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Testimony to US Senate on S. 682

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Mary Mooney, Founder,

Adoption Advocates of America,

Consumer Protection Network.

RE: S. 682

Senator Helms we would like to take this opportunity to submit

testimony for the senate hearing on bill S. 682.

Our organization started as a support group for families that had

experienced failed or difficult adoptions. We found that most of our

experiences were due to unethical and unprofessional adoption agencies,

lawyers and or facilitators. We all felt that our cases should have

been taken on by the Attorney General of our state. We all felt our

justice system failed us. Many of us had hired agencies licensed by

their state. This gave us a false sense of security. Many of us found

out that even if an agency is licensed by the state it does not mean

the agency is a good agency. We found that most state adoption

licensing divisions don't even keep up with complaints or even

investigate complaints.

Many agencies have broken criminal and civil laws, yet there is no

one to prosecute these agencies. The foreign adoption business is a big

business. We feel that many American agencies are taking advantage of

unsuspecting families that are often desperate to adopt a child. These

agencies know that they have the upper hand. They have the children and

their client's money; therefore they call all the shots. They know that

all they have to say is jump and the families will ask how high.

In light of the cases, which have been sent to you by some of our

members, grass-roots consumers of adoption services, we strongly

support S. 682. We believe your excellent legislation could be even

better if it included all or part of legislation introduced by

Representative Trafficant.

Sincerely,

Mary Mooney.

Our Story:

We spent over 10 years of trying to adopt in North Carolina

through our County Dept. of Social Services and The Children's

Home Society. We completed a homestudy and followed all the

rules. Only after 2 years did we realized that it would be

almost impossible to adopt a child this way. We turned to

international adoption in May of 1995. We researched

international adoption and found it to be very popular and

there seemed to be many success stories. We looked all over the

US for an adoption agency. We wanted to deal with some one

local. Finally we found a licensed NC agency and felt very

happy with them. This agency made us feel that they would

personally be involved in every aspect of our adoption. They

assured us all would work out within 6 months and we would have

a healthy little boy in our home very soon. They showed us

pictures of cute children and assured us they had many children

to choose from.

What was supposed to be a wonderful experience turned in to

our worst nightmare. What seemed to be an organized agency

turned out to be very unorganized agency. Nobody seemed to ever

know what was going on, what papers we needed or when we would

travel. When we did travel to Russia the child was not

available for us to adopt. What we found was the US agency had

hired a very unethical and ``known'' adoption facilitator that

had a bad reputation all over the US.

The agency felt they had done nothing wrong. They would not

help us to recoup our money or would not even offer to assist

us in another adoption. Or worse, they did not even apologize.

We found the NC Adoption Licensing Division to be no help.

Local law enforcement was no help. The NC Attorney General

stated it was a matter to be handled by the NC Adoption

Licensing Division. The Licensing Division stated they have no

way of keeping up with complaints and felt it was not their

place or job to investigate complaints. They also stated that

since the adoption was an international adoption that would not

come under their care anyway. There was no one that would even

listen to our story.

Because of our problems I went to the Internet to seek

support. I found tremendous support and found many other

families that had similar problems through out the US. I

started a web page at http://www.ncplaza.com/aaguide/ to give

people a place to voice their opinions of their adoption agency

or worker. Since then I have had such a large response I moved

the site to a new address http://www.theadoptionguide.com. I

make no money from this site but spend countless hours E-

mailing with devastated families that are in need of emotional

support. I only wish I had the knowledge to give them the legal

advice they need.

State adoption licensing divisions do not have any legal

authority even if they had the resources to investigate a

complaint they do not have any authority to bring a law

complaint against an agency.

What I have seen over the years is adoption agencies open and

close at the drop of a hat. They close one place and move to

another state to open again under another name. Many agencies

change states and names often. Some agencies don't even try to

get licensed and are not found out unless a family reports

them. And if they are called on by state licensing division

they just close up and move to another state.

In our case we were lucky to find an attorney that would take

our case. We filed a law complaint against this agency for

fraud and unethical practices. After 2 years we settled out of

court. We never recovered any of the $7,800 that we paid to the

facilitator. As part of the settlement we are not allowed to

speak about this agency.

I have found that if a family is able to find an attorney and

they can afford to pursue legal action the agencies will either

settle out of court or the family will get a judgment against

the agency that is usually never paid. Sadly most of the

stories I hear have a very sad ending. Because these families

have lost so much money they do not have the money to try and

adopt again. Many have borrowed against their homes or from

family members. This could be avoided if the adoption industry

were more regulated and accountable for their actions.

With S. 682 you have the opportunity to reform the adoption

laws to protect innocent families.

Respectfully,

Mary M. Mooney

www.gpo.gov
1999 Oct 5