TA’s from the most recent referral batch are starting to show up.
Congrats to those families who can finally buy those plane tickets!
Also, there is a notice on the CCAA site you may want to read.
Update: Here are some news stories that pertain to the CCAA’s notice:
CBS News
Global Times China (note that last paragraph)
Female Sex Offenders
Local News KIRO (also has video)
Thurston County Corrections – Eddy Tony Whisenhunt
Thurston County Corrections – Donna Marie Whisenhunt
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December 24th, 2009 at 3:13 am
I agree 100% with what they say. Our SW said from her experience that some agencies are not doing a thorough enough background check. Ours is very thorough, they go beyond the norm, and have in the past found indiscrepancies with PAPS that were not picked up by a previous adoption with a different agency. Although they have closed their China program, they said that they were not approving as many families as they did several years ago. The most shocking was all the red flags missed where Lavender was concerned. Our agency said that the CCAA is not very confident in some agencies.
December 24th, 2009 at 8:14 am
First of all, Congrats to all who are receiving TA’s!!!!!!! What a Christmas present you got!!!
Does anyone know what agency was affiliated with the adoptive family?
December 24th, 2009 at 8:17 am
2qts4me~ our agency is also very thorough. I can’t even count how many checks we had to do originally and then every year to update our papers.
December 24th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Congrats to all the families receiving TA’s! Yes, there is a Santa Claus!
Does anyone know what agency was involved? What a shame.
Merry Christmas to all!
December 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am
I was SO sad to read about the little girl who was abused for 4 years by her father :( That’s awful !
What does this mean exactly ? What impact will it have for us waiting ?
RDT.
December 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
link to article from 2005. includes agency name:
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/33106
December 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
You can find out by secarching the names in the news report because we can’t name agency’s that is all I can say.
And congrats to all that got TA’s.
Glen
December 24th, 2009 at 10:19 am
It sounds like the CCAA is going to blacklist any agency and social worker who approves a family who in any way abuses a child.
My guess is that we can expect agencies to be a bit pickier about who they approve. And, if you are with an agency who has had a problem then you will probably have to be transferred to another agency. Or, even if your agency is okay, if your social worker is not then you may have to have your home study redone with another social worker. That has to be done again every 18 months anyway though, so I’m guessing that for most people that part can probably be handled as part of the renewal process, but it would be a homestudy from scratch instead of a renewal home study.
I don’t really know how an agency can go to families who have turned in all of the post placement reports and try to do another follow up, but it sounds like that is what the CCAA is asking them to do. That won’t get everyone though, since so many agencies have gone out of business.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:20 am
As a result of IA, thousands of children each year escape crushing poverty and, when they grow up, can happily become parents themselves.
The parents’ conduct described in the news report is certainly disgusting. DW and I have been checked out six ways from Sunday, including personal references, checks of the sex offender registry, and criminal records checks, every 18 months, and we are in our 40s. Some things can’t be foreseen. If there was an agency “cover up,” it should be punished. I wouldn’t appreciate, to say the least, being penalized because some sicko adopted through the same licensed social work agency or adoption agency as we are using. I will venture a guess that sex offenders face the same or worse punishment in the US as China or anywhere else. And I pray that this poor little girl develops amnesia. Rest assured, CCAA will be re-placed with a new family that will welcome its new daughter with open arms, and the parents will be put away.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Congrats to all those getting TA!!!
Stories like these are always heartbreaking. The sad fact is, many children are abused- physically, sexually, emotionally– regardless of whether they are biological or not.
I think it is especially sick to go through all the paperwork and all that is involved to adopt internationally for the specific purpose of bringing home a child for this type of life.
Several countries require more post adoption reports, some until the child is 18. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see China move in this direction as well.
May this dear little girl find the good love of a family that is true.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:39 am
The agency can’t be blamed for this horrible crime against this child. Unfortunately abuse of any nature (physical, emotional, sexual) occurs in adoptive and non-adoptive families. This could have happen to any agency.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:41 am
SOB!!!!
This is MY Adoption AGency!!!
