Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Watch What You Say, Comrade

     Late one night in Moscow, we had started to question Denise Hubbard’s honesty. On the afternoon of Dec. 6, in our home, we started to realize she was putting her interests over ours.

     No sooner had I gotten off the telephone from Liz then the following email, titled “Anguel” was waiting for me.  

            Dan and Liz:

I just wanted to see what your status was on adopting Anguel.  Do you still want me to take videos and photos?  And I need to speak with you to see how you are doing.  I am very concerned.  We also need to discuss the silence of the issue of Perm until the investigation is completed.  The Ministry of Education has been surfing the web and noticed a posting that you answered, to shed light on the situation in Perm and they are concerned that this will cause your return to Perm for investigation.  Building Blocks and its associates are trying to take a stand for you in Perm and we cannot do so without your cooperation.  Please contact me as soon as possible.  I have tried to call several times and your line has been busy.

God Bless.  Denise  

    Note the level of duplicity Denise was using in this email. She was willing to use anything and everything to silence us, even threatening to have us sent back to Perm for the investigation (as if she even could).   

    I was beyond livid. I was home alone that afternoon and was scheduled to return to work the next day. Daniel was out hiking.  

    The Ministry Of Education was reading Dr. Downing’s site? Did she think we were that stupid? If the MOE was indeed reading the site, they could contact us directly.  Like the MOE had the time in Russia for lurking on Internet international adoption boards based in the United States?

    The only person “surfing the web” was Denise herself.  I didn’t like the threatening tone: “they are concerned that this will cause your return to Perm for investigation.”  

    They would have to forcibly deport us from the United States (we don’t even have an extradition treaty with Russia at the moment) and pay our fare before I would ever step foot back in Russia. 

    To threaten us with that when we hadn’t been charged with anything. What proof was there to offer us that BBAS was acting in our interests or doing anything to help us obtain Cyril’s autopsy report and death certificate? That email smelled of fear and desperation, and that was not a good sign.

    As if this wasn’t enough, at approximately 4 p.m. the telephone rang.  

    It was Denise Hubbard.

    This telephone conversation was the move that was to lose me as one of “the faithful.” I used a tone of voice with her that I have never, ever used, save with my own family — and even then, rarely.

    Denise was frantic that we had dared to even list our email on the site or even speak to Liz and her agency. To Denise’s mindset, the only thing that mattered was covering her ass and the reputation of her and her agency. And all clients should get in line.

    Nothing else mattered. Not that a baby had died, not that another family was suffering over the condition of their baby, not that she was technically the one working for us and our interests.

    Denise Hubbard had NO RIGHT to tell me who to speak to, who to email, who not to tell about Cyril’s life and horrible death. In no uncertain terms I told her that Liz had a RIGHT to know what had happened in Perm.  

    What if her baby had been affected by Cyril’s ailment? Would that make it right if we kept our silence and stood by and watched another family suffer like we had?

    When I told Denise what Liz had told me about the babies and the orphanage, she denied it. She was concerned that Liz would “run with it” and post it publicly; I told Denise that was fine and perhaps it should be done.

    Denise sounded fearful that it would come back to her agency, and hence, ruin her Russian adoption program (We, on the other hand, were chopped liver, we presume).

    I asked how was I to keep my parents, my co-workers, my friends, Daniel’s coworkers, his parents, his brother and his friends quiet? Did she think we lived in a bubble world?

    Denise’s gravest fear was that her other Russian clients would find out about this, but, more ominously, her Bulgarian clients as well. But most important to keep in the dark were the folks at Amrex she was in the process of hooking up with.

    If she were indeed in the process of switching over to Amrex and dumping Dennis Gorontsaev, Cyril’s death might cause her some problems. 

    Dead babies do tend to cause the loss of potential clients in the adoption industry. As do clients who won’t toe the line.

    She also expressed concern that news of the incident would leak out to the Bulgarians and thus disrupt her growing Bulgarian adoption program. How could we disrupt any program in another country? (later on, though, we may have managed to do so).

    I informed her that I had no intention of hurting Anguel’s adoption in any way. He was our main concern and we left it at that. 

    During this call I also told Denise how I felt about the entire Russian adoption process, that it was nothing short of legal baby selling.  

    I brought up things like Gennady’s nice car, the money, the Russian mob and the sad state of health the children were in at the orphanage. Truly, I wondered how anybody could treat a baby that way and watch him suffer with his ailments. 

    Denise shared with me that she too felt that the Russians were awful and greedy to work with on her end. The Russian kids were indeed more “unhealthy” than the Bulgarian kids, and that is why she was attempting to steer more people towards Bulgaria.

    We didn’t know at the time just what had led her to those conclusions.

    Things had not gone too well with Dennis Gornostaev that year in Volgograd.  She had a few angry clients breathing down her neck who were scheduled to travel to Volgograd (Eventually we ourselves would learn just how angry some of these people were).

    Some of these clients had lost referrals; some clients hadn’t even received referrals. Since the Russian program was hurting, Denise was now talking up the Bulgarian program, telling people it would only take a short time to bring their children home. 

    She told me as much. She went on to say that she truly cared about “the children and babies” she was adopting out.

    She also felt that Bulgaria would become like Russia in a few years; why, I don’t know. In early 2001, we would find out.

    She told me one other thing during that conversation. She told me that she had lost a baby girl at birth. I had never heard her say that before (and she hasn’t said anything about it since).

    Perhaps she was trying to understand my pain right then, and I really hope she wasn’t making up something as awful as a baby’s death to reach out to me at a time like that. To do something like that would be low even by the minimal standards she has.

    We ended the telephone call on a stalemate; I added a verbal recommitment to Anguel’s adoption to my previous written one. She promised me she would send us the videos and photos of him during their trip to Bulgaria, and to be fair, BBAS did just that.  

    We also agreed that we needed a copy of the autopsy report or death certificate.  But we were up in the air as to how, when and where to get it.

***

    For their part, how did Denise and her organization deal with this?

    BBAS was required to file some of its monthly board minutes with ODHS as part of its license renewal the next year. They were duly included in the documents sent in response to our request for BBAS’s license file.

    The board, basically Denise and a few of her friends and relatives, met for the first time after Cyril’s death on Dec. 23.

    There is not a single mention in those minutes of what had happened in Perm 28 days earlier.

    You’d think that, if something like that happened at any other agency, any sort of organization remotely concerned about the interests of its clients and the children it was purporting to help, it would be the subject of some discussion. At least a passing mention.

    But instead, Denise chose to focus on the coming move to working with AMREX and the slow but steady progress of the Bulgarian and Guatemalan program.

    Really caring organization there, huh? The future’s so bright, they gotta wear shades ...

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