Americans use the Internet to abandon children adopted from overseas
Part 1: When a Liberian girl proves too much for her parents, they advertise her online and give her to a couple they’ve never met. Days later, she goes missing.
KIEL, Wisconsin – Todd and Melissa Puchalla
struggled for more than two years to raise Quita, the troubled teenager
they'd adopted from Liberia. When they decided to give her up, they
found new parents to take her in less than two days – by posting an ad
on the Internet.
Nicole and Calvin Eason, an Illinois couple in
their 30s, saw the ad and a picture of the smiling 16-year-old. They
were eager to take Quita, even though the ad warned that she had been
diagnosed with severe health and behavioral problems. In emails, Nicole
Eason assured Melissa Puchalla that she could handle the girl.
"People that are around me think I am awesome with kids," Eason wrote.
A few weeks later, on Oct. 4, 2008, the
Puchallas drove six hours from their Wisconsin home to Westville,
Illinois. The handoff took place at the Country Aire Mobile Home Park,
where the Easons lived in a trailer.
No attorneys or child welfare officials came with
them. The Puchallas simply signed a notarized statement declaring these
virtual strangers to be Quita's guardians. The visit lasted just a few
hours. It was the first and the last time the couples would meet.
To Melissa Puchalla, the Easons "seemed wonderful."
Had she vetted them more closely, she might have discovered what
Reuters would learn:
• Child welfare authorities had taken away both of
Nicole Eason's biological children years earlier. After a sheriff's
deputy helped remove the Easons' second child, a newborn baby boy, the
deputy wrote in his report that the "parents have severe psychiatric problems as well with violent tendencies."
• The Easons each had been accused by children they
were babysitting of sexual abuse, police reports show. They say they
did nothing wrong, and neither was charged.
• The only official document attesting to their parenting skills – one purportedly drafted by a social worker who had inspected the Easons' home – was fake, created by the Easons themselves.
On Quita's first night with the Easons, her new
guardians told her to join them in their bed, Quita says today. Nicole
slept naked, she says.
Within a few days, the Easons stopped responding to
Melissa Puchalla's attempts to check on Quita, Puchalla says. When she
called the school that Quita was supposed to attend, an administrator
told Puchalla that the teenager had never shown up.
 |
| GIRL AVAILABLE: Quita Puchalla's adoptive parents used this photo to advertise her online. REUTERS/Handout |
Quita wasn't at the trailer park, either. The
Easons had packed up their purple Chevy truck and driven off with her,
leaving behind a pile of trash, a pair of blue mattresses and two
puppies chained in their yard, authorities later found.
The Puchallas had rescued Quita from an orphanage
in Liberia, brought her to America and then signed her over to a couple
they barely knew. Days later, they had no idea what had become of her.
When she arrived in the United States, Quita says,
she "was happy … coming to a nicer place, a safer place. It didn't turn
out that way," she says today. "It turned into a nightmare."
The teenager had been tossed into America's
underground market for adopted children, a loose Internet network where
desperate parents seek new homes for kids they regret adopting. Like
Quita, now 21, these children are often the casualties of international
adoptions gone sour.
READ MORE (in the series): HERE
So adopters, if we don't meet your expectations, you create a network to dump us? No wonder so many adoptees commit suicide... Trace
Cherokee membership has nothing to do with blood quantum and they do not receive money for being native. The Capobianco's gambled on the father's never knowing the outcome. During the pregnancy, he and his family made several attempts to reach the birth mother with no success. She instructed the hospital to place her on a list where her or the baby's presence were unreachable - like no newspaper announcement of the birth. However, she invited total strangers to leave the state with her newborn child. Four months later, as the birth father prepared to leave the country on military duty, he is approached to sign acceptance of service papers. Our single service men and women sign many required documents including assigning custody to the other parent before leaving is standard practice. My own son had to sign similar documents along with having child support automatically sent each month electronically. This young birth father signed a similar document - he thought. When the process server tells him what he really signed, he began legal proceedings then to gain custody of his daughter.
Even the Capobianco's signed a court document a few months later acknowledging his Cherokee heritage. Even Brown's former wife is speaking favorably that he is a good father and financially supports their daughter. Not sure where you got your info, but check again.
Moving forward, the Capobianco's arrival in Tulsa this week was a big media joke. They setup a press conference the next morning in an expensive hotel with a new crew and many cameras following them all day. Anyone can see they're trying to sway public opinion t their side, but it doing the opposite. To top things off, the "mediator" they bring is not qualified to use the title! This article doesn't mention that when he approached the Brown's living quarters, he had a camera crew with him ready to go. He is creating a documentary on the whole Baby Veronica ordeal. Although he said he had no intentions of filming the interview, why did he take a camera crew. Our Cherokee Nation Martials delivered his note to Mr Brown then escorted him off the school property.
During the same afternoon, Mr Brown offered them to visit Veronica, but they refused. Instead they filed yet one more lawsuit. Oh, and lets not forget their "friend" as announced at the press conference who is conveniently the president of her own marketing, PR, and social media firm. Now, is it Ms Munday or the Capobianco's that have created the media frenzy? None of the news is told from Mr Brown's side, only the Capobianco's. Who is trying to make Veronica the media's new toy?
I was glad to see the Brown's not bring the child to either courthouse today. They are protecting her in her own best interests. Look at the photo for this article if you don't believe me. They cannot stay in their own home because of the Capabianco's love affair with the media. Thank God for a smart Oklahoma judge who put a gag order on this case today.
Oh, according to Mr Brewster, the trumped up charge by the SC law enforcement has nothing to do with this situation. Have you read the law? How can someone steal their own child when they already have custody? It's all they can come up with.
Lastly, while the father may not fall under ICWA, the child does. The Cherokee Nation will always take care of its own and Veronica is a Cherokee Citizen. I am hopeful that the Capobianco's will realize their gamble did not pay off. When the SC court sent the child home with her father, jurisdiction transferred to OK. What right does the SC court to finalized the adoption of a child that is not nor has been in the adoptive physical custody for half it's life?
Mr Brown has financially supported both his children, they formed a relationship, and Veronica is and has been a very happy child in OK. Leave her be. Someone should begin investigating the (Nightlight) adoption attorney and soon. He's already started an illegal adoption of another Oklahoma American Indian child from Shawnee. This time the birth grandmother and the birth father are on the same side.
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130816/PC16/130819561