JUST WTF??????????

ULB told me about this case. It involves an adoptee, Adam Herrman, who has been missing since 1999. Forget the Caylee Anthony story! This case went unreported for ten years. This little boy was adopted by a Kansas couple, Doug and Valerie Herrman, when he was two out of the foster care system. Remember this story about the adoptive mother that was beating her daughter? The girl had to escape out of the window in order to stop the beatings. Her sisters were in the family freezer. This story is probably similar to it but there is no body nor little boy. The boy has been missing for years. Ten years to be exact. The adoptive parents did not report it because they were having too many issues with him and just did not want to deal with it anymore. They were still however claiming him on their taxes and their bankruptcy forms. They were also still collecting federal adoption subsidies in the form of Medicaid. So they just remained mum on his whereabouts. Did they receive money for this child? One really wonders. Of course once the adoption is final there is no going back and checking on the child just like the previously mentioned case with the three girls. I think the Russians have it right in the sense that they are required to do follow ups for several years. This is the kind of program that should be implemented here in the United States with foster to adopt, domestic and international adoptions finalized here.

These adoptive parents have stated that he kept running away and that he was homeschooled. They got tired of dealing with it. I wonder if there is proof of that in the way of police reports. One of his adoptive brothers came forward. He stated that these adoptive parents were abusing him and his brother, Adam. He even called the police but told them when they arrived that he lied. Other relatives have reported him being chained to a bathtub faucet. Nice really nice.

Detectives in this case hopes that this gets national attention so that someone anyone can find this young man. Adam is now 21 years of age. The news will be putting an age enhanced photo soon. Some of the main stream media has finally began reporting on it.

If you have seen a young man who looks similar, please report it as quickly as possible. I may rag on the parents who put their Russian adoptees in that Montana ranch but at least they are being cared for by someone. Someone knows where they are at. It is unexcuseable for adoptive parents to not report that their son is missing. So much for adoption being similar to the real thing.

THIS IS THE DEAL BREAKER

Its hard to believe that I have been writing this blog for nearly three years. I have actively searched for a majority of that time. I have made some really great friends. I have learned a great deal about myself in the process. No I am not quitting writing. I admit that it has been very healing for me. I will continue. I guess I am experiencing growing pains right now.

I watch the television show, Bones, all the time. It is a favorite. I relate to the main character. This week's episode really hit home for me along with the latest safe haven law in Nebraska. Dr. Brennan aka Bones looks at things very analytically. She doesn't allow the emotional side to interfere with her life. I do the same thing with adoptee rights and adoption reform. Its easier to hide behind the angry adoptee in me than to expose who I really am to myself and those that love me. It is just easier to look at things logically and analytically than to scream, hollar, shake a fist, cry, and howl at some thing that no one wants to see as being anything but good.

What does anger really hide? It hides the hurt and the pain that I feel. I have been rejected twice now. Even though there are promises of adoptee access in Indiana, I am not exactly keen on finding my mother anymore. I can not guarantee what I will do that once I receive that document if I even receive it. I want to find my father because he wanted me. He may now be deceased but at least I can tell his wife and his daughter that I am alive and that I think of them often. I can reassure them that my life was good. I am at a point in my life where I find myself questioning the foundation that I have built my life on. Could it survive another rejection? Could it survive never finding? I find myself wondering if I am actually real or just another fake kid that no one wants to listen to. It is just so difficult to listen to the horrors of adoption. You get the shut up and be gratefuls only so much before you blow a fuse every time you turn around. I read another stupid Catholic blog today saying that we adoptees should be grateful that we were not aborted. You never know abortion just might have been legal in 1965 in that state that you were born in.

I went into it a little with the previous post and a comment that I made. The people that argue for these laws don't bother to ask those that have to live with these laws. Adoptees. They ignore us. The adoptee rights movement by most standards is what thirty plus years old. We have been screaming for them for years. Many of the pro-life groups have blamed us for that issue. If you notice, National Adoption Awareness month really isn't about the adoptee. The mothers get mentioned but not in a favorable light. There is the "God bless all those adoptive parents for adopting all those unwanted children" all over the place.

I read this article today. One paragraph stuck out at me.

"The empty, feel-good myth about how we just need to make giving a child up for adoption easier is popular across the political spectrum. Liberals say it to assure everyone that we're trying to reduce the abortion rate with carrots instead of sticks. Conservatives say it to assure audiences that a ban on abortion won't be that bad for women, who presumably can just give birth and walk away, leaving their babies to worthier couples who aren't wayward sluts. Few people have the guts to point out that the belief that adoption will reduce the abortion rate is largely a myth. Now that it's legal in basically all states to drop off an infant without explanation and terminate your parental responsibilities with no effort, we can firmly state that the rhetoric about adoption is hollow and empty. "

Yea I feel hollow and empty right now. Women can't just give birth and walk away. Its not in our DNA. Lord knows I could never walk away from my daughters. Much of what I do today is for them in the future. Adoption has taught me that I am only a valuable resource as an infant. Adoption has taught me that I am not valued or important. It constantly reminds me that I am disposable no matter what anyone says.

ADOPTEE RIGHTS IN THE NEWS

Looks like adoptee rights was in the news again. Peter Franklin wrote a letter into the Daily Record out of New Jersey

Here is his letter.

