Other blogs

When we prepared the page on the Kramers’ blog for the website (now since removed at their request), we found not just one but two other blogging BBAS clients. The number has since increased to four — two more were discovered in 2007. With the increase in personal blogging, especially adoption blogs, there are probably a few more BBAS clients’ blogs we are unaware of.

The first blog located was the now-defunct, “Journey to Find Our Princess”, by the Ousleys. This particular BBAS client was and is a frequent, popular poster to adoption.com’s Guatemalan board. Her avatar is “MindyBeth6”. Seeing her blog with her sig-quote was enough of an incentive for us to click to see what she had to say. And was it not a surprise.

Whether they set out to adopt a Caucasian child or not, the following post from July 10, 2006 unnerved us:

Our Daughter Has Blue Eyes??!!

Today we talked with our agency so that we could get the approval to travel on the dates we had selected. Our agency said they would talk to the lawyer to make sure those dates were OK. When she e-mailed me back to say that we had the green light to travel, we got some semi-shocking information. Our agency said that our lawyer wanted us to know that our daughter was very beautiful and had BLUE EYES! YES! I said BLUE EYES! For those of you who think this is no big deal...I am here to tell you that it IS a big deal. Hispanic children very rarely have blue eyes...they are typically brown! VERY typically brown. So I was stunned when I read that e-mail...but very pleasantly surprised. I am not sure if they will actually STAY blue or not. From what I hear they probably will. We will have to wait and see

First, of course, is Mrs. Ousley’s Feuer und Flamm enthusiasm for her daughter-to-be’s eye color (sorry ... hazel!). Didn’t Denise, once upon a time, tell us she wouldn’t work with people like that? Or had Denise changed? Or were lighter-skinned children pulling in more money?

Apparently Denise has changed, because what’s even more disturbing is that blue-eyed children available for foreign adoption are as rare as hen’s teeth not just from Guatemala but anywhere in Latin America, as Mrs. Ousley admits. Most children in that region of the world likely to be placed with foreigners are of Indian or mestizo descent.

What are Denise and Rick doing? Where are they getting those kids when larger, more established agencies can’t? Are they really of Guatemalan origin?

We and others left this URL in the “comments” section under various posts, the Ousleys password protected it. At the time, we suspected Denise had a little bit to say about that. Mindy Ousley (aka MindyBeth6) denied it in this email which we promised her we would post:

Sorry my dear Mrs. Ousley. It's called “fair use”, specifically “critical comment and analysis”, and that's the way it is on the Internet. If you don't want your information out there, don't leave the link to your personal blog in your sig quote, with photos of your baby and family online discussing your personal family business. If it's on the Internet, it’s public information. Any and all comments you make are for any and all to freely use and comment on. Which is exactly what we have done.

We find Mrs. Ousley's “move forward” comments offensive. Because of people like her willing to sign on the bottom line with agencies like BUILDING BLOCKS ADOPTION SERVICE and shell out thousands of dollars towards an increasingly-legalized baby trade, that the corruption continues. What makes Guatemala unique isn't its colorful people. It’s the money private attorneys are making and our American adoption mores at play which has brought about the Guatemalan situation at hand.

Believe us. We're quite aware, far more aware, of what has happened in Guatemala than many. Mindy Ousley disparages other BBAS Guatemalan clients by asserting her adoption was the norm. It wasn’t. Other BBAS Guatemalan clients would beg to differ with her because they have seen first hand the wrath of the Blox. Of that we write with all certainty. The Ousleys got lucky. Very, very lucky.

Mindy Ousley would best be served asking why her baby daughter — who is far more pretty than Suri Cruise (written with all sincerity — the Ousley's daughter has it all over Suri) — may have had TB. Where did the money the Ousleys spend go? Why wasn't it spent on the baby's care in Guatemala? That is what Mindy Ousley should be outraged about — not a bunch of comments made on this website. We've got more to report on than than continuing exchanges with happy BBAS clients trying to invalidate our experience.

This brings us to the next blog we found, Chris, Liz and Carson, a/k/a the Basiches (Or is it Basichs? We don’t know how they pronounce their last name). They brought the latter, their son, home from Guat in the middle of July. He has brown eyes, but look at all the pictures they have posted like any proud new parents.

Also, note this post, which while it mainly blames the doctor’s office for some mistyped letters and bad customer service does point back to the issue of Denise not communicating clearly what she wants from real professionals for her clients (“Well if your agency wants the letters a certain way they should be more specific”. One wonders if the nurse in question has had to deal with BBAS before). Just like when our homestudy had be redone on agency letterhead, something Denise could have been clearer about beforehand and most of all not let it sit for two whole weeks before she even looked at it.

And this, one of her few complaints about BBAS, when she feels the service offered for the extra fee (instituted after they had signed their contract, a crummy practice even if it is allowed, as Denise says in her response). BBAS charges for a second visit to see a child in Guat does not merit the $500.

In 2007, we came across two other blogs written by happy, current BBAS clients. As time goes on, it becomes harder to read these things. Not because we are not happy for the families involved, but because so much is wrong with this agency and international adoption. Yet, during the process, they just can't see it. Nothing's better than rose-colored glasses when you've got that longed for baby in your arms.

The third blog we found is by the Hudsons: hudsonsstory.blogspot.com. I confess, we really don’t keep tabs on their story. Not enough time in the day. But since they're BLOX clients, their site is on this site.

The fourth blog we found, adventuresinadoption.blogspot.com, and saddens us the most, is by a Northeast Ohio family. A good, Christian, middleclass family scrimping, saving, and begging for the money to adopt a little baby girl. Somehow, we just haven't had the nerve to post a link to our site to theirs. I don't know why, but we just don't. They're going to have to learn on their own.