Ex Post Facto Laws

I have this History professor that I have taken twice.  I passed the class the first time around but I made a C because of my absences.  I took him again because I wanted an A.  An A is what I got the second time around.  I always learn stuff from him.  This second time around is where ex post facto laws came into my thinking.  States are prohibited by the Constitution from making these laws.

What are Ex Post Facto Laws?  It is defined as follows:

An Ex Post Facto law is a retroactive law that ultimately changes the legal status or consequences of actions committed or relationships that may have existed prior to the formal enactment of the law.

Prior to the 1930s, birth certificates were public records.  Everyone had access to them.  These records were sealed to protect the adoptive family, not the biological family.  According to Elizabeth Samuels, many of the original members did not want this privacy.  It was forced upon them by the adoption industry and societal mores.  It often came with the threat of arrest and incarceration. 

Many of the sealed adoption record laws are Ex Post Facto laws which are prohibited by Congress and the states.  Neither are allowed to create them.  It is now a violation of our constitutional rights.  We can talk about privacy rights all we want but we are reacting to what they, being the axis of evil, throw at us.  No one has the right to total anonymity.  Absolutely NO ONE.  The right to privacy extends only to prevent governmental interference into the family.  Since sexuality isn't an issue with original birth certificates, the state governments have no right to interfere with the lives of ADULT adoptees and access to their personal papers. 

Still Here

Sorry Folks.  I have been busy with school and kiddos.  I just graduated from Houston Community College with an Associates in Liberal Arts.  I have intentions of attending Prairie View A & M in the pursuit of my Bachelors and further on.

I have led an active life since I divorced my ex-husband.  I moved to Houston, Texas.  I also went back to school because I would never be taken seriously by any state legislature without initials after my last name.  My oldest daughter just graduated from high school in the Katy ISD.  My youngest will be in high school next year.  I met my husband Mark while I was working for Time Warner in Wichita Falls.  We married two years ago and bought our home.  It has been wonderful having a brand new home.

The hardship is of course the Veterans Affairs bull crap.  I have had seven surgeries.  Two were repeats or do overs.  My skin disorder is not going to back down.  I am now worried that other areas of my skin are changing.  Now I have full blown Fibromyalgia.   I am dealing.  Life is good.

A couple of years ago I finally did the DNA testing thing. During the last few years, I stepped away from the adoptee rights movement.  I have been on the sidelines watching.  Two of my heros, Pam Kroskie and Connie Gray, have been stepping up in both Indiana and Texas.  I am proud of their efforts.  Both of these states have a ridiculously high amount of right to lifers.  There is still a mythical belief that adoptee access to their own original birth certificates means higher abortions as well as adoption being the cure for abortion.  In states that have opened access, abortion has declined and adoptions have increased.

Still Here and Kicking A$$

I did not realize that it had been two years since I had last written anything on my Coleman Moms and Babes blog.  Life is so different now.  I would never imagine three years later that I would be getting married, buying a new home, or even going back to college.  Yet here I am. 

I did the DNA testing with Family Tree DNA and now with 23 and Me.  Even though I am very interested in genetics, I can not understand for the life me what the information means.  So as time moves forward and when time allows me, I will get down to the business of searching once again.  I am of the Eve line of V.  I found a few new friends to help me understand much of information concerning that.  At times, it feels like I am spying on my first mother. 

I got another call from a fellow Coleman adoptee.  Sadly she had the same experience as I did with the agency search individual.  I now give sympathy compassion and support for all of us who have been screwed over by this individual.  Its been seven years since I started this journey.  So much of my life has changed.  I am grateful for those changes.  The list of complaints against this woman are growing.  My blog posts reach those new adoptees almost daily.

Well off to take my 23 and Me test kit and mail it.  Stay tune to the new changes that are life.

Blogger Has Gotten Funky

Its been a while since I have written on this blog.  Now that Blogger has obviously made some changes, I am learning to adjust to this new platform.  I liked being able to look at an enclosed board and typing in a blog post.  Now it is completely different. 

