Old updates, 2003-2007
Since initially uploading this site on Oct. 2, 2002, we have been well aware that it has been incomplete in some areas.
Major updates will be announced here.
Jan. 6, 2003: A lot of new stuff: The Towells’ story is now complete. There is new information in Chapters Thirty-Three, Fifty, Sarah’s Hope and Building the Blocks, reflecting recent discoveries concerning Denise’s efforts to promote BBAS before the agency was even licensed or incorporated, and the current whereabouts of Dennis Gornostaev.
Feb. 5, 2003: A new page in the BBAS Files about the International Concerns for Children Fund, the odd little charity Denise founded to “help God’s orphan children,” yet somehow failed to properly register. (As of 2004, perhaps because of the attention we directed to it from high places, ICCF appears to be defunct).
March 26, 2003: A new page devoted to Dennis Gornostaev, BBAS’s original Russian facilitator and all-around international man of mystery.
June 4, 2003: The Ponishes’s story (“Dissolved in Ohio”), long promised, now online. How does Denise handle an adoption with a living child that goes horribly bad? About as poorly as you’d expect.
Also, new information in Chapter Forty-Seven confirming that Denise had indeed warned people not to talk to us in late 2000 after we had returned with Anguel.
June 24, 2003: Mary Hutchison’s story rewritten and taking into account some new info.
July 27, 2003: Major updates. Further developments in the Ponish and Towell sagas, particularly their complaints to the ODJFS, and Amrex’s attempts through its lawyers to muzzle Alysha in the latter. Candace O’Brien has emerged from the woodwork. Some new info in the Gornostaev chapter.
Sept. 30, 2003: The story of the Hyres, BBAS clients from Akron whose adoption led to both parents pleading guilty to felonies, and one little girl a paraplegic for life.
Nov. 12, 2003: An update to the end of the Hyres’ story, now that both of them have been sentenced to hard time.
Jan. 17, 2004: Simona Wirtz, who did Denise’s adoption of Emily only to be screwed over, has talked to us, and we have updated all three chapters of Building the Blocks, plus this, with relevant information. Also, an update on what has happened with BBAS in 2003, and the continuing adventures of Candace O’Brien.
Sept. 19, 2004: The most extensive update and revision since this site was first uploaded.
First, we have added a new section dealing with Denise’s Guatemalan program, now that she has been screwing clients over there, and there is already one client with a tale to tell. Another one will be coming soon, and this one’s a doozy.
We also requested and received from ODJFS information on BBAS’s 2004 recertification, which not only contained new board minutes, but some new information relevant to the question of just who really runs BBAS.
On that note, Suzanne Meler is no longer the president of BBAS’s board, and we have learned of her further adoption adventures.
An employee at EAC also filled us in on that agency’s reaction to hearing that Denise put out the phony story that she had adopted through them and sued them, and we learned what happened to onetime BBAS employee Debbie Bollinger, who also passed through EAC after escaping Denise’s clutches.
Things continue to happen to (and for) Candace O’Brien.
In the wake of the Marando sisters’ agency being featured on national TV, we have put more information about them and their shameless promotional efforts into the Ponishes’ story.
Justice comes to at least some adoption con artists, Lauryn Galindo and her sister Lynn Devin.
Oct. 26, 2004: Denise writes a gag order into her contract for her Guatemala program, in an attempt to keep people from tattling on her to us, and Lessons Learned is updated with information on the legality of taping telephone conversations.
Nov. 14, 2004: The Andersons, the Guatemala clients referenced above, have their story up.
Feb. 9, 2005: Our first update of this year brings us yet more new information about Dennis Gornostaev, a look at the ad Denise has been running in Adoptive Families, and we finally heard from Lori Homeyer on her brief employment with Denise.
July 20, 2005: Another victim's story ... Janet Ostrander.
Oct. 5, 2005: More interesting information about Candace O’Brien.
