About a week ago, The United States Department of Justice posted an update on their webpage that 4 past/present employees of our agency, International Adoption Guides, were arrested on adoption fraud charges. 2 of the employees were the current hands and feet of the agency-in the US and Ethiopia. 2 were past employees. All have done terrible horrible disgusting things (coercing families to give up their children, stealing children, paying people to put their children up for adoption, or paying people to sign off on paperwork that was fraudulent) to families and children of Ethiopia all to make money. All those offensive blog comments I had gotten about child trafficking and disgusting practices, about praying adoption in Ethiopia was shut down before my son was brought home because he was probably a child stolen from his family...all super offensive and terrible. All true. It makes me sick. I can't describe how dirty and disgusting I feel to say that I was ever a part of the agency. And know that I asked every question I could think of to question the ethical practices of our agency. I searched for more questions to ask-sought counsel from people in the adoption world to make sure every question was covered and answered. That I was part of an ethical agency who honored family and children rights. We had no idea.
To all of you who donated to our adoption...oh my goodness...I am so so so sorry. I'm so sorry. All of that money is most likely gone we are told but we are trying to get it back-so if you gave through Hand-In-Hand hopefully it will go to another family who is adopting a true orphan and needs the funds. I don't know that this will happen, but we are truly going to try. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you trusted us and we trusted and were tricked and lied to by terrible people. I'm so sorry.
We do not know the next steps of this. We do know that there are high chances that Gideon has a family that wants and loves him in Ethiopia and we would NEVER want to keep him from them and will do everything in our power to make sure they are together. We also know that there is a small possibility that he truly does need to be adopted. We could hire a private investigator to figure this out...but many private investigators are saying that they really can't help us since we had a referral but nothing else. We most likely have no legal ties to Gideon (because paperwork has not been submitted to the US government for the PAIR process). And, while those people are arrested and charged in the United States-the Ethiopian government has not made a statement as to what they are going to do about it. There are reports today that children are being moved from the care centers (created by our agency for kids in the process of being adopted) to their first orphanages or other locations. There is a geniune fear that children will get lost in this process or that those caring for them will be unable to do a good job of caring for so many.
I ask you to pray, but I really don't know what to ask you to pray for. For truth. And for that truth to lead the next steps to be done in the most ethical and honest ways. For the kids caught in this mess-for their safety and care. That the unethical practices of our agency does not make all of adoptions in Ethiopia stop. There are ethical agencies, there are kids that geniunely need to be adopted to be part of a loving family.
God is faithful. Always. Not only when things turn out the way we pictured them. He is and will continue to be faithful and loving when we are scared and hurting in ways we've never known before. Thank you for loving us through this journey.
