I have permission from Amy to post this blog from her website. It is an excellent account of deceit and corruption in an adoption that happened not in a third world country where people are scratching out a living to feed themselves, but here in the U.S. Read it and weep.

Before I go into details on this RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit, I also want to go into the funds, people and organizations behind what has happened to these individuals in this lawsuit. There were several parties involved in working out this situation. This lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Maryland on September 9, 2008.

Project OZ which is no longer in business. Here are the statistics from their last IRS Form 990 from Guidestar. Their tax forms were done in North Carolina but with a Maryland CPA firm.

Gross Receipts -$1,798,106. Public support $ 13,337 Program revenue $1,784,769 Kerry Palakanis, CEO, earned $71,984 Their board of directors include: Dina Mouriski was a director. Annette Brady was a director. Kimberly Wood was a director. Kerry Palakanis was the CEO. Erica Ploski was an executive director Jane Katherine Conway was an executive director.

Main contractors were Consultants International which earned $158,500. This Gloria Campaneros earned $210,790. Even though I know Gloria's name from other agencies, I can't find anything on either organization.

I read this article yesterday.  I was so furious.  I am even amazed that I kept a cool tongue.  I managed to say my piece without using foul language.  I was thinking those words but I somehow managed not to use them.   I was like a bull seeing red.  The commentary in the article boggled my mind. 

First things first.  Bastard Nation and Unsealed Initiative are not anti-adoption.  They claim no opinion on the subject of adoption.  These organizations are about adoptees.  Adoption is supposed to be about the adoptee.  If you use this logic, then Bastard Nation and Unsealed Initiative is all about adoption. 

With that argument aside, this author also claims that single women cannot be mothers without a man.  I even threw in there this question.  What about the single mothers who adopt?  What about the first mothers who want contact? 

I read this blog today.This is the second one in as many days.  I do realize that this is a foster care adoption situation.  I know that in itself qualifies differently than my own experience as an infant adoption adoptee.  My own adoptive mother would not allow me to be disrespectful of my first mother.  We still do not know what the full circumstances of what happened in my story.  She hates it that I hurt but she is okay with my turning on the adoption industry as a whole. She does not want my first mother dissed in any shape or form.  She made that very clear from the get go. It helped that I had a couple of first mothers come into my life when I was forming my opinion on my adoption.  This was years prior to my search.

I wrote about this on my personal blog somewhat. You can find it here. I would appreciate the adoptive parent perspective though.  I also realize that I will get opinions that are similar to my own. 

To give background, my adoptive mother requested that I search after my adoptive father died.  She wanted both of us to be young enough to appreciate each other.  My adoptive mother was not one to let me hide from my truth.  I suspect a family member outside of our normal circle gave her a lecture.

I was not going to begin writing a blog yet.  I wanted to do something a little more geared towards warnings for adoptive parents.  However this story will not allow me to remain calm. Adoptees already have some kind of fear of abandonment. We as a society do not need to be teaching lessons of this kind to an adoptee.

This young Iowa girl was safe havened in Nebraska. The grandparents, also her adoptive parents, did it to "teach her a lesson."  I know that children can be trying.  I have two daughters.