Oct. 12, 2005: Rick Marco, now divorced and remarried to the lovely Anne Zhelesnik, is running for judge in Medina Municipal Court. Why you should not vote for him.
Jan. 12, 2006: Rick lost and got into some ethical trouble along the way. We also learn about BBAS’s affiliation with a powerful adoption lobby, Janet Ostrander’s further adventures, and continuing paranoia and incompetence at BBAS as manifested on their website.
Something we did must have upset the powers that be at the big be-be for them to sic another employee/client on us. (Oh, we forgot back in the fall ... this was the first one).
Also, another chapter in the Hyre saga.
Jan. 16, 2006: Hopefully the real last chapter in the Hyre story, although not without a panicky, overbearing Denise Hubbard.
May 13, 2006: The Hyre story gets some local media coverage (which allows us to add new information throughout); Janet Ostrander’s story continues; and we improve the picture of Cyril’s diaper rash.
August 5, 2006: Sadly, we would not be the only adoptive parents to watch a child die in Russia. Although Automne Heather was not a BBAS client, we have linked to her story in many places from ours as we know only too well what it felt like, and since she acknowledged our example in creating her own website.
Denise gets blogged! (And by more than one client, although to be fair they are not all so harsh). How we were trolled by AMREX, in summer 2002.
December 9, 2006: As the breaking (and we do mean breaking) story of AMREX's bankruptcy continues to draw more viewers to this site, we’ve updated our page on this shadowy entity. We also included a separate page on how our favorite Medina-based adoption agency is handling this (As usual, Denise wants to “keep this private”, even though the filing was public record and has been widely discussed elsewhere on the Internet). This led us to post a copy of the current BBAS contract we had obtained, where you can see for yourself just what lengths Denise wants to go to to keep people from talking to us. For good measure, check out AMREX’s postplacement agreement and the contract for Beacon House Adoption Services, which really handles things for U.S. clients of AMREX agencies. Or do they?
We also learn more about how BBAS is milking Guatemalan clients.
We learn that, as of October 2005, “Brain Dead” Wendy Stamper has left the Building Blocks. We wish her the best of luck in whatever future endeavor she has moved on to, and hope she has reacquired any sense of ethics and conscience she may have been required to renounce in order to work for Denise (But the loose tongue is her own fault).
July 23, 2007: Another major update following what we got from ODJFS concerning the 2006 recertification of BBAS. Lots o’ complaints. Did Rick Marco really mean it when he told ODJFS his spellchecker replaced “fruitless” with “frivolous” in a letter to a client concerned that their child may have been abused in Guatemala? More developments in the Andersons’ story after we finally get their complaint (which encourages another family to complain to ODJFS in turn) and we learn of yet another shadowy figure on the margins of BBAS, Robert A. Jones.
Further developments in the AMREX case lead another BBAS family to complain to the state, and expose Denise carrying their dirty water.
By popular request from one of our blogging fans, more on that front.
And finally, what would a BewareOfBBAS update be without yet more chicanery from Denise?
September 17, 2007: Finally, we get to see the Chez Hubbard, aka the Giant Succotash, and Rick Marco’s offices to boot. We learn that Denise’s fundraisers do poorly, and share at long last a rather strange application of Ohio law by ODJFS.
July 9, 2008: An eagerly-anticipated, major update.
Denise’s fun-lovin, butt-coverin’ sister-in-law Kelly Carter-Hubbard has thankfully left the BBAS fold. Adios Amiga – hope your replacement works out well for Denise. It’s got to suck being a family member of the Harding/Hubbard clan.
BBAS reveals it is using World Partners Adoptions’ China program to sneak into that country, and attempts to counter this site. We explain why it doesn’t wash.
More on the demise of AMREX, and each member of the “family” — Serg, Marina, and Tracy — gets their own page.
How BBAS continues to pretend to be a charity after the IRS-assisted demise of ICCF.
Denise and BBAS get theirs at adoptionagencyratings.com.
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