IBBAANIKA BOND ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IBBY YOU GO GIRL YOU DID AWESOME!!!!! I AM SO SO PROUD OF YOU GIRL. YOU ROCK!!!!

Here is the link. Here is the story.

From NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A day after the revelation of Jesse Jackson’s crude criticism of Barack Obama’s speeches on fatherhood and faith-based initiatives, this morning Michelle Obama was talking about fatherhood, responsibility and accountability.

"There's government responsibility and accountability, and then there's individual responsibility and accountability," she said in response to a young woman's reference to the Democratic nominee's emphasis on fatherhood. "One never cancels out the other."

Her remarks came in response to a question from 25-year-old audience member Ibbaanika Bond, whose boyfriend has been trying to regain custody of their child after she, an unwed mother, gave up her son Noah for adoption, an action she now says she regrets.

Craig Lentz, the son's biological father, took the case against Noah's adoptive parents to the Missouri Supreme Court on the grounds that he never agreed to the adoption. (NBC's Kansas City affiliate did a story on the case.)

Referencing Obama's efforts to put fathers' responsibility into the spotlight, Bond insisted, "There is a system in this country that, even in court, they're keeping people from doing that. People want to take care of their children."

After listening to the young mother's passionate appeal for legal justice, Obama agreed that the family court system is flawed, but added that her husband's directive to parents is aimed at those who fail to take an active role in children's lives despite available resources.

"I want to make sure that people, that people understand that as Barack talks about his personal experiences growing up without a father, that in no way doesn't recognize that there are serious problems in the system," she said. "As we are talking about that fight, we also have to recognize that there are some people who do have complete ability and access to do what they need to do."

The Kansas City roundtable, held at the city's University of Missouri campus, was the aspiring First Lady's second in as many days. Yesterday, she held a similar event in Pontiac, Michigan, before a crowded auditorium of mostly black women where they discussed soaring health care costs and unemployment.

Today's audience was also made up of almost all women, but the crowd in the more affluent university area was more mixed. Participants mentioned college-loan payments and day-care fees as monthly costs that drive them to scrimp and cut corners.

Obama used the roundtable audience, as she did yesterday, to describe her husband's understanding of women's issues through the prism of the strong -- but sometimes struggling -- women in his life.

His own mother, she said at the beginning of her remarks, was "very young and very single when she had him." And, Obama added, he has observed his wife's attempts to reconcile motherhood with her career aspirations.

"He sees me, his wife, who struggles every day with that guilt that we all hold deep in our hearts as women," she said. "That guilt that you don't have the choice to stay home, and even if you do, you feel guilty."

"He has seen me struggle with this my entire life," she added. "Trust me, Barack understands the struggles of women."

WHAT THE HELL, REALLY!!!

I guess insurance companies are offering insurance to adoption agencies. Hmmm does the adoption industry need insurance?

Here is the story and the link.

BALA CYNWYD, Pa., July 10, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY:

PHLY 33.70, +0.68, +2.1%) is proud to introduce its new Adoption Agencies product. Providing one of the broadest coverage forms in the market, PHLY's new Adoption Agencies product offers comprehensive coverage for General Liability, Professional Liability, Property, Inland Marine, Crime, Abuse and Automobile.

Acceptable classes include Hague accredited agencies handling both domestic and international adoptions. Adoption exposures written in conjunction with otherwise acceptable social service operations are also eligible.

In operation since 1962, PHLY designs, markets, and underwrites commercial property/casualty and professional liability insurance products incorporating value added coverages and services for select industries. The Company, whose commercial lines insurance subsidiaries are rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company and A1 for insurance financial strength by Moody's Investors Services, is nationally recognized as a member of Ward's Top 50, Forbes' Platinum 400 list of America's Best Big Companies and Forbes' 100 Best Mid-Cap Stocks in America. The organization has 47 offices strategically located across the United States to provide superior service.

To locate your nearest office or for more information, visit us on the web at www.phly.com or contact Paula Negro at 800-873-4552 ext. 3227.

AN INTERESTING NEWS RELEASE

This is an interesting story. It also looks like a press release. I think it could be used in contested adoptions.

