had to post this

From another Group. Please pass this along!!!

There is a horror slasher film being released July 24 (Orphan) about a family who adopts an older girl who “is not what she appears to be. Warnings about her go unheeded until it is too late…for everyone”. The film is being promoted now (http://orphan-movie.warnerbros.com) and the adoption message being sent is extremely negative. There is actually a line in the trailer that says “it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own”.

Without having seen the movie or read the script, it is hard to know if the entire movie is sending a ghastly adoption message, but the trailer certainly leads us to believe it is. This feeds the notion that older adoptees are very troubled and you should beware.... that's not an image any of us want the general public to have of our kids. It plays into people's deepest fears.

There is a growing group pursuing a boycott of the film, sending out emails and posting on online bulletin boards. I urge you to forward this email to others personally involved in adoption, help disseminate the boycott message and write to the producers and distributors expressing your displeasure with the message being sent.The backers of this movie have deep pockets. It is being released by Dark Castle Entertainment with Warner Bros. set to distribute. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, which developed the material, is also producing.

Looking to pass the torch

I have had some people inquire if I am going to be removing this blog. The answer is no. I will leave the blog up. I simply won't be posting anymore.

I really love this blog. I have had so many people tell me how it has helped them in their own search for the right adoption program for them. I wish I had the time to keep up with this blog, but I simply do not.

If anyone is interested in taking over this blog please contact me at kiimoragayle@gmail.com
I would be willing to pass the torch on to someone who is willing to research every aspect of international adoption and post what they find here on the blog.

Farewell (for now)

The lack of posts on this blog were probably indicative of the fact that I am just not able to keep this blog up right now. Someday I may return to researching adoption and posting what I find here. For now though, I simply do not have the time, energy or really even the heart to do so. Not that I do not have a heart for the orphans, because I certainly do. I have simply become disheartened by the agencies, bureaucrats, facilitators, corruption, and certainly the costs involved in adoption. Not all are bad, probably not even most, but the ones who are certainly make it hard for me to feel confidence in the process right now.

My focus for now is on my sweet Baby Boy and helping him to overcome his delays and learn to live with his special needs. We will continue to push on toward bringing home our fourth and final child. Baby Boy is inspirational and motivational when it comes to adding one more special child to our family. I believe it will be a much longer and harder journey than we had originally thought it would be. A journey worth taking though.

Adoptions From Russia Soon to get Tougher?

U.S. State Dept. reacts to Russian outrage in Fairfax County court case By Gregg MacDonald

A recent ruling by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge in a Purcellville boy's death is fast developing into a potential international incident.

On Dec. 17, Judge R. Terence Ney handed down a not-guilty verdict in the case of Purcellville resident Miles Harrison, 49.

Harrison had been charged with involuntary manslaughter after his 21-month-old adopted son was found dead in an unattended vehicle in Herndon on July 8. The high temperature that day was 91 degrees.

The child, originally named Dmitry Yakolev and later renamed Chase Harrison, was adopted from Russia at a cost to Miles and Carol Harrison of about $80,000. At the time of his death, the toddler was still a Russian citizen, according to the Russian Embassy."He would have remained a Russian citizen until he reached legal age, at which time he could renounce his citizenship if he chose," said Yevgeniy Khorishko, press secretary for the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. "It is just awful that the person who killed this child has been pardoned," Khorishko added.

On Dec. 18, Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned Harrison's acquittal in an official statement. "We are deeply angered by the verdict of the Fairfax Circuit Court in Virginia," it stated. “We consider it to be repulsive and unprecedented, even if in this case -- unlike in others -- it was criminal negligence that led to a tragic outcome, rather than deliberate ill-treatment. The decision of a judge, who did not see the crime in Harrison’s actions and released him without any penalty, goes beyond any legal and moral framework.”

The U.S. State Department replied the same day by stating: "The death of Chase Harrison is a terrible tragedy. Yesterday's decision by the Fairfax Circuit Court can not change that tragedy. Sadly this has happened to other children and parents and they are regularly warned about the dangers of leaving their children in vehicles. Chase Harrison's father will have to live with this mistake for the rest of his life. The state brought manslaughter charges against him and prosecuted this case aggressively. The judge decided to acquit based on the facts. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that it would like to discuss practical steps to ease their concerns. We welcome the opportunity to discuss with the ministry measures to prevent tragedies of this kind."

