Throughout all this, Susan and Rob Corrigan were very helpful to us. Denise was
falling out of favor with them almost as rapidly as she had with us.
Since their daughter, whom they had visited in January 2000 was a fellow
“inmate” at Burgas with Anguel, we felt a connection with them. They had also
been hoping to adopt a second child as well, a little boy.
The information they were getting from Denise about timelines and where their
documents were was just as bad as the information (such as there was) we were
receiving.
In February 2000, Denise assured them that they would be
traveling in July. That was discouraging news as they, too, had been
promised “four months from when the dossier was submitted” to when they
could pick their daughter up.
The wait was taking a toll on their family. Their little boy kept asking
about his little sister, and the stress of not having any answers – or honest
answers – was beginning to show.
However, the Corrigans were far more
persistent than Daniel and I were and kept Denise on her toes.
On May 29 they, too, received an “update” from Denise about their daughter.
They were agitated by the fact that they could not get a straight answer
about when their dossier was submitted to the Ministry of Health since it had
not been approved. They were given four different dates – February 2000,
March 11, March 15, March 25.
This is the email that Denise sent Sue and Rob on May 29, 2000. She must
have been a busy camper that night!
Also note that she makes a passing
reference twice about having to “handle a problem with another case” in
Burgas.
Perhaps we really had made some waves with Dr. Sabrutova.
Hi Guys!
Just
wanted to send you an update about your adoption. I went to Bulgaria
last week and just returned. I went to Bourgas to handle a
problem with another case and saw N. She is doing very well.
She is smiling, laughing and playing. The caretakers had the children
outside playing when I arrived. Dr. S. did not want videos or
photos taken because of a problem I had with one of our families.
She advised right now we will need to wait. I will return to Bulgaria
in June or July. If I can, I will try and get photos then if all is
well.
As
for your second child. Many new laws are changing. The
attorney is afraid if we try and place a second child with you now that it
will jeopardize your adoption of N. The laws are getting
tighter and he advised since N was so young and healthy and you already had
one bio child that it will be hard to place a second, younger healthy child
with you. He said that you can look at an older boy 3 yrs of age or a
boy with special needs.
The
other option is to adopt from another country. The is not good
news for you and I understand. The attorney at this time is
looking at the best interest of N. He is willing to take the
chance if you are by placing a boy with you at your request, but he wanted
you to know the risks
You will get a complete update with all the other families on the changes.
At
this time your documents are in the Ministry of Health. They entered
the 25th of March. The attorney has filed a
complaint with the Ministry because of the length of time the file has
been in the Ministry. The normal time frame is 8 weeks.
Even though it has been just 8 weeks on the 25th of May, he
felt that the documents should have come out sooner since they were
prepared so well. He is hoping by next
week they enter the Ministry of Justice. He will advise so when they
do.
Sue
and Rob, I know your probably distraught about the second child and I hope
that you understand that this has nothing to do with BB, the attorney or
Valeri. Bottom line is to get N home. Law changes at the drop
of the hat!
Any
questions, please e-mail or call.
Denise
Ah, it was another classic Hubbard blame-laying email. Blame the attorney! Blame the Ministers! Blame
the laws of the foreign country! Blame the client! Just don’t
blame Denise Hubbard because she has NO CONTROL over these things.
We all had a good chuckle over the line – which may or may not have been true
– that Mr. Dobrev had filed a complaint with the Ministry over the
length of time their documents had laid in the MOH.
Other clients at that time had heard the same thing. How come other
agencies’ attorneys didn’t have to file a complaint about their documents
lying in one Ministry for three months at a stretch? Who didn’t have the
“clout” with that particular Minister if their documents were so well-prepared?
The Corrigans stuck to their guns about adopting a second child. They
demanded a conference call from Denise. She replied:
Sue:
I
agree we should have a conference call. As you can see from my several
notes I sent you that Valeri sent me there is much confusion. I need to get this straightened out once for all. We
cannot discuss this until we make sure that the dates are all correct.
As
you can see, on one note sent March 17 I believe he states your docs went
into the Min of Health on March 15 which is impossible.
As
for the second child. You need to tell me what sort of child your willing to adopt.
Caucasian, Asian, Caucasian/Asian Indian etc…..This will help me tell you
about the next step. Please take the time to think about what ethnic
origin of a child your interested in and I will seek the corrected info and
we will talk soon.
I
will get all the Info from Dobrev and Valeri this week. At this time
Valeri has two families in BG picking up their children and I am unsure when
he will check his fax or mail.
Sue
and Rob, for some reason yours is the only case that has mixed up dates. This
is frustrating for me also. I do apologize and will get to the
bottom of this.
