - $22,000 for one child.
The next page was a summary of the adoption programs by country, Age/Marital Requirements, Children Available, Travel Required/Length of Stay in Country and the Approximate Time Frame for adoption completion. They had a note for Romania and Cambodia by April 2003: Program is Closed – Please check back.
This summary page was scrunched. The information was crammed into a wide, indentation hogging table. Not unlike that which other adoption agencies send to their clients.
The Homestudy Assessment Fee Schedule for Ohio residents fees were through the roof.
The last page consisted of a Xeroxed page advertising “Upcoming informational meetings”. “Please call for your reservation today”. BBAS adoption Seminars were scheduled from March 20, 2003 to April 6, 2003 in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana may of the states BBAS had always tried to heavily recruit in. The venues were either civic centers or churches.
BBAS hadn't been lying about curtailing its other advertising expenses to the ODJFS. They were spending every penny on seminars instead of monthly fees to post waiting kids on Annette Thompson’s PIHS and Martha Osborne’s Rainbowkids. One great bit of advertising showed up in 2004 in Adoptive Families magazine.
BBAS had not entirely abandoned the Internet as a cheap one on one sales tool. Denise started selling BBAS on the Internet before Emily was home and BBAS was incorporated. It was one area Denise could not afford to walk away from, even with the malicious, evil, hateful, vengeful Cases patrolling every board and email list.
Because she runs the adoption agency, Denise does not have time to patrol like she used to. She now had “adoptive mom” recruits entrenched on adoptionforums.com and on other lists, playing her song. All it took were a few private emails to prospective clients to get the word out about BBAS and its hand-holding, comforting ways.
The Internet had moved on since Denise’s first badly written enthusiastic posts in 1997 and 1998.