On Dec. 17, Ney ruled that although Harrison was "plainly negligent," he did not display "negligence so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a callous disregard for human life," one of the standards that define involuntary manslaughter in Virginia.

Harrison has said that he was deeply concerned that day about a contract that his office was negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The contract was the largest government contract that his company, Project Solutions Group in Herndon, had ever pursued.

In court, Ney said Harrison was "clueless" and "oblivious" that the child had been left in the vehicle, and that Harrison believed him to be at a day care facility in Ashburn. Ney called that belief "tragic and erroneous" but called Harrison a "dutiful and devoted father." He said that "the only atonement can take place in his heart and soul." He added that "no finding of involuntary manslaughter will bring this child back to life."

But outraged Russian officials are demanding that the United States toughen its policies toward adopted children's rights, and they are reconsidering the way adoptions to the United States are handled. Alina Levitskaya, head of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science's child welfare department, said on the ministry's Web site that Ney's ruling in the Harrison case "will lead to a tightening of requirements for the adoption of Russian children by U.S. Citizens."

Khorishko told the Times, "People in Moscow are now thinking about changing the rules of adoption for Russian children if the country they go to cannot provide protection for them, and the person who kills them is let go as if he is innocent."

Miami police nab ‘Most Wanted’ suspect

By RYAN MILLS (Contact)Originally published 8:01 p.m., Monday, December 29, 2008Updated 7:56 a.m., Monday, December 29, 2008

NAPLES — One of “America’s Most Wanted” fugitives who was arrested and slipped through the cracks at least three times recently in Collier and Miami-Dade counties was arrested again Monday, and is behind bars after more than a year on the lam.
Miami-Dade police arrested 57-year-old Orson Mozes in Miami Beach, Detective Roy Rutland said. An anonymous tip initiated the investigation.
“They’ve been tracking him for a couple of days,” Rutland said.
Rutland said Mozes was “staying with somebody,” but declined to elaborate on the exact location of the arrest.
Mozes was wanted in California on 62 counts of theft by false pretenses after authorities say he ran an international adoption scam out of his mansion and swindled his customers out of more than $1 million. He’s been on the run for about a year and a half, and was featured on the television program “America’s Most Wanted” in August.
“We had heard absolutely nothing from him or about him until just last week,” said Norma Hansen, a criminal investigator for the district attorney’s office in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Mozes was arrested Nov. 14 in Collier County after Florida Highway Patrol trooper Roberto Castilla pulled over the white Mazda he was driving at 85 mph in a 70 mph zone on Interstate 75, reports said.
Mozes identified himself as “Jack Rose,” handing over a bogus California driver’s license and Social Security card. He was arrested on charges of possessing a forged or stolen driver’s license and driving without a license.
But Mozes posted an $8,000 bond and skipped town before his court appearance. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which manages the Collier County jail where Mozes was booked under the fake name, confirmed Monday that Orson Mozes and Jack Rose are, in fact, one in the same. The agency used fingerprints to make the confirmation.
After his Nov. 14 arrest in Collier, Miami Shores police arrested him Dec. 9, and Miami-Dade police arrested him Dec. 21. Mozes used the alias “Jerry Brosse” in those arrests, and bonded out and slipped away in all three arrests, authorities say.
A warrant for Mozes’ arrest was signed April 1 in Santa Barbara. According to an affidavit, Mozes operated an international adoption agency, and told prospective parents that he could “hold” children for them in foreign countries, primarily Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia.
The prospective parents, who saw photos of children in those countries on the Internet, then sent the agency a fee, generally between $7,000 and $11,000, to “hold” the child, the affidavit said.
After paying, a majority of the parents were told “Your child is no longer available,” reports said. On at least 10 occasions Mozes promised the same child to multiple adoptive parents, investigators said.
He took off with $500,000 in June 2007. At one point, Hansen said, Mozes wrote a letter to his sister telling her he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and needed to get away.
“We’re definitely happy he’s in custody,” Hansen said. “There are a lot of adoptive families who were overjoyed that he’s in custody.”
Dawn DeLorenzo, 34, of New Jersey, said she was promised three children by Mozes, but just before the adoptions were finalized, was told each time that the child’s mother changed her mind.
She spent two months in Kazakhstan attempting to adopt a child, and lost about $75,000 in the process, about a third of which went to Mozes’ agency.
“I felt like he was Teflon Don,” DeLorenzo said of Mozes and his string of arrests. “My husband and I couldn’t escape a parking ticket, and here’s this guy, he’s getting away with 62 felonies ... and they kept letting him go. It was very frustrating to say the least.”
DeLorenzo said she cried when she learned of Mozes’ arrest.
“I was so happy they finally caught up to him,” she said. “He’ll finally have to face up to his crimes. Not just to me, but to 61 other families.”
Mozes will eventually be extradited to California, Hansen said.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Karie Partington said the FBI informed the Florida Highway Patrol sometime after the November arrest that “Jack Rose” was Mozes, and notified the highway patrol about his warrants.
“We don’t know when that notification happened,” Partington said. “That’s why we didn’t receive the notification.”
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating the mix-up to find out what happened, agency spokesman Lt. Chris Miller said.
When asked about disconnects between the various agencies involved in the Collier arrest and release, and the possible usefulness in this scenario of a new warrant alert system recently installed in Lee County and under development in Collier County, Partington said: “We are working to see if there’s a way to avoid this in the future.”

