Sunday, January 06, 2008

JUST HOW MANY FATHERS DOES IT TAKE BEFORE WE CHANGE THE LAWS

I know that everyone has heard of Cody O'Dea, Bryn Ayre, Joshusa Simmerson, Craig Lentz, Shawn McDonald, Matt Tenneson, and Rashad Head. I will discuss every case but a new one has popped up on my radar via my google alerts.

Here is the story out of Oregon. Bryce Carkhuff is another father in a never ending saga of fathers losing their rights. Agencies know their way around the laws. They tell the mothers in these cases how to do it. Fathers have no idea. They are all thinking that there is no way that a woman would relinquish without telling them. To be honest, many men consider putative father registries as a way to get child support out of them. If they only knew really knew, it is a way for them to be denied their rights as parents. This father commented on how easy it is to lose your parent rights compared to getting rid of a dog.

I wrote about Rashad Head last year. Fortunately that case was thwarted. It has been reduced to a custody case. The natural mother in his case fought back against her mother and decided to keep.

I wrote about Shawn McDonald last year as well but I didn't hear anything about that case until recently. I wrote about the violation that the agency, LDS Social Services, committed and was fined for. The agency in his case was fined $100,000. The social worker was placed on probation for two years. This fine was to help Shawn pay for legal expenses in his fight. Interestingly enough, he is also pretty much raising his daughter from the same woman. He is also paying child support for his son. That is a new tactic of adoption agencies and entitled adopters.

Cody O'Dea is part of a group of fathers against one agency, American Center of Choice. This agency has been written about in this blog. They specialize in circumventing fathers rights. All the LDS Social Services agencies are all connected to this agency. They have facilitators in all of the fifty states. This agency has also been banned from obtaining babies from women in Illinois. The Governor and Attorney General put an end to their tactics in their state. Its a shame that other states don't do the same. In Cody's story, the agency gave clear information to the natural mother in this case. Lie to him. He was told upteen different stories as to where his child was. He made it very clear that he wanted to raise his child.

With Joshua Simmerson, it was the same story with the same agency. His girlfriend jumped states as well. They have facilitators everywhere. The adoption industry is a multi billion dollar business. It is not about protecting the natural parents, adoptees nor adoptive parents. It is however protecting their bottom line.

Another case is Brynden Ayre. I have been fighting for him in Indiana. Trying to get the legislators to do the same that Illinois. I have written hundreds of folks in this man's honor as well as the others. His former girlfriend tried to place in Indiana but couldn't. Then she tried to place in Texas but couldn't. He was on both putative father registries in those states. She ran into a facilitator though in Texas. Jennalee Ryan. Remember her? There is a deeper story to this woman and the rest of the country. This is all connected to the American Center of Choice and LDS Social Services, a participating member of NCFA. Thus in many respects this organization is very involved in their activities. At least they are getting negative heat for their actions in our country. They are not an organization that has the best interests at heart when it comes to all of our lives, adoptees, natural parents, nor adoptive parents.

Jennalee Ryan goes by many names. This one is just the most recent. I am really surprised that she has not been run out of town and Texas. Maybe this year she will be. Time will tell. Here is the story that I can understand and hopefully you, as my reader will too.

I have a friend in Mississippi. She has dealings with Patricia Stowbridge. She has told me that these attorneys and agencies have deep connections to each other. When a mother is considering adoption and enters their offices, they send all the others emails that she is considering and that she is their client. Its basically a way to protect their own financial interest. I think this is how the American Center of Choice operates as well. This agency has connections in all fifty states. Their number one connection is the A Abigail Silver Spoons adoption agency. This was brought to my attention via my friend and Bryn Ayre. I didn't know how deep those connections ran until the Bryn Ayre case. Because of what he has written on his blog, I checked out what he was talking about. I looked in my phone book for the Wichita Falls, Texas area. While I was home for my mother's illness, I picked up a San Marcos phone book. A Abigail Silver Spoon Adoptions is located out of San Antonio. They have 1-800 number listings in both of these phone books. Since I don't have phone books to other states, I can only imagine what is in theirs. I found this complaint cruising the internet a while back and forwarded onto the folks at Babyselling.com. Bryn has since published it on his blog there.