Much has changed for me.  I am in college studying to be a nurse eventually.  I am doing good so far.  I just have to give my health issues just as much energy as my schooling.  It requires that I do surgery.  That isn't fun dealing with skin grafts and wound vacs.  The Veteran Affairs Hospitals just do not like to give any kind of pain medication even if a person is in dire need. 

I am working part time as an invoicer for a couple of subcontractors.  That allows me to work from home.  I hope to get a position with the college as clerk for their bookstore.  That will supplement my income a bit to help with other financial situations.  I have come to realize too that I need to concentrate on my two active blogs, Coleman Moms and Babes and Amy's A Day in the Life.  I need to bring up active readership on both of them so maybe I can earn more money via blog ads.   It is not much money but it is enough to help me buy school supplies and textbooks.  

I have been told by my darling boyfriend that it is time for me to get back into the politics of adoptee rights and adoption reform.  I will also be posting my recent mitochondrial DNA testing results. 

We are Here

Well I did something new and different. Maybe it is a pathway for me to discover myself slowly without interfering into someone else's life. I sent off for a Family Tree DNA kit and submitted last Friday. I got an email saying that they had received it. At least I can find out what my country of origin might have been, instead of my ex calling me a wetback. When we were married, he called me his little wetback. Yes it bugged me.

This time I have promised myself that I would take it slower and not let anyone push me into a direction where I am not comfortable. I will take this all in my time. Since Family Tree DNA is in Houston, I will probably get the results sooner. I will savor the moment that I receive the information. I will go from there at that point.

9/11 Reflections

Where were you on that fateful day when the American life changed? I was on my way to the grocery store after dropping my daughters off at daycare. I initially thought it was just a small airplane. After I got home and unloaded the groceries, I turned on the news. It was around that time that the second plane hit the World Trade towers. I picked up my cell phone and was calling my mother to make sure that she stayed home. My mom then worked for the Austin Airport as security. Then the Pentagon was struck. Then Flight 93 with Tom Burnett went down. Many Americans were heros that day. Just ordinary heros. I found this article particularly heartwrenching. So many people think about birth parents as people not caring about their children. So many people think that they are drug addicts and so forth. They are not. They are special just like the rest of us are. In fact, one in particular helped down an airplane so that it would not hurt more Americans. He lost his life in the process. I know that I am proud of him and hope that others are as well. He is not a selfless hero because he relinquished. He is a selfless hero because he gave his life for his country. He would have been a great father if given the opportunity. I am grateful that his daughter got to know his family. I just wish that they had known each other when he was alive.

