Hey ya'll,Got a note from someone saying you had mentioned me and Gladney in the same post, so thought I would swing by and leave a quick comment on the topic.
We will on occasion work on Edna Gladney cases, but they have to have some data beyond that which is provided by Gladney files or non-ID.
The reason for our hesitancy is simple- the majority of the cases we have reviewed/researched/solved from Edna Gladney were stuffed full of pages and pages of falsified documents. While it is quite normal (sadly) for adoption agencies to falsify a few things in an adoption record, the Gladney files we have studied had been tremendously falsified, often times simply duplicated. I have seen several people all get the same photo-copied "non-ID" from Gladney staffers. I have located alleged birth mothers connected to Gladney cases only to discover she was simply a woman who's identity was used over and over, and has been located by multiple adoptees in search of answers, only to find intentinal dead ends built by Gladney staffers so many years ago. Makes me sad and angry all at the same time. Let me say for the record, I have no idea what Gladney's processes and procedures are today. The tradition of falsifying entire adoption files may be a thing of the past. Perhaps it wasn't even a "tradition". Maybe I'm wrong. ;-) All I can say is that in 20 years of working thousands of cases, I have NEVER seen as much falsification in any other agency in the U.S. as I have seen with Edna Gladney cases. Tragically, many of the adoptees who have come thru that agency have unsolvable cases since names, cities, hospitals and DOB's were faked in many cases. Perhaps they felt at the time they were right, but I stand here today to state- they were WRONG. And anybody who thinks lying to adoptees is "whats best for them" is misguided.
Have a beautiful Thanksgiving to you all. I do hope each of you are blessed to find that which you seek.
In your corner,
Troy
"The Locator"
www.wetv.com/thelocator
15 comments:
I am not even surprised at the lies. My daughter, who was adopted through the State, not a private agency, at least that is what we were told, has a NY social security number - they never lived there, they wrong hospital listed and oddly, the correct first and middle name. However her adopters claimed to have named her. Saying that I named her only her middle name. Interesting but untrue.
Unfortunately, I have to say it, it does not matter who writes up the birth certificate, only adoption can allow the falsifying of birthdate and place. Names, believe it or not, are totally up to the parents. Anyone can name their child anything they want, first, last and middle. It is the one thing that most people don't even realize.
I actually did realize it, because while I chose (stupidly, for stupid reasons based on a lie told to me) to leave her father off the original birth certificate, I gave her his last name.
It is sad that the fears of adopters/adoptive parents steal so much from our children.
It's so insane that no one has ever been held accountable for all these falsifications! Boy, if we falsified our tax info, the government would be coming after us both barrels -- but to falsify someone's history -- no one gets held accountable.
Sigh -- so frustrating.
Really Gladney ought to be prosecuted for that. It's called fraud.
So how is it this agency is still in business? Are there not laws being broken by this agencies actions? If so why is NOTHING being done to yank whatever "certification" they have? Guess I'm just too naive I suppose. There seems to be an invisible line between wrong & right these days...
I wish I could say I was surprised -- I'm in the same town as Gladney, and many people simply REVERE it. But I didn't like them from the get-go -- not just the history of falsified records, which I learned about after several of my students related the stories they got from Gladney, and they were all identical (parents MARRIED, was their favorite lie at one time). But their then-refusal to do open adoption and the way-too-slicky brochures for AP that made me wonder where the money was really going.
I get asked all the time in this area whether I used Gladney. No way is the answer I give.
Unfortunately, I know parents who have adopted from Gladney. The woman was from Austin. Before they got a boy, they held a cocktail-party fundraiser for Gladney.
The head of Gladney has been nominated, as I noted yesterday, for an Angels in Adoption. Maybe some of us ought to write to whomever decides these things...about what is going on over there.
It was was Bill Pierce and Gladney's then executive director Ruby Lee Piester who spawned the NCFA in 1980
http://www.adoptioncouncil.org/news/media_
News_9.htm
Edna Gladney must be turning in her grave
Little Snowdrop
Anyone can get an Angel in Adoption Award, there are no criteria really. Even I got one! It started as just an adoptive parent-agency thing, then at some point adoption reform activists started nominating each other,just to annoy them, but the main thrust has remained "adoption is always wonderful".