Jenna Ryan owns and operates Silver Spoons adoption agency. She also started the Abraham Center of Life. She began this because she wanted to bypass the natural parents. She has blatantly stated this. Federal investigators shut her down here in Texas. Now the Abraham Center of Life also has offices in California. James Webb owns that center. He also owns the American Center of Choice in Utah. He is also an insurance salesman. I know that sends a message to me. I don't trust insurance salesman period because of a home that I previously owned. God forbid that agent ever began selling human lives. He was a crooked as they came too. This operation is a profit based one for this man period. He doesn't care who he hurts as long as he profits. Bryn Ayre found out that this woman may have facilitated the adoption of his daughter. According to a counselor from Adoption Services Associates out of San Antonion. Silver Spoons was the placement agency. So the connection becomes clearer. I have to wonder who the agency was in Indiana that referred his girlfriend to the agency in Texas thus referring her to the American Center of Choice. This agency even has connections to the American Network Law Center who has a one million dollar advertising campaign aimed at natural mothers. This agency that denied Bryn Ayre his rights was fully aware that he intended to fight for his rights to be a parent. They still chose to continue with this adoption. They involved the only agency that is very well known for circumventing a natural parent's rights, American Center of Choice. I find it horrifying that fathers across this country have to know every state law in order to circumvent the adoption of their children. It is damn impossible to know all that information. The agencies in each of these states know their state laws and use it to lie coerce and deceive all parents involved in adoption.

Another thing that these agencies abuse is the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children. In Allison Quets case, they ignored the receiving state's laws (North Carolina). They have ignored it in Cody O'Dea, Bryn Ayre, Joshua Simmerson and others. I feel that these agencies are so profit motivated that they don't care. They don't realize that they hurt not just the natural parents and the adoptive parents but the adoptee.

Matt Tenneson is another most recent case. The agency involved is LDS Social Services. The attorney that is involved in this case is Larry Jenkins. He is the same attorney involved in the other cases as well. As this story futher surfaces, the tactics of the adoption agency become very clear. There is now allegations of statutory rape and drug usage. In Rashad's case, the agency and attorneys threatened to use this tactic to force fathers to relinquish their rights. I am sure that it won't be too much longer before they force him to pay child support. This story started out by the adoptive parents begging for money to fight back. They were thinking that they would get support from the country and their community. I don't think that worked well for them. Now that they have Larry Jenkins on their side. They are hoping that things will change. I doubt it very seriously. This man has four cases that he is now fighting. I think he will end up losing big time. He might even be barred from ever practicing law. Currently the adoptive parents are fighting the court order that returns this man's child to him.

All of this sickens me. The agencies should be held accountable for their actions. Its time to change things. Its time to stop this crap.

7 comments:

Mirah Riben said...

If it wasn't so sad, it would almost be humorous. The same folks who screamed about "family values" also decried the "fatherlessness of America."

Yet we continue to allow children to become war orphans as their fathers give their lives to others' civil wars...and do everything in our our to sever the rights of men eager to be fathers by creating alleged safe havens and PFRs!

And all for $$! Wars fought over oil and chidlren ad highly sought commodity...so we "kill of" their fathers to "free" them for adoption (read sale).

And we, as a nation, have the nerve to cry "family values" as code for anti-abortion, anti-welfare, anti-family policies that limit the word family to two affluent heterosexuals...often parenting anon-related child or one created in a wonb rented from an Indian or third world woman...because they too put wealth and accumulating as a priority until they could not have children of their own....and of course didn't want one of the more than 100,000 kids I foster care who cannot be reunified with family. (And, those are just a small percentage of the half million kids in foster care in this allegedly family oriented nation!)