Denise
More excuses and put-offs. Just pick the race of the second kid! Hey,
another sale for BBAS and to increase their profit margin!
Denise never got to the bottom of the date mix-ups. She did forward along
photos of children for the Corrigans to look at; but by then, they had made up
their mind not to go with BBAS for another adoption from any country. The
conflicting information about the second child was not a good sign.
Eventually, they would get another child, a boy, but we’ll tell that story
later.
The lack of information they were receiving about their daughter’s paperwork
process was glaring. They had visited her in January. The b.s.
Denise was rolling their way was unforgivable.
By June 21 they were finished even asking about the second boy from Bulgaria. In
desperation, Rob Corrigan posted the following public question about MOH delays
to the EEAC Bulgaria list.
We
went to Bulgaria at the beginning of January to meet our daughter and hand
carry our completed dossier. The translation and approval by the
orphanage director were completed. The documents were sent to the MOH
on 2/17/00 and we were told it was taking about two months to get an
approval. It has been four months and we are still waiting for any
information at all. Has anyone else experienced delays with getting
their documents approved by the MOH? Does anyone know what may be
causing delays at the MOH? Once we finally get the approval, how much
more time has it been taking to get the MOJ approval, other documents and
court approval so you can bring home the baby
Waiting
for N
Sue
and Rob Corrigan
This went against Denise’s “don’t post” ethic which she tried to instill
into all her clients for she tried to tell us all that the information we got on
the Internet was all false and misleading:
That was posted at 11:10 a.m.; Denise immediately sent them the following email
putting a kibosh on adopting a second boy from Bulgaria — while lamely lauding
her Bulgarian adoption “team.”
It came in not even two hours later.
Interesting how a public post to the EEAC Bulgaria list produced results from
Denise she had been unable to deliver for weeks:
OK,
this is bad news/good news. First I have to say that within the
last 4 weeks we have been fighting with the Ministry of Health to let you
have N. The problem was that the director of the MOH was
replaced and your file went to the new director. This
director has been pulling files of all families with biological children,
older ages, divorces etc…We had to write letters, the Atty, the director
from Bourgas and the Local MOH on your behalf to get this child placed with
you. Basically we succeeded and they are letting you keep her.
Within
the last 4 weeks we have lost many children to parents with divorces, older
ages of the adoptive parents, single women, biological children etc…Yours
was the only adoption we saved. The old director was letting
all the above adopt with no problem. When a new person comes in that
person can change or make decisions they choose.
Basically,
it is simple. N will be adopted, but a second child from
Bulgaria will not. We saved this adoption and now your
documents will be signed by the Minister of Health on Monday and moved to
the MOJ by the end of the week.
We
did not bring this to anyone’s attention per the request of the legal
counsel in Bulgaria. If the changes get put on adoption boards, yelled
from the roof top then the new director [of the MOH] will like all the
attention like it happens in Russia and more problems occur. Please do
not advise others of the problems. Each case is being handled
differently. FYI the orphanage director supported your
adoption and she had to go to court for you to explain why. She was
a major player in this. Valeri also did the same. All
personal pulled together and made it happen. Many other reps and attys
did not do what these guys did to save their families adoptions.
If
you have questions, please ask. I think I have explainedthe above easy
for understanding.
Gosh,
weren’t we all so lucky to have reps in Bulgaria fighting for us like this?
What was this convoluted story about? How come we hadn’t heard of any
other clients from any other agencies having this happen to them?
If any
of this were true, how come none of the parents who had lost children due to
their being divorced or having existing children in the home hadn’t stepped
forward in their sorrow? Denise also told the Corrigans about
parents who had turned down a four year old boy after going through the
Ministries by just prior to the court date.
Once again, we had to ask ourselves what was truth and what
was fiction?
And again Dr. Sabrutova’s involvement. Just how tightly were all these
entities entangled over there? Under what sort of system were Kamenov,
Sabrutova and Hubbard all working?
Sue and Rob didn’t buy any of it.
Later in June the Corrigans asked to have a conversation with Denise
about N’s adoption.
She sent them an email titled “I Tried to Call
Several Times – Sorry” which was another lie. She
hadn’t attempted
to call anybody about N’s update, not as far as the Corrigans could tell.
She said to the Corrigans: “I will be in the office until 5 p our time and 9-5
tomorrow. Note, I have nothing further to tell you than before, FYI her
adoption will be completed thanks to the professionalism of our team
overseas!”
Let’s see ... when they first traveled, Denise denigrated Valeri to the
Corrigans. Then she tried to blame N’s paperwork delay on the new
Minister of Health.
Now everything was being handled by a bunch of “professionals!” Had Denise
taken a page out of their “professionalism book” in the way she handled her
clients?
The confusion with N’s dates was to continue through August.