Daughter, in search for birth parents, finds 9-11 hero Associated Press ST. PAUL - Mariah Mills thought she knew who her birth father might be after finding out he had probably died, even without immediately learning his name.Years earlier, after hearing that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center while she was a high school student here, she felt she had lost someone. Now, Mills was even more sure after talking briefly on the phone with her mother, who had seen Mills' parents' names on her daughter's birth certificate, only saying they would talk about it later."I remember her saying, 'I think my birth dad is dead," her friend Margaret Nevins recalled in an article published in the Sunday's edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "She said, `I think it's that guy who died in 9/11.' I thought she was jumping to conclusions. She was pretty sure about it, though."And she was right.Mills' father, who had given Mills up for adoption when he and his girlfriend were in college, was Tom Burnett, a leader of a group that fought back on Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.Her father, Walter Mills, shakes his head in disbelief as he recollects her words back on 9/11. "That - what's the word? Premonition? Yes, premonition. That's nothing science could ever explain."Mills learned about her birth father in 2004 - after she turned 19, the legal age in Minnesota for requesting a birth certificate with names of birth parents - and subsequent DNA tests confirmed that Burnett was her father.Today, Mills has developed a relationship with Burnett's widow, Deena, her three daughters, husband and stepson, and other members of Burnett's family. She celebrated her birthday with her birth mother, who lives in St. Paul with her husband and two children and asked not to be named for this story.But learning about her father's death on that infamous day without never having had the chance to meet him was difficult, Mills and her family recalled in the Pioneer Press story."The information just hit us like an explosion," said Mills' mother, Cathy. "It was like that plane crashed into our house. The trauma, the shock, the sadness. Everything changed."Mills and her parents visited Jefferson High School in Bloomington during the spring of 2004 after Mariah found out about her birth parents. Mariah wanted to look up Tom Burnett in his senior yearbook. She found his photo and one of her birth mother, too."It was weird to finally look like somebody," Mills said. "I have her eyes, but mostly I look like a Burnett."She also visited Tom Burnett's grave at Fort Snelling National Cemetery and left flowers there. She spent most of the rest of spring break crying. She locked herself in her bedroom and scarcely ate or slept. Her parents encouraged her to take a leave from DePaul University in Chicago, but she refused."It was painful to watch," Cathy Mills said. "She was just traumatized. She would never meet him. And the way he died - such a public death - yet she had no way of knowing about it at the time. A girl she knew at DePaul told her she went to his funeral. Of course, Mariah wasn't there."Mills didn't go out much after she returned to DePaul to finish her freshman year."I felt just numb," she said. "I slept a lot, stared at the wall. I would wake up in the morning and look at myself and see him. His face, his nose and my eyes set like his. I'd waited so long to meet him, and I was two and half years too late. College is about figuring out what you want to do and who you are and, for me, finding out who my parents were was a last missing part of the puzzle."Deena Burnett was one of the few people who knew Tom had fathered a child given up for adoption. She and Tom met in Atlanta in July 1989 during an afternoon happy hour when she was a Delta Air Lines flight attendant and he was a regional sales manager.About six weeks into their relationship, Tom told her his girlfriend in college had gotten pregnant, that the two had talked about getting married and had finally decided to give the baby up for adoption.Deena Burnett was shocked and angry. "Here was my new boyfriend, the one I had been sure I would marry, and I just didn't understand," she said. "I came from southeast Arkansas, where if you had a child out of wedlock, you kept that child."But she could see that he felt regret and "was still struggling with the fact he had given this child up," she said. Tom made it clear "he hoped to have a relationship with that child at some point, and I would need to be willing to accept that child into our family."After Mills was given up for adoption, Burnett's family didn't talk about the baby.But during the last several years of his life, Burnett talked about the baby with his younger sister Mary Jurgens, telling her more than once, "My children and I will meet that child when the time is right."When it came time for Mariah to meet Burnett's family, she barely slept the night before."I've never been so scared," she said. "I wanted to look conservative but nice for my grandparents. Nothing tight or low-cut. I wanted them to be proud I was their relative."She brought along photographs of herself, family and friends and a bouquet to give them. "I wanted to be Miss Personality - funny, articulate and charismatic," she said. "I wanted to be perfect for them."The Burnetts invited Mariah to the house of Martha Burnett - Tom Burnett's older sister - for brunch on a spring day in 2004. Jurgens met her at the door, instantly feeling a deep connection to the tall, blond teen with a lovely smile, neatly attired in light blue capris, a black tank top and cardigan, and black flip-flops."When I opened the door, it was like looking at my little nieces - but grown up. I was so excited to meet her and yet there was this deep sorrow my brother couldn't be there," Jurgens said. "When I opened the door it was like, 'I know you. You are part of us.'"The family looked at Mariah's photos and showed her their family pictures and mementos, contained in a big box. The brunch stretched to three hours."If only Tommy were still alive," Jurgens said. "I have this vision of what it would have been like for her to meet him, and it just breaks my heart. He was so calm and collected, and it would have been so comfortable to him, meeting her. I pictured my brother flying to Chicago and picking her up for dinner, making it really special. They would have had this fabulous time."Mills transferred to the University of Minnesota and is entering her senior year. She will spend her first semester studying abroad. Her dream job, she said, would be writing about baseball and covering the Minnesota Twins."Before I was even born, my birth dad made a brave decision - to give me a life," Mills said. "It was a selfless act, just like his actions on Flight 93. And, as awful as it was that he died, and I never got to know him, there is good that came out of this. We each sort of get part of Tom back. I get all of them and they get me, his daughter

Back from the Unknown

I didn't realize that I still had commenters writing about the agency. I have to gag on the way both some adoptive parents and birth parents call their adopted/relinquished child "this child." Neither acknowledge that loving bond between parent and child. This is where many adoptees get mad at both groups. We are not "its", "this or thats", or any other term that deems us as objects to be cast aside.