December 24th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I’m glad that the CCAA has spoken out and takes a firm stand for the needs of children…we all should. The tough thing about this is that this kind of abuse often goes unnoticed….even when it is happeing right inside the family. If people so close to it can’t see it going on, how can even the best social workers always know what a person’s potential is to abuse a child? They can’t. If an agency has done several hundreds of adoptions…or many thousands of adoptions from China, chances are more than a few of those children are facing abuse of some kind. I think that putting pressure on agencies and social workers is one thing, but blacklisting agencies may not be completely appropriate if the evidence were to show that they followed the proper protocol and did their job thoroughly. It’s sad that we even have to grapple with these kinds of issues. I wonder what impact this one man will have on the program. How many orphanage directors or CCAA officials will hear this story and think twice about placing children abroad? How many children will lose their chance at a family because of the fear this has caused? Interesting to hear the comments within China about the story. Thanks for sharing this information.
December 24th, 2009 at 11:03 am
i THINK this agency is a small one? i hope it is so that this impacts as few families as possible. my heart goes out to the waiting families with this agency who don’t know what is going to happen now.
December 24th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I don’t like everone who is inesent being knocked out because they hapend to use X agency.
This little girl had know one to tune to because she was being abused by bolth parents make me sick to my stumick.
And as hard as it is to take most of our kids will come to us with there inosence intacted but I have heard from parents that have adopted children from China that after being home found out there kids were abused in the foster home or orphanage they were in. Wile this duse not seem to be the case most of the time you should be aware of it if you aren’t already,espesaly if you have little kids in the home already.
Glen
December 24th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Here is the wording from CCAA:
Depending on individual cases, CCAA will suspend or terminate cooperation with agencies that are involved in cases where adopted children’s interests and rights are harmed. Home study reports prepared by social workers who are involved in such cases as well as the social workers themselves will not be recognized by CCAA.
So it does sound like they are going to look at specific circumstances for agencies, but it doesn’t say that for the social workers.
I guess we’ll have to wait to see what happens with this agency.
December 24th, 2009 at 11:05 am
willowflower said: If people so close to it can’t see it going on, how can even the best social workers always know what a person’s potential is to abuse a child?
exactly. this abuse went on for four years. this little girl was at school every day – probably had playdates at home and at other houses, etc. and no one picked up on it.
the problem with this case is that some people in china have over the years questioned and doubted PAP’s motivations. why do they want these children? as slaves? to harvest organs? this case makes it look like these parents thought “we really need a sex slave….i know how we can get one.”
December 24th, 2009 at 11:55 am
YIHAAAAA!!! Something else!!!!!!
My agency just put this on their site:
Informatie CCAA over inloggegevens:
- De documenten die voor 29 februari 2008 zijn ingelogd zijn door de Review Department verwerkt.
- CCAA heeft de matching afgerond van de dossiers die voor 3 april 2006 zijn ingelogd.
They say de matching off april 3 2006 is done!!!
Marry christmass everywone!!!!
December 24th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
This was the agency I used and the whole situation makes me really sad. My home study and SW are out of state and they were my adoption agency. I thought they were a very good, caring and ethical agency AND while my SW was not as thorough as she could have been in the talking about my history, overall she did a good job. Was it up to the agency to make sure the quality of HS background check were better -I guess so – but I’m not sure they should be blamed. In thinking though my experiences, I’m not sure what else the SW could have done as far as background checking. They followed all the requirements, had us write an autobiography and held the 4 2-hour meetings required for the process. While they may not have given as much info. as I would have liked about the wait, they were always open and supportive when I considered changing countries (and agencies), rather than focusing on their bottom line. My point is that I think this could have happened with any agency. I don’t think this one is uniquely lax. The whole situation makes me so very sad!!!
December 24th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I have heard a lot of comments about how an agency charges the post placement fees up front and then never bothers to do them. Does anyone know if they had all their post placement visits? In my state you have to have new homestudies, criminal records checks, and child abuse registry checks every year.
December 24th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I am sooo sick, this is our placement agecny. so far this Christmas sucks..
December 24th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Does anyone know how/where this little girl is?? It’s been several months. She will be all I think about.
Horrifying. Just horrifying. If it makes a difference at sentencing, I’ll be there.