So I am putting it out there for all parents to consider:

Here is the link. Here is the story.

WASHINGTON, July 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mikayla Bailey Null ran up against her states discriminatory child custody law when her daughter was wrested from her custody and she had to battle to get her back. To help parents who, like Null, have mental illnesses and who desperately hope, and deserve, to keep or regain custody of their children, the national UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration has launched an initiative to educate legislators around the country in order to challenge state laws and policies that discriminate against such parents. The Collaborative, a national rehabilitation research and training center devoted to promoting community integration for individuals with psychiatric disabilities, is especially targeting state laws that list a mental illness as one of the grounds for not providing reasonable efforts to reunify a family: in Alaska, Arizona, California, and Kentucky, as well as in Puerto Rico.

Mikayla Bailey Nulls story is a case in point. While on vacation, Null, an Arizonan, had a bad reaction to a medication she had taken. In an ensuing argument with her then-14-year-old daughter, she slapped the girl, who ran out of the cabin. Police arrived, put Nulls daughter in foster care and arrested Null. I was charged with felony child abuse and felony assault because of a slap on the face, she said. Im sorry I slapped my daughter but Im certain that, if I had not had a diagnosis of mental illness, I would not have been charged so severely.

After the girl was released to the custody of Null and her husband, Arizona Child Protective Services made the unfounded assumption that Null posed a chronic threat to her daughter and initiated home visits, despite no evidence of past abuse. After Null asked to discontinue the visits because they so distressed her daughter, child welfare authorities showed up at the girls school and took her back into foster care. They put a note on my door, Null recalled. I cant even describe the trauma of having to have supervised visitation with my daughter, whom I had adopted from another country because I wanted this child so badly. The girl, taken from a loving family and thrust into a group home, was also traumatized. She didnt smile for over a year, Null recalled.

Null discovered that Arizona is among the states that list a parents mental illness as grounds for not providing reasonable efforts to reunify a family. The relevant portion of Arizona state law (8-846) notes that reunification services are not required if the parent or guardian has a mental illness or mental deficiency of such magnitude that . . . . the parent or guardian is unlikely to be capable of adequately caring for the child within twelve months after the date of the childs removal from the home.

The UPenn Collaborative is publicizing Nulls story to educate legislators and the public about the impact of the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illnesses. The Collaboratives goals include changing or deleting language that discriminates against parents with mental illnesses in legislation and policies that determine when reasonable efforts to preserve or reunify the family are not required. Such policies and legislation should use language that does not single out parents with mental illnesses, said UPenn Collaborative director Dr. Mark Salzer. We also seek relief for these parents under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Dr. Salzer made it clear that under no circumstances is the Collaborative advocating that children be reunified with parents, with or without mental illnesses, who may pose a danger to them.

The Collaborative notes that there has been progress. For example, the Kansas statute, which previously included discriminatory language, was recently rewritten to include language stating that [n]othing in this code shall be construed to permit discrimination on the basis of disability. . . .

The Collaborative is seeking stories from parents besides Null who have faced similar discrimination. Parents are encouraged to share their stories with the Collaboratives Pam Cousounis(pamelac2@mail.med.upenn.edu, 215-746-1950). This information will be useful in developing training, policy and research initiatives to increase opportunities for parents with mental illnesses to have strong, loving relationships with their children, said Dr. Salzer.

The UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. For more information, please contact the UPenn Collaborative (http:// www.upennrrtc.org).

Contact:Katy Kaplan, M.S. Ed., Coordinator, UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration, 888-320-4580, katykap@mail.med.upenn.edu

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER AND HOLLY

Happy birthday my young friends. I spoke with your mother this morning. I can tell you that she loves and misses you passionately. I can tell you that she worries about you often. I don't think a day goes by when she doesn't think about you or miss you so much.

I want you to know that she fought hard for you. I know that we all have in the blogosphere. I have reported the stories. I have taken on some mean people in your defense. I really don't mind. I am sure growing up in the Needham family that you will hear many lies. Yes they are lies.