It is absolutely horrifying that people actually view children in these terms. I may not have custody of my girls but they are still MY girls just as much as they are their father's girls. It is not one or the other. We love our daughters. We fight each other viciously at times over issues concerning our girls. We also support each other when it comes to our girls. Our girls would never be any of these terms. How others can do this just blows my mind. We are all responsible for our children all adopted, relinquished, and kept. As such, we owe our children truth, kindness, compassion and love. If you can't give that to a child, you have no business raising any child. You have to respect both sides of the parental abyss. Neither would have a child without the other one. If you can't put a child's needs above your own, you should not even try to parent your child or anyone else's for that matter.

Just thoughts on commentary by both adoptive parents and birth parents.

New Plans

So many things have changed for me. It seems like that things change on a dime. I have now moved to Houston where things are much different for me. It was two months ago that I was forced back home to my sister's home in Austin. I had to take time to recover from surgery.

I had tried it my way for over a year. It did not work. I had to follow God's plan. So here I am. I have a job working for a cable contracting company as an administrative assistant. I have been admitted into Houston Community College as a nursing student. Yep this kid is heading back to college. I see an opportunity and I am going to run with it. I am going to take it as far as I can. I am getting a full ride with school, much in part to my military background. Texas is kind enough to offer the Hazelwood Act to its veterans. I also qualify for the Pell Grant along with other potential programs as well. I might actually make it. I might finally be getting my feet planted solidly on the ground.

Things are most definitely looking up.

Never Ending

I am always amazed at how adoption consistently stays the same. Nothing ever seems to change or grow when it comes to anything adoption. We get the enlightened ones but they, just like me, have become really disenchanted with adoption in this sense. Adoption is always about the industry itself. It is never about those living adoption. In doing so, it creates a codependent environment. If you don't know what kind of environment that is, just Google alcoholics and their familial relationships. You will see what exactly that I am talking about.

When those who speak about adoption have it in their lives, we should pay attention to it. We should not dismiss their feelings in regard to it. Some have good experiences with it while others do not. It is not our moral responsibility to judge anyone in regards to adoption.

When you see stories of those being called to adopt, it is not God's doing. It is the adoption industry itself. They want to make more money. If they were about the children and his/her parents, then they would not be opposed to adoptee access, natural parent access, or adoptive parent access. They want you to feel happy about adoption so that they can come in and take your child if you are an adoptee or a mother. They want you to feel happy about adoption if you are an adoptive parent so that they can sell you another child. Adoption is about money. How you feel about it is how you are controlled. That is why you are part of the vicious cycle of codependency in adoption.

Sometimes

Sometimes you just have to stop and regroup. That is what has been going on. I have had to relocate with family. I needed a break from the insanity that was in Wichita Falls and surrounding areas. There wasn't much of a choice in the matter.

I had to take a break for my own health. I recently had pronater syndrome, cubital tunnel, and carpal tunnel in my non dominant arm. It meant my left arm had to be butchered with three different surgeries on one arm. What is sad is that arm was my favorite arm. Now it has three major scars on it.

So while I am healing, I am chilling out and reading. I have been catching up on stuff concerning adoption, adoptee rights, and other adoption reform issues. I have also been doing research on other topics concerning parental rights and parental alienation. Since my ex husband and his darling wife have been hitting both of my blogs, I figured that I would include lots of good information concerning that too.

Of course the most interesting part of the last year is that Katrina Carlisle is no longer with St. Elizabeth Coleman. Maybe now, adoptees and their families can finally get a break.

China In Adoption News Again

I have known for years that the adoption industry is a huge market. Each and every country has had its issues with corruption. China has popped up again. As I read all three of the articles in the news, none of the articles mention an adoption agency who was involved in these cases. The investigation isn't complete until they have checked out who they are. These agencies need to be held accountable because they created a marketable situation where natural families could be destroyed and corrupted. I realize those are harsh words for adoptive parents. Every child deserves to raised and loved in their natural families first. If they don't have any family to raise or support them, then and only then should they be placed for adoption. There are just too many cases of corruption, baby selling, and baby trafficking. If it is just one case, that is one case too many.