Eradicate archaic secrecy laws

To the Editor:

It is time New Jersey adoptees stop behaving like good house slaves, content with archaic adoption laws. Secrecy serves no one and only protects the unscrupulous. If all adoptees knew why records were sealed (to keep birth mothers away from the newly formed adoptive family), how birth mothers were treated (ostracized from society, many coerced into giving up their babies), what percentage of birth mothers welcome contact (nearly 95 percent) and who wants to keep records sealed (Catholic bishops), perhaps they would march on Trenton and demand change.

Why do adoptees wait until they or their family members need life saving family medical history before they get involved? Why do they wait until they unwittingly commit incest by not knowing their biological relatives, before they get involved?

Why do they wait until they search for relatives, before they get involved. Sadly, secret adoption has made them feel ungrateful to question a system that is made to feel as if it is the foundation of their existence. I challenge adoptees to shed their complacent attitude and embrace the idea that their existence and rights are endowed by their creator, not adoption.

It is time adoptees demand equal treatment. They should demand that Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, let our elected representatives vote on A752, the Adoptees Birthright bill.

PETER W. FRANKLIN

Haskell

Granted the letter is somewhat harsh, the author does have a point though.

One way to stand up is to attend the Adoptee Rights Demonstration in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania next year during the National Conference of State Legislators during the week of Jluy 21,2009. We as adoptees, natural parents and adoptive parents can make a difference.

CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTERS

My first encounter with a crisis pregnancy center was with a friend that needed a pregnancy verification test for her medicaid benefits. She went to the local CPC with her husband and son. They asked her three times that she relinquish her baby. THREE TIMES IN FRONT OF HUSBAND AND CHILD.

What set me off today was this article. Pat Boone needs to shut his mouth. Planned parenthood is a tax funded growth industry. As a young woman, I used Planned Parenthood services. I used them to get my yearly exam and my birth control products. I however never had an abortion. I can bet that the adoption industry and CPC's like CareNet make a great deal more money. Non profit is all about profit.

The adoption industry is at least a three billion dollar business. This is only infant adoption. The tax dollars that adoption agencies receive from the state and federal governments for foster care is not included in this little sum of money. There are a few agencies in Texas alone that get close to $100,000,000.

I find it even more interesting with these agencies getting funds from state and federal governments, these agencies use this funds to continue to discriminate against adoptees and families. The states have created an immunity and privilege special for adoption.

Another interesting fact is that adoption agencies are connected to the Right to Life movement. The National Council for Adoption is in thick with them. These CPCs and the adoption agencies are dead set against Roe vs. Wade but use it to intentionally thwart adoptees and their families. They use it to discriminate against them.

After reviewing the IRS form 990, Planned Parenthood gets $85,000,000 per year. Not all of it comes from the government. They earn a lot of it through donations and services rendered. Services like family planning, yearly exams for women, and abortions. Adoption industry earns that in a year within one state. So really who is making money here? I don't think Planned Parenthood and all of its affiliates have earned near the three billion dollar a year that the adoption industry has earned. Again this is just the domestic infant adoption. If you figure in the international adoption side of this industry, it goes up to seven billion dollars a year.

The Right to Life movement needs to re-access who they associate with. These agencies continually fight to make life harder for the mothers and the adoptees.

ADOPTEE RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN THE NEWS

I was reviewing adoptee news on google. I found this story. It discusses one of the legislators responsible for Maine's turnabout on their law. It goes into effect in 2009. Her name is Roberta Beavers. She has just announced her candidacy. We need more like her. They titled their bill "The Adoptee Human Rights Bill." She also received an Angel in Adoption award. That shocks me considering she went against the normal train of thought on this issue. I gotta love her anyway. She does an awesome job. I know that she still has a lot of work ahead of her.

Here is the story about her. Check it out. For the Maine folks out there, please vote for her.

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Roberta Beavers has announced her candidacy for representative to the Maine Legislature, District 148, which includes all of Eliot and part of South Berwick. She will be running against Republican incumbent Sarah Lewin.

Beavers said she has been busy since she narrowly lost her first election bid against Lewin in 2006.

"The primary thing was working on the Adoptee Human Rights Bill that passed in 2007," she said. "I was commuting often to Augusta, where I hand-selected a bipartisan team of sponsors for this bill.

"It was the right combination of people from both sides of the aisle and from the House and the Senate," she added. "The bill empowers adult adopted people to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate and pay the same fee as anybody not adopted, and also empowers the parents of origin whether of not they wish to be contacted."

In addition to the legislative work, Beavers said she has become involved with the Eliot and South Berwick historical societies, both garden clubs, both libraries as far as fund-raising, and the same for the Great Works Regional Land Trust.

For her work in adoption, Beavers received a U.S. Congressional Angel in Adoption Award and went down to Washington to receive it along with nine other members of her legislative team, including the bill's sponsors.

"I have been listening carefully to the people of Eliot and South Berwick, respecting their concerns and advocating for them in Augusta and will continue to do so," said Beavers.

She said that two of the most critical concerns are energy costs and health care.

"Since Maine consumes less power than it exports, let's run our own electricity system or join the neighboring Canadian grid and reduce the barriers to clean renewable energy resources," she said. "The Canadians are willing to talk, and we should be too."

To reduce health-care costs, she said: "Let's get rid of the near monopoly by one health insurance company. Our people and our businesses are being hurt badly. Without radical change here, there will be no change in the overall business environment."

Beavers' work experience includes 18 years in the chemical industry as a research chemist, marketing analyst and marketing manager, and seven years as a small business owner in computers. She gained her greatest career satisfaction as a career counselor and as an art gallery manager for nonprofit organizations, she said.