Friday, July 18, 2008

Another One Bites The Dust



Ah, there has been another blow to the baby-trade, right here in my home state of Florida, one of the most adoption-friendly states in the union and its' neighbor, Georgia. We celebrate this action as being one step closer to a safer environment for mothers and their infants. Of course, the complaint was not based on the coercion of mothers, but on the bilking of potential adopters. Anyone who doubts that the adoption industry is all about the $$$$ is working blind. Here's the story. It comes from First Coast News.

Embattled Adoption Agency Gives Up Its License
Posted By:
Jackelyn Barnard 10 hrs ago
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The baby room is ready for the little boy and girl the Ernfridssons were hoping to adopt with the help of Adoption Blessings Worldwide. But $40,000 (So that's the going price for a pair of babies..rw) later, that room sits empty and their dreams are on hold. (I feel for them but I can't quite reach them. rw)
"We don't want anymore families to go through what we went through. We lost our entire life savings. We were promised children and that didn't happen," says Lori Ernfridsson. (Gee, maybe their mothers decided to keep them...what a concept! rw)


They are just one of the families who stepped forward to make complaints about the agency to state authorities. (Had those complaints been made by mothers or adopted people, no one would have listened. rw) The complaints were made weeks ago, but First Coast News learned that on Thursday, Georgia officials received notification that ABW was relinquishing its license.
The agency was once licensed in Florida and based on the First Coast under a different name, Tedi Bear Adoptions, years ago. After numerous problems and state investigations, the agency surrendered its license to Florida authorities in 2003.


The agency was already licensed in Georgia, and changed its name from Tedi Bear to Adoption Blessings Worldwide, but its executive director, Tedi Hedstrom, still had a home in Ponte Vedra.


Complaints against ABW started rolling in to Georgia and Florida authorities months ago.
"That's why they're shutting down. There's been too many problems to continue doing business for them," Andreas Ernfridsson told First Coast News. Hedstrom did not return phone calls to her home and cell phone.


In a statement released by her attorney, Rick Rumrell, Hedstrom says she's been "....praying that God give her direction in regards to the future...with Adoption Blessings Worldwide.... It is with great regret that Adoption Blessings Worldwide and Tedi Hedstrom will be formally closing its doors to adoption services."


"We were absolutely thrilled to hear that," says Lori Ernfridsson. The couple is taking legal action to get their money back. "They need to pay the money back to these couples that have been hurt and suffered, and they need to never practice again," says Andreas Ernfridsson.
First Coast News has learned that a number of former ABW clients will soon be filing a lawsuit against the agency. (what about a lawsuit for the mothers bilked out of their newborns?rw)


The agency told Georgia authorities it will relinquish its license by July 31, 2008.
Hedstrom's attorney says pending adoptions will go forward with another licensed agency. (Jeez, they're thicker that ticks on a coon hound.) Hedstrom does not want to reveal what agency that will be until all clients are notified.

How convenient for the unethical purveyors of the baby flesh trade to invoke the Almighty. Just as the potential adopters buy into the idea that God intends for them to "save" a baby by adopting, these agency mavens used references to "blessings" and "prayer" to get them business and now, they hope, out of a world of trouble. I doubt they will enjoy the fruits of their labors because the baby-buyers are not going to lie down and kiss their dollars for diaper wearers goodbye.

Hasta La Vista, Adoption Blessings Worldwide/Teddy Bear whatever. May you be followed by many more. Now, if we can just get rid of the industry lobby in Tallahassee and Washington.....



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

GOOD so glad..Look at their *client base*

http://adoptionblessingsworldwide.com/cominghome.htm

Guatemala !

No surprises here.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeumYE7BCIs

http://chew.typepad.com/jenute/2008/05/crash-and-burn-adoption-blessings-worldwide.html

Robin said...

Ah, Guatemala....it rears its head again. I wonder how the fight is going for the parents that had their babies taken? I hope this isn't going to be a matter of the US protecting adopters who have children that should have never been taken from their homeland.

Anonymous said...

The cases profiled in this report involved international, not domestic adoptions. Not that I am unsympathetic to domestic first mothers.

You might want to check stories aired by First Coast News in May to see why these adoptions failed. The children were misrepresented as healthy but instead were deathly ill. First family consent was not the issue at all.

There is more to the story and although the comments were on the text of this one particular report, reading the prior reports might result in seeing things a little differently.

All the past Tedi stories from May 2008 are available at www.cribsandcrimes.blogspot.com. The blog also uploaded the GA licensure violation reports so everyone knows why Tedi really decided to close the agency. It's public information available on the GA state licensure website.

I do agree with your comment that domestic first mothers in the US adoption industry are treated with less respect than the paying adoptive couples. I also agree that it isn't fair or right. Maternity clients are not treated with the compassion they deserve since to the agency, pregnant women equal revenue.

The same can be said of adoption agencies swooping into impoverished countries and marketing those children for adoption.

The facade of pious Christianity is infuriating, I also agree with that. Absolutely, positively agree.

Robin said...

One of the stories I read through another outlet stated that the families of these children were told that they would be taken to the US and given medical care and THEN RETURNED to them. Parental consent for some of these kids was obtained by lies.

To me, it matters not whether an agency deals with domestic or international adoptions. One less agency is one less cause of misery for someone.

That "blessings" facade irked me as well.

Anonymous said...

http://www.portfolio.com/resources/company-profiles/Adoption-Blessings-Worldwide-Inc-70044

I always think it is very telling when names are duplicated... ie, in this case executives are the same as board members. No conflict of interest there.

Anonymous said...

""(Had those complaints been made by mothers or adopted people, no one would have listened. rw)""

And that Dear Robin...is the biggest piss-off of all! When adoptors (the paying customers) go crying and whining about there 'bad adoption deal', O! MY! such a tragedy (rip-off) and they can find any number of lawyers that will take on their cases. Not so for the natural mothers/fathers or the adoptee him or herself. Rather we are just told (or is heavily implied) to just Bugger Off!! I guess the 'adoption customer' who is buying, has the advantage of the ole retail rule (Agency acts as dept. store)... "The Customer is Always Right". The 'manufacturer' and the 'commodity' will always be at fault!

Anybody ever heard of the 'manufacturer' or the 'product' suing the 'paying customer' or the 'department store' for 'shoddy retailing'?? NOPE! I sure haven't. Now tell me that the Adoption Business is not a Retail Business!!

You have a 'manufacturer' who produces the 'product' that the 'retail business' finds a way to procure the 'product' from the 'manufacturer' for free! and then sells at current market $$$$$$ value to it's 'paying customers'. I bet J.C.Penney, Sears, Dillards, Macy's, etc..wish they could get deals like the 'adoption business'free deals!! And tragically these 'free business' deals are 'selling' human flesh and blood', that came from human flesh and blood!
Any adoptor that decries that adoption is not a real business, is only justifying there are own selfish and greedy needs. Most don't care how the 'product' came to be or from whom.. they only know they have to have that 'product'. Shameful, utterly shameful!