Indiana Adoptee Rights News

Adoptee rights in Indiana has hit an impasse again this year. Although I am not actively involved in the movement right now due to my own personal life, I still pay attention to adoptee rights in any shape or form. Will I see adoptee rights change in Indiana soon or in my lifetime? I don't think so because the state is so religiously based. They freak out over any potential increase in abortions.

Adult adoptees point blank deserve equal access to their original birth certificates. I have noticed in the news that adoptees in several states are facing many new bills being presented.

New York has been pushing a bill called the Adoptee Bill of Rights. Along with the Adoptee Rights Demonstration and Bastard Nation, I believe that adoptees deserve equal access to their original birth certificates. I understand the thinking behind this bill. We are still effectively giving birth parents a right that they do not have. Privacy does not exist any longer due to technological advances such as the internet. Everything is public knowledge. If a child is not adopted, then the birth parent does not have any privacy. The original birth certificate is still intact and available to the adoptee. The most basic thought that I have with this is that we all biologically know who our parents are because we have their genetics. So how we actually be kept away and private from each other? Biological parents in normal intact families do not have privacy from each other because they know who they are. When a birth parent relinquishes their rights, they have no further rights to their children placed for adoption. All rights are terminated. If they are given additional rights, this opens the door for parents to fight the termination of their rights.

Did You See Oprah and Her New Sister?

I saw part of it. I was a little frustrated because I felt that they left her in the lurch. They could have expanded it more. Oprah could have concentrated on the issues for the adoptee, her sister. Its always interesting to see reunions. At least this time, the adoptive parents were not mentioned. I felt that the show was a little self centered. They made it about Oprah and her mother.

I think forcing her mother out of the closet as she did was probably not very helpful. The show could have reflected more on the laws in this country instead of Oprah's personal stance on her public personality.

Adoptees are not out to ruin families but find their connection in the world. Its a shame that Oprah did not do more for adoptees and their families.

Oklahoma Adoption Task Force

A couple of years ago, a couple of adoption agencies and attorneys got into trouble over their business practices with adoptive parents. Well at that time, an adoption task force was established to address changes needed in the adoption system in Oklahoma. Today there was an article in the Oklahoman about this task force. They are wanting to know how many adoptions occur in Oklahoma. They are also wanting to know who should receive this information.

What about the adoptees in this state? Why isn't the rights of those adoptees being restored to them? Why are they just concentrating on the number of adoptions? I agree that they need to be concentrating on the fee structures of adoption agencies and attorneys but lets not forget those of us who are adopted. We need our rights restored to us.

We are your sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. We are also your friends and coworkers. We are also your veterans. It is time to restore our right to access documents that the state of Oklahoma has on us. Please Oklahoma state legislators consider this as well.

India Courts Rule Against an Adoptee

When an adoptee or an adoptees group takes a step out, I like to give them some love to show that I appreciate their hard work. It is not easy to do so. It takes strength, courage, and conviction to be able to do so. When they do it in a public forum like a court room, I jump and hollar for them. If it is done in a foreign country, I am amazed and proud all in one breath.

In the news, this story came out. Dohle, a German adoptee with Indian descent, did such a courageous thing. He went to a high court and then went to an appeals court. He stood up for what he believed in. I wish I had the time, money and tenacity to do this very thing.

Although it did not turn out as he wanted, he still did a brave thing. Kudos for trying out there in India. Keep trying and never give up.

Back To School

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

School is starting soon. My daughters will start school next week. One child is looking forward to it while the other does not want to start school in the same place. She wants a fresh new start where she does not have to deal with her situation on the home front. I do understand that one. Although I live in an area that does not offer Charter, I would love to see how their internet services work. I encourage others to check them out.



Charter has many contests and giveaways that have often thrilled me about their product. The current giveaway is the laptop-a-day giveaway. Charter is giving away 50 lap tops to two great schools in order to get into the spirit of going back to school. Be sure to nominate your favorite school. Students of all ages are in need of those laptops. What a great way to get great internet service! You can enter your school for a chance to win fifty of these fabulous lap tops. You can enter automatically by ordering their services and win a chance to win three hundred bucks. With school starting, we could all use that money. You can also check out other Charter offers by going to their Charter on Facebook.