I don't know how you will resolve the issues that you will face. Please know that your mother, Allison, never stopped fighting. We all have done our best to keep this story alive. Your mother is an incredible woman, full of love, fight and strength. Even now, strong woman can and will continue to be taken advantage of.

The Needhams denied your mother of her right to parent you. They took advantage of her when she was ill, deathly ill. They had their cousin push her hard to relinquish. The attorneys, judges and even the cousin knew that she was coerced every step of the way.

Once you grow up and learn what happened, your mother and the many friends that she does have will help you and support you when you discover the truth.

Happy Birthday my dear young friends. You are loved and cherished all across the United States and the world.

KNOW THY ENEMY

For those that are just now joining the battle for adoptee rights and adoption reform, you must know your enemy. You need to know who you are up against in the battle of adoptee rights in Indiana. You must also look at the money behind these organizations. The money is big.

In a recent editorial in the News Observer out of North Carolina about the Sean Paddock case:

"A bitterly ironic twist to the story is that relatives had cared for Sean and his siblings for a while, taking over for biological parents, and would liked to have continued doing that. But they couldn't support the three along with their own children, burning through their savings. The money to which they were entitled as caregivers was a fraction of what the adoptive parents wound up getting. That is wrong, and it is the first glitch in the system that should be corrected.

It goes without saying, almost, that the state's contracts with the Children's Home Society need to be reviewed. Offering the thousands of dollars agencies can receive under contracts for placing children might be simply be the wrong approach. That kind of incentive, as critics already have noted, could lead to agencies wanting to place kids and keep them in adoptive homes without paying enough attention to warning signs."
I am currently reading a fabulous book that has made me think beyond adoptee rights and adoption reform. It is called Ethics in American Adoption by L. Anne Babb. If you have the chance to read something that literally grabs your attention and keeps it, its this book. I know that many of my fellow reformist have indeed read this book. It got me thinking about the money aspect of this. I had estimated that the infant adoption industry is at 3 billion dollars. I have heard that it is 7.3 billion dollars for international adoption. I went through the Texas foster care system and its agencies. I guessed right on that one. The foster care system is a 5 billion dollar business. This is all per year. It totals to quite a lot of money and motivation to keep everything secret. It puts these adoption agencies and attorneys in very powerful positions over us.

One of the things that I have noticed about Indiana is that there is no accountability to anyone living adoption. A while back, I called and emailed to the Department of Family Services/Child Protective Services. I asked how an adoptive parent is to check out an adoption agency any agency. There was no way to find any complaints on any adoption agency or attorney. I can no longer blame adoptive parents. They have no resources to find out. So I did my best to follow the money.

The adoption industry is unregulated by an federal or state entity. They regulate themselves.

A majority of the adoption records are now owned by Catholic Charities. I bet you didn't know that Catholic Charities doesn't have to report its earnings because it is considered a church. This is the charity that is operated by the church. It is not however a church. It is a charity. I feel that they should report their earnings to the public. I would like to know how they use their funds. They also get tax dollars from the federal government for their services in helping place foster children, family services, and abstinence education. This is tax dollars that can and have been used against adoptees and their families. Tax dollars paid by you and me, the lowly tax payers.

Kirsch and Kirsch are another set of powerful attorneys in Indiana. Because these fellows are attorneys, they have the ear of the legislators. Since they practice adoption, the legislators feel that they are most educated on adoption. We are the ones living adoption. They should not be allowed to help create laws that hurt all of us. They have been caught in two lawsuits against fathers contesting the adoption of their children. In one case, the adopters even backed out. Kirsch and Kirsch rushed to bring in another set of adoptive parents instead of doing the right thing and giving custody of this child to his father.

The NCFA agencies in Indiana are against us. However they really don't have that much power in Indiana. Its Catholic Charities that does. Their member agencies are LDS Family Services, Sunny Ridge Family Center, and Bethany Christian services. Bethany currently is rumored to be shutting down. They were the agency involved in placing a child with an adoptive parent who killed her.

The Indiana Right to Life Movement is afraid that adoptee access to their own OBC will cause more abortions. It has been statistically proven otherwise in the state of Oregon and in six other states.