December 24th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Yes, this agency is very good about post placement visits. They do not charge up front and stay on top of this.
December 24th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Maybe its just me but I still feel a little skeptical about the whole thing. A boy exposed himself at school and the girl said something that lead the school to think she had been abused? Does anyone know exactly what she said? Was there any physical examination of the girl that showed she had definitely been abused?
Unless there is actual proof, it could be another case of someone over reacting and seeing more into what a kid says than what is actually there. Another McMartin (sp?) type of thing.
Not that I don’t think its possible, horrible stuff like this does happen.
December 24th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
It really doesn’t matter what you believe, and I am sure they have some substantial evidence to back up their charges.
We do not have a right to determine what the CCAA should or shouldn’t do with regards to their procedures. The number one priority is the protection of the children from China, not the desperate desire for us to adopt a child.
This is a priviledge and not a right.
There have been in the past and probably now very lax agencies. I can remember on the big yahoo group people comparing their SW’s and their homstudy process. Some were definitely not as thorough as others. Some PAPS revealed private information that was overlooked and others were giving suggestions on how to conceal certain information. I do think that at the time agencies were not adhering to the guidelines and then CCAA put concrete rules in place.
These are children, not property to be claimed.
There were not born to make ups parents.
December 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
The adopted father pleaded GUILTY to 3 counts of RAPE. It is a FACT and one he admitted in court! How anyone could “not believe” is the very reason folks are able to get away with this over and over again: he’s such a “nice” man, kids love him! This man is an ADMITTED CHILD RAPIST. Not “merely” molestation, but actual RAPE of a child under 7 years old!
December 24th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I am/was with this agency and my 6 month post placement report is coming up. They are firm on this, even over 2 years ago before any of this was discovered, they were firm.
This happened how many years ago? And they are punished now? I really hope that those of you out there bashing the agency have your facts straight. We were checked very thoroughly and had to have three references each for our sw, which would probably satisfy the new C2A2 requirement. Our agency is already doing many of these things that maybe they weren’t years ago. I also know that the same people are not employed there who are there now. This agency is not lax, or will just let anyone adopt. At what point does the agency get to let go and let the parents be parents? I want to move on with my life after post-placement reports. I don’t care if post placement reports are for 5 years, that’s fine, it’s just at some point, we all move on with our lives. There is no way the agency could have prevented this. It happened too long after post placement reports.
Also, so if you’re nice and kids love you, that should be a red flag? If so, then a lot of us are suspect.
These people are monsters. I refuse to use the term parent to describe them. This is a good, reputable agency who did nothing wrong and could not see this coming. This could be any agency, and now that there might be more investigations, more cases could be found. My heart is broken for this little girl, and all kids who go through this sort of abuse. I think we can all agree on that.
December 24th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I am a social worker for an IA that folks here on RQ are using. We are very thorough. But we aren’t perfect. It is amazing what people can and do hide. That being said, I am a bit surprised that with IA the first pp doesn’t occur for 6 months. I am also an adoptive parent. I also do domestic adoption. With domestic I do PP visits as soon as one month post placement of the child. I actually would like to see this change for IA as well. Not sure it would “catch” any of these issues. But it can’t hurt. When the children are older than about 2 ish, I also speak with them alone, in another room, for just a few minutes. Sometimes kids will say things without their parents present that otherwise may have gone unspoken.
December 24th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Our SW does IA and Domestic adoptions. She interviews the children alone. Regardless of what the postplacement of the adoptive country requires our SW visited with us after a month and interviewed our ds alone.
Our oldest child’s adoption was from a country that required a psychological evaluation from a professional but not a councellor. Our SW required as does our state 5 references, and we also have to obtain an adoption certificate.
It wasn’t a big deal. I know that you cannot absolutely weed out those that want to commit heinous acts on children, but you have to do everything possible. In the past there have been red flags that have been missed. That is the agency’s fault as well as the SW’s fault.
Our SW said that they will not approve anyone who is raising funds to adopt via the internet.
They also use other means with regards to extra background checks through another service. As mentioned they have found discrepancies. For the CCAA to post this I
think it shows that they are PO’d.