If anyone wants one, all it takes is to be nominated by a friend who contacts your local congressperson and gets a bunch of your buddies to write letters about what a swell person you are, which no doubt the congressperson does not read:-) He or she then places your name on the list, and you get invited to DC (at your own expense) and get a free dinner with really bad entertainment, a cheesy little angel pin, and emails asking you to give them money forever after.
I am ashamed to say I got one a few years ago, and had done the work for a couple of other people to get one before that. I wanted to honor my friends in adoption reform, but in retrospect think there is probably a better way.
The only nice thing is the person who organizes it collects all the letters from friends and sends copies to the person being awarded, and that is the real award, kind words from friends.
But the Angel Award itself is worth as much as the "major award" in Christmas Story, the lamp that looked like a woman's leg! The banquet was bizarre and awful, including the bag of gifts we all got that included a "Born-Again-Bear, a cute little teddy bear from some religious adoption group with a not very cute "are you Saved by Jesus?" message attached. I kept the bear, threw out the message. I was there the year DNC got the award, and his video was the only good part.
I highly doubt that the people who organize this political publicity stunt care if Gladney or Jack the Ripper or Attila the Hun get the award, as long as procedure was followed and a congressman put their name in. It is a bad joke.
I have to comment on Gladney. Yes just like every other adoption agency has lied and distorted the truth on the adoption files of adoptees. I am one of those that has done several cases for Gladney Moms and Babes. I have found for them. There is a major difference between the adoptees and the mothers. The mothers are given better information. I usually find for them literally within in ten to fifteen minutes. The adoptees are given very bad information. From my understanding, there is two different counselors. One for the adoptee which happens to be very horrible. The other for the mothers which happens to very good and very kind.
As someone who does search angel work for both moms and adoptees, I know Texas pretty well. My average of finds is well over 90%. I personally believe that I think someone is not making full effort. That is just my opinion. If you need help searching in Texas, join Texans for Adult Adoptees OBC Access. We have an incredible crew of search angels. We don't ever give up and we don't charge except for gas expenses.
I hate to tell you this - but Gladney is not the only adoption agency in Texas guilty of doing this. I placed a child for adoption with Smithlawn- and both the adoptive family and I were lied to - and they've lied to others as well.
I was adopted through High Plains Children's HOme and I've run into several adoptees with the very same info on the summary sheet that I was given. I asked at 3 different times for info on my birth mother - about every 5 years or so in the last 15 years. Each time I've been given contradicting information. When I confronted them they refused to verify any of the information. They also refuse to give me the redacted info I requested.
My brother just found his birth family - adopted through the same agency as me= HPCH - and we were told his birth mother was form Louisiana. His birth mother was told that he was adopted by a family in Odessa. Truth is we've never lived more than one hour away from his birth family at any time.
So,I don't trust any of the non-identifying information at this point that I've been given about my birth mother.
It makes me wonder - because like Gladney, both agencies - especially Smithlawn - are tight allies of NFCA - if NFCA has actually instructed these agencies to falsify information.
If only the much hagiographized Edna Gladney was still around to know her saintly efforts to remove the taint of bastardy from the children of unmarried parents are finally being seen for what they really were, social engineering, I'm sure she'd be pissed as all get out.
Imagine! St Edna revealed to the world as not all sweetness and light!
It seems to me that the famous quote attributed to her in the movie "Blossoms in the dust", "There are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents" says it all.
It was that kind of mindset that enabled her and others to justify the secrecy and shenanigans that have caused so much injustice and unwarranted suffering over the years.
Little Snowdrop
You can add the now defunct "Blessed Trinity Adoptions" to the list in Texas, as well. I am sure their predecessor is no better... I would love to be a part of a watchdog group that monitors the activities of all of these "Baby Brokers".
My daughter was given up for adoption in 1995 by her biological mother without my consent to the Blessed Trinity Adoption agency in Houston, texas. I will like to know if it was legal to terminate my parental rights by the courts eventhough I did not give my daughter up for adoption. She is 18years old now and eventhough they claim it was an open adoption, I have tried to reach my daughter through the adopted parents and to no avail. I need help on what to do. I want my daughter to know that I her biological father did not give her up to nobody and it was an illegal adoption in my opinion.
I will try to get back to you tomorrow. I have an injured/recovering arm.. email:forumfirstmother@gmail.com
Alabi-Isami,
Check out the the Child Welfare Information Gateway "Searching for Birth Relatives." The link in on the FMF right side bar. Excellent information about how to search and preparing for a reunion.
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