I am increasingly embarrassed to be an American.

Anonymous said...

Back in the day, as I remember it, i.e. the Baby Scoop Era, fathers weren't involved in the relinquishment proceedings. They left their girlfriends, denied paternity and there either was no DNA proof or it was not sought. The mother was the sole relinquisher of the child. Fathers got off scott free, and it seemed they wanted to. At least that was the case when I got pregnant in 1969. My son's father left me when I was four months pregnant, never knew what happened to me or his son. And obviously didn't care.

Things have changed, Fathers are interested and they have a voice. Thank goodness for that. We should applaud these dads standing up for their children, wanting to raise them. They aren't the targets, the ones pressured to relinquish, like unwed pregnant mothers, and therefore may be the key to family preservation.

Go, dads!

Lizard said...

All of these stories sicken me, bone-deep... literally stealing the children of young men for the soul-killing purpose of making a profit.

It is so heart-warming when young men do what so many accuse them of shirking - taking loving responsibility for their progeny - yet these damnable agencies, simply because of their own greed, crush the hopes of these model young men.

Every single person who involves themselves in such atrocities should be publicly humiliated, stripped of everything they own, and thrown into prison for life.

I am SO ANGRY!!!!

Anonymous said...

Just a word about Matt. He was completely ripped off by LDS Family services who took the baby out of state before he even knew he was born, was forced to jump through all the legal hoops which included months of delays and then they refused to return the baby. Now we have had to hire an attorney in Utah to get the Idaho order enforced. By the way, the "allegations" were just a tactic to discredit Matt. The "investigation" was dropped long before this article was ever printed. We would love to bury Larry Jenkins and LDSFS. If you have any information that would help, contact the author and I will leave my email address.

Amyadoptee said...

Mr. Tenneson I have sent you an email. I hope that I can assist you further. If not, the top person on this blog is a member of OriginsUSA. I highly recommend that you contact them. In fact I hear that there is an attorney in your area that can assist you. I along with the rest of us most definitely can publish your story. Allison Quets, a very dear friend of mine suggested that we all contact the Department of Justice on this issues. You need to continue to write legislators and the Attorney General of your state. I will begin a writing campaign against this today.

Gershom Kaligawa said...

I'm in! I want to help!

Matt's Mom said...

Matt's Mom wrote:
If there was one key point that I could bring to the attention of adoption reform proponents, it would be that this was all so unnecessary. The manner in which our grandson was placed for adoption is at the very heart of the need for adoption reform and certainly underscored the critical need to include the birthfather in the process. Why does society marginalize the birthfather’s role or believe it’s acceptable to exclude him all together from the process? Matt wanted to be involved in his son’s life and expressed his desire repeatedly to everyone who would listen. He was ready and willing to raise his son and we were at his side with emotional and financial support. Matt made the responsible choice (as society demands) and yet he was vilified by the birth mother and her family, the adoption agency, the adoptive family, all of their attorneys and many community members who read about our case in the newspaper here and in Utah. Matt did everything he could to prepare to be a dad to his little boy and his efforts were significant. He is certainly young, has made some mistakes and has some maturing to do, but isn’t that the case for many young adults with children today. Our grandson would have a safe, secure, nurturing and loving family and home that would have given him every opportunity to grow up to be all he could hope to be. We are his biological family; we have loved him from the first moment we knew about him; we have longed to hold and snuggle with him; to see his first smile; to hear his first words; to witness his first steps and to celebrate his first birthday. We have never even had an opportunity to meet our grandson and it appears we will miss these and all other important milestones in his life. Instead, he will live with people who are strangers to our family and who have treated Matt and us with open disdain and hostility. Our family has also been marginalized and abused by the adoption process and by supposed adoption professionals and we have been denied any opportunity to have a meaningful relationship with our grandson. And it has all been so very unnecessary.