Adoption Back On

We have made a decision to move forward with the adoption. We were presented an opportunity to adopt a special needs child that we could not pass up.

I can't give too many details right now. When we know more about the process with this country I will post more. This is a very small country and intercountry adoption is rare there. I want to be careful right now and not give too many details until I know how officials there feel about blogging. (many countries do not like pap's to blog)

I have added a chip in widget on my left sidebar. This will allow donations into our adoption fund. If for some reason we are not able to complete the adoption, the money donated will then be dontated to Reece's Rainbow.

For more detials and to follow updates on our adoption proces visit our A Home For Howie blog.

Orson Mozes Still On The Run

The following story was reported on Fox News. It concerns Orson Mozes of Adoption International Program. I posted before about him and how he will soon be featured on America's Most Wanted. The story on AMW has been postponed and will likely air 1/31.


On Fox's "America's Most Wanted," John Walsh tracks fugitives.
But not everyone is brought to justice, like Orson Mozes. He's
wanted in Santa Barbara County, California for running an
adoption scam and stealing at least a million dollars from dozens of
innocent people.
"I don't think any words could give it justice," says Dawn
DeLorenzo of New Jersey. She says she's one of Mozes' victims.
"We first came into contact with Orson Mozes when we decided in
April of 2006, after a few unsuccessful fertility treatments, to look
into adoption," explains DeLorenzo. Dawn and her husband say
they gave Mozes' agency over $26,000 in fees to adopt three
orphans overseas in Kazakhstan. The couple went abroad and
spent thousands more, but never got their money's worth. The
adoptions fell through and so did their dreams. "You start
imagining your future together with that child," laments
DeLorenzo.
So where is Orson Mozes? "He's most likely somewhere in Florida,"
says Criminal Investigator Norma Hansen of the Santa Barbara
County District Attorney's Office. More Specifically, he could be
somewhere in South Florida or Southwest Florida. "Up until a
couple of days ago we weren't even really sure if he was alive or
still in the country," explains Hansen. Using the alias "Jack Rose,"
Hansen discovered Mozes was arrested in Collier County in
November for having a fake driver's license and fake social security
number. Despite his felony warrant in Santa Barbara County, he
was able to bond out and walk the streets. Hansen says she
doesn't know how he was able to slip through the fingers of law
enforcement. "Not being law enforcement in Florida, I don't know
what the procedure is before someone's released- if they check
their fingerprints."
Investigator Hansen also found out Mozes was arrested just last
Sunday in Miami for petty theft. Just like Collier County he was
able to bond out of jail. Hansen says, "It's very frustrating for me,
but more so for all the victims." As for Dawn DeLorenzo, she has
mixed feelings. She explains, "We're very happy to know that he's
still in the country. (But) disappointed that for some reason he was
allowed to go. I don't know what happened there- who dropped
the ball, but I'm sure that they're going to get him."
If you see Orson Mozes or know his whereabouts, the Santa
Barbara County District Attorney's Office wants you to call police
immediately. He is not considered armed or dangerous. He is
considered a flight risk.
Posted By: Rosemary Connors

View the story behind Orson Mozes and his crimes at America's Most Wanted's website. You can also vie photos of Orson there. If you live in Florida.... PLEASE, PLEASE look at the photos and keep an eye out for this man!