Chapter Twelve

Melissa Whalen’s EEAD/APR Post

    The powers that be at BBAS, namely Denise L. Hubbard, were enraged by the fact the Towells were overstepping their bounds by getting outside help with Oleg and Elena’s appeal. Denise and Wendy Stamper underestimated Alysha’s resolve in completing Oleg and Elena’s adoption. 

    So Denise decided to trash out Irina O’Rear via Wendy. 

    On Sept. 7, Alysha received an email from Wendy Stamper, signed and forwarded from Denise Hubbard. She had copied, clipped and pasted a post from Melissa Whalen — the same Melissa Whalen that had wisely decided to sign up with BBAS in February for Meral, a Bulgarian girl she identified on Precious In His Sight.

    Was this a ploy by Denise to get back at two people at once — Towells and Ms. Whalen for not signing on with BBAS for Meral? We think it was, for somebody had much earlier forwarded on to us the SAME EXACT post from the (now-defunct) EEAD list on Aug. 29, 2001. 

    There is a big difference between the subject lines of Melissa Whalen’s forwarded post that we received and the one Wendy forwarded on to Alysha. Ms. Whalen’s post that we have in the subject line is: Learning the ropes the hard way! (long).

    But Denise, being the horrible person that she is, changed the subject line (deliberately, we think) and added in: Learning the Ropes the Hard Way (Long)  Irina O’Rear – NOT a Russian attorney!!! She is a Hoax!  STAY AWAY

    This post is long and rambling, and Irina O’Rear’s name appears nowhere in the text. Upon a careful review, Melissa Whalen was losing thousands of dollars to shady agency directors selling children on the photolistings.

    This is how the email was sent to Alysha:

From:       AdoptEric@aol.com

To:           Alysha Towell

Sent:        Friday, September 07, 2001 3:34 PM

Subject:    concern

 

Alysha,

 

Denise is concerned about the attorney you are in contact with.  She wanted me to forward the following to you:

Subject: Learning the Ropes the Hard Way (Long)  Irina O’Rear – NOT a Russian attorney!!! She is a Hoax!  STAY AWAY

[remainder of post can be seen by clicking link above]

 

         Best Regards,

            Denise Hubbard

            Executive Director

            Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc.

            An Ohio non-profit licensed international adoption agency

            P.O. Box 1028

            Medina, OH 44258

            Phone(330)725-5528

            Fax(800) 668-2478

            denise@bbas.org

            http://www.bbas.org/

            Best Regards

            Wendy Stamper

            International Director

            Building Blocks Adoption Service, Inc.

            An Ohio non-profit licensed international adoption agency

            P.O. Box 1028

            Medina, OH 44258

            Phone(330)725-5528

            Fax(800) 668-2478

            wendy@bbas.org

            http://www.bbas.org/

    Wendy sent it from her AOL address, not her wendy@bbas.org address. Her willingness to support Denise’s schemes to hurt people is what is most astounding to me. 

    With such unconscionable sycophants working for BBAS in positions of authority, we understand now how Denise is able to stay in business. We wonder: does Denise tell Wendy the paying clientele is stupid and that they will believe just about any incredible tale to keep them in check?

    Alysha forwarded the above on to Irina. They both had a good laugh at Denise’s expense. Denise’s bullying tactics had misfired.

    Although Melissa Whalen shot her mouth off in her email of Aug. 29 due to her anger and perhaps exhaustion, the very next day she sent the following post to the APR and EEAD lists titled “Amends,” recanting her previous post.

Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 10:07:52 -0700
From:

Subject: Amends

Hi everyone,

I hastily posted my story to the list, without thinking clearly about the repercussions on others involved.

What I need to add is that my case, and indeed the cases of all of ours was far from the  ordinary situation.

As most of you know, the Russian system, does not run like ours, and in this economic strife individuals there can tend to be "entrepreneurs".

My attorney recommended that course of action which was the best option for me, and I chose to take that option.  Although this particular region can be more difficult than most.  I would still recommend her heartily, as she is a very good and experienced adoption attorney.  She has many years of successful adoptions in Russia :)  We are working out our misunderstandings amiable and appropriately.

When I posted, it was the middle of the night, and I should have re-read what I was writing before hitting the send button!  I had no right to compromise her or give out any of her personal information.

Our situation was very unusual and had been pre-"contaminated" by other existing situations, which I did not go into detail on, as they really had little or nothing to do with any of us, personally.

My apologies,
Melissa

    Of course, Denise and Wendy never forwarded on this retraction to Alysha.

    Melissa Whalen’s story has a happy ending. She brought home two older Russian girls in late September 2001. 

    Today, however, she will not confirm or deny that she was referring to Irina O’Rear in her post, but maintains that she did indeed lose $9,000 to a “Russian Attorney” — money she claims she cannot get refunded.

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