ACLU is a bunch of attorneys. Many of these attorneys themselves have gone into adoption.

Planned Parenthood is against us because they believe it is violating a woman's right to procreation decisions.

Lets look at the financial incentives provided to the states by the federal government for 2008.

Foster care payments to all the states: $5,211,000,000.
Adoption assistance payment: $2,044,000,000.
Adoption Awareness program: $12,674,000.
Adoption incentives paid to states: $17,820,000
Adoption opportunities program: $26,848,000.

Abstinence program also gets money: $113,400,000.

I have not even included what the state pays from its pockets for adoption/foster care services. It adds up real quick. As shown above, the tax payer is questioning the intentions of adoption agencies entrusted in caring for foster care children and adoptees. I know that Texas has privatized its foster care system. How many other states have followed suit? Keep in mind this does not include the $10,000 tax deduction that adoptive parents receive. This doesn't include the monies that adoptive parents of special needs children receive.

I have also been investigating my own adoption agency, St. Elizabeth Coleman. It is now considered one of the many Catholic Charities in Indianapolis, Indiana. So it no longer has to file a IRS Form 990. This is now considered a church organization. Their confidential intermediary has won the contract for the Child Welfare department for their searches. She charges $1,000 a pop. That is a lot of money. I know with my adoption my adoptive parents and my natural mother paid a fortune to the agency back in 1965. They also got $325.00 dollars from me. Most if not all of my information is false. I have spoken with countless other adoptees from the same home who also have found out that their information was false. We pay to get led around by our noses because this agency considers us incompetent to handle our own affairs. Their CI has told many adoptee that they are incapable of making contact on their own. Many adoptees have found their information has been altered. I wonder by who. Is it the agency itself or is it this CI? I want to know as well as thousands of other adoptees and their families.

I was looking at their fees for adoption, homestudies, and China Updates. Their fees are for the most part reasonable for domestic adoption. They have recently been doing international adoption homestudies. They are also doing foster care placements. They are another charity/church receiving government funds.

Again they are using my tax dollars against me and thousands of other adoptees who are tax paying citizens. It should be considered a conflict of interest with a government entity in denying me my rights to my original birth certificate.

It makes you wonder who we are really protecting the money/adoption industry or families.

I am the moderator/owner of two email lists. Recently at the request of a friend, I have added registries to both of them. One of them is agency specific. Another is for all Indiana adoptees and their families.

Coleman Moms and Babes blog.
Email list and registry.

To join: Click the buttons on the links or click below




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For all Indiana adoptees:

Indiana Open blog
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Just click on the data base to add your name to database/registry. If you find a match, you can contact the person yourself.

NEW IDEA BREWING

I don't talk about presidential politics on any of my blogs. I have not decided who I am voting for. So I am not going to preach or discuss the good and bad points of either Obama or McCain. Right now they are both equal. Right now its a clean fight. I respect both for keeping it clean.

Its being discussed in certain areas of the country about a new idea. Its called Abortion reduction. What these folks are discussing are ways to reduce abortion. So many times abortion is associated with adoption. I agree we need sex education. Women and men need more access to resources for their own reproductive health. I agree with them whole heartedly.

However, the adoption side of this needs to change first. The one and only comment on this article is this:

"It seems to me it's a matter of funding. Would the efforts for adoption make less funds available for abortions? If so, Perhaps that funding loss could be conpensated via harvesting of the aborted fetus cells/organs. The revenue generated from the harvests could go to fund more Planned Parenthood Centers / Advertising. I'd like to see solutions and new ideas."

Okay I think we need to discuss this issue first with the adoptees, the natural parents, and the adoptive parents on the issue of adoption. We desperately need to reform adoption first. We adoptees are not the discarded fetus cells/organs. I am hoping that one of our secret operatives from the adoption underground can advise these individuals wisely. BB Church I am praying and pulling for you on this issue. I can see your expression now. Are you choking on the coffee?

Before we promote adoption to the hilt, can we please reform it first? I am tired of living in secrets and lies.