Illinois Needs Help

I know that I have not written much about adoption lately. I have been embroiled in a horrible situation. If certain individuals succeed, I will lose everything that I hold dear. I am still fighting hard and strong. I believe that justice will prevail in this situation.

I wanted to give a shout out to the Illinois folks. They need our help. It seems that Sara still does not quite understand the severity of the issue at hand. She is pushing a bad bill through again. It contains a disclosure veto.

You can read more about it on The Daily Bastardette and 73 Adoptee. They have the latest updates on what is going on in the state of Illinois.

If you live in Illinois but adopted someplace else, please step up and help these folks out. They need to start realizing that the right to privacy does not exist for any one any more. I know because my privacy has been violated on so many levels.

Natural Mom's Video

I'M LEGIT

An Important Announcement from Bastard Nation

According to the Daily Bastardette, Bastard Nation has issued an important statement on the status of Haitian orphans entering the United States. Indiana Open as well as Texans for Adult Adoptees OBC Access supports their efforts in making sure that these children are protected.

Please distribute freely

For the last week, Bastard Nation, like the rest of the world, has been watching the devastation of Haiti. The images are frightening, sad, and heartrending, especially those of the children.

We have also watched with alarm the rush to rescue Haitian children by adoption. Within three days of the earthquake, Catholic Charities of Miami had set up a scheme modeled on Operation Pedro Pan, a joint State Department-CIA-Miami Diocese project in the early 1960s to separate children from their parents, creating young pawns in the US war against the Castro government. Although “Operation Pierre Pan” in Haiti is on hold, at least for now, numerous evangelical churches and ministries, adoption agencies, secular organizations, unfinalized adoptive parents and other individuals--many with conflicts of interest--have joined the rescue mission call to remove children immediately, no matter what their family status, to the US for the purpose of adoption.

Haiti is still under rubble. Aid is slow to arrive. Survivors are spread out in shelters and camps, or live in the streets. The dead are unnumbered, unknown, and unnamed. Family members continue to search for each for other, and it will take weeks or even months for final conciliation.

The rush to relocate orphans, quasi-orphans, and potential orphans internationally is ripe for coercion and fraud. Adoption agencies, church agencies, and ministries especially--along with fraudulent and predatory “child welfare” agents--have much to gain from fast removal. The trafficking of Haitian children for sex, servitude, and adoption operated in Haiti before the quake. It certainly operates now. The unethical and possibly unlawful mass transfer of traumatized children, many with family status unknown, to foreign shelters, foster care, and adoption agencies, removed from their culture and language, with little hope of family reunification cannot be allowed or tolerated. We urge US State Department and other US authorities in Haiti to (1) remove private special interests and those with conflicts of interest, such as adoption agencies and ministries, from the child welfare decision-making process and (2) halt the evacuation of children and their placement for adoption in the US.
We also urge the State Department to suspend pending adoptions. Haitian paperwork is lost or destroyed. Rock Cadet, the judge most responsible and knowledgeable about pipeline cases, died in the quake. Though the US Embassy survived, US paperwork is probably unavailable for some time, if it still exists. Without proof of Haitian court or Embassy status, any adoption removal from the country, without thorough background investigation and due process, is illegal and not in the best interest of the child

Needless to say, no new adoptions should be processed.

In the post-quake chaos, children need protection from predatory snatchers. Bastard Nation, therefore, supports the expedited removal of Haitian children, orphans or otherwise, to credible and documented parents or family members in the US for temporary or permanent placement depending on the circumstances. These children must not be assumed adoptable and scooped up for fast-track adoption. They should be a top priority. We urge the State Department or other government or credible private and disinterested agencies to assist Haitians in the US to locate child kin and bring them to the US.
We understand why people want to open their arms and hearts to the children of the Haitian earthquake, but adoption is not emergency or humanitarian aid or a solution to Haiti’s ongoing problems. The immediate rescue effort in Haiti should focus on emergency services, individual and family care and family reunification, not family, community, and cultural destruction and the strip-mining of children.


This statement has been faxed to the US State Department.