It was time to find the truth: a beautiful end to an ugly beginning

In April 2012, when my husband and I traveled to Haiti, we were matched with R and W. I mentioned W briefly in my first blog post (here) . The day we met W we were at Giving Hope Rescue Mission creche. He was brought to my husband and I by Heather Elyse. She brought several girls and a couple of boys for us to meet with. W is such a handsome boy with a beautiful smile. He won my heart, so my husband and I ask to spend more time with him. He and R came back to our hotel and Heather encouraged them to spend the night with us. The next day we told Heather we would parent both children. See our blog post here

Heather told us a story of horrific abuse. She said he was, "beaten, neglected, burned with cigarettes, starved and left outside naked and alone." She also told us when he was brought into care he, "had scabies, open sores on his body, and had intestinal parasites." Our hearts were broken for this boy. We returned home and ask our church to pray for him, I spent countless nights praying for our boy, and our children to this day pray for W. We started paying our monthly child support payments for him through Room For Grace International, and started raising money to pay his adoption fees. We also submitted our dossier to adopt both R and W.

One month later I received this message through facebook:

• May 27, 2012
• 

  5/27, 10:34am
  

  Heather Elyse
  

  
  
  

  keeping you in the loop---- having difficulty with [W]'s case--- so prepare your heart in case for some reason he becomes un adoptable. Please pray pray pray and just dedicate this whole situation to the Lord. Things are not looking good. Just wanted to keep you in the loop

  
  
• 

  5/27, 11:20am
  

  Kimberly Williams
  

  
  
  

  Can you give us more details?

  
  

  Please call me ***-***-***

  
  
• 

  5/27, 11:27am
  

  Heather Elyse
  

  
  
  

  His family is just causing drama

  I'm in Haiti so can't call unfortunately

  
  
• 

  5/27, 11:28am
  

  Kimberly Williams
  

  
  
  

  Praying

  
  
• 

  5/27, 11:29am
  

  Heather Elyse
  

  
  
  

  I honestly wouldn't worry just told you so we could get some prayers going.

  
  
• 

  5/27, 11:53am
  

  Kimberly Williams
  

  
  
  

  We just prayed at church. The Lord is good!
  
  
  

I never received a phone call, and was worried about the outcome of this situation. My husband feared that something just wasn't right. After much prayer we sent this email to Heather on 6/7/12:

Good Morning Heather,

I hope all is well with you! 

I just wanted to be transparent with you and felt %100 positive I NEED to share our thoughts and feelings regarding sweet [W].

Jeremy and I have an overwhelming since of fear and trepidation. We're not sure why we feel this way, but we have been praying like crazy. We both have such a uneasy feeling about his adoption. We prayed together last night and can't determine if it is just fear brought on by the news of his family causing problems, if it's fear of loosing him, or if it's a sense that God is closing the door on his adoption. I don't know what is going on, but I know I need to share with you. You are his mommy right now and I know how much you love and care for him. 

We also wanted you to know you can be %100 open and honest with us. I know you pride yourself in being upfront, but I don't want you to be worried about our feelings.  [W] is WAY more important than our feelings. 

My spirit is in a state of unrest. I am however, trusting the sovereignty of our Lord. 

Much love and prayers,

Kimberly

Her response: 

Heather <heather@givinghopehaiti.org>	6/7/12
to me

Thank you for sharing your heart with me.  I wish I was in the states so I could talk to you via phone.

I do however consider his adoption high risk now after meeting with his bio family. What a mess they all are!!! They basically don't care about him and  don't want him to be happy or adopted--- it's honestly the saddest thing I have heard! His whole family admits to neglecting and abusing him but seriously doesn't  want him to have a chance at life. His family is extremely dysfunctional. extremely Uneducated and drug users. I am seeing if I can get abandonment papers on him since he was truly abandoned.

I will keep you posted. God is sovereign.

I know God is in control.

His family at one time signed off on him and agreed to adoption. Now they went before the judge and IBESR and changed their mind.

I will fight as if he is my own.

Love ya
Sent from my iPhone

Just two weeks later we received this communication via email:
 

Heather <heather@givinghopehaiti.org>	6/14/12
to me, Tim, Michelle

With great sadness and a heavy heart I write this.
I wish their could have been a different outcome.
There is no pretty way to say this ...
So I am just going to be blunt and honest.

Unfortunately.....

[W] was officially marked as UN adoptable by IBESR about an hour ago.

We feel as if we all just had a miscarriage and we are grieving deeply.

We were told in the beginning that he was 100% available for adoption. We would of never agreed to this adoption if we would have known the outcome. We are deeply sorry. We know how much you adored this precious gift from God.

I was 90% sure as of last week that it would all work out... I never in a million years saw this coming.

W was one of our original 12 children.... So we are all hurting over the fact he is going to have to live at the Creche possibly until we can pay for his college etc etc. figure out a solution for him and all our other future leaders of Haiti.

We know that this email is going to be quite a shock and pray that you can extend us all grace. This was completely out of our control and please know we fought to change this outcome.

We love you.

Tim
Wesmin
Heather and Michelle

Sent from my iPhone

Heather Elyse, Tim Rowe, and missionaries at Giving Hope Rescue mission are defending their organization and stating that all of the children in care at GHRM are adoptable. This was not the case for W. His parents never wanted him to be adopted. 

On May 7, 2013, 11 months after we found out that W was unadoptable and Heather said he'd need to live at the creche forever due to parental abuse, an email was sent to the staff of VOTO outlining which kids were in care and which had been sent home to their local families. Below is an excerpt from that email. 

On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 4:52 PM, Heather Elyse <heather@givinghopehaiti.org> wrote:

Greetings from Haiti!!!

I just spent most of the day with Wesmin, R V, S, J, and S (staff members). We went through both creche's and assessed everything. We also personally talked about each child and so I wanted to send my report to you all.

Currently in the MAIN creche we have the one house where the kitchen is attached used for missionary housing and the school. e are still utilizing the storage room for all the creche needs.

We currently have 49 children in the main creche.

The NEW creche which we all call our "underground creche" because we don't allow anyone to visit it and IBESR doesn't even know about it!!!!!!!!! We have 38 babies here.

So here are the final totals of where all our GIVING HOPE RESCUE MISSION children are:

49-Main Creche 38-Underground Creche 18-Elyse Foster Care Home 12-J Foster Care Home 6-V personal Home 3-***** Foster Home 3- Altagrace Foster Home 2- A W Foster Home 5- Cabaret Baptist Home 3- Annie Bon Samaritan Orphanage 2-Orphanage in Cap Haitian (Warren Girls) 4-W Orphanage 4-M/C 16-Cap Haitian Justice Rescue Project

A GRAND TOTAL OF: 165 children!!!!

We have a HUGE WAITING LIST of children that are sitting in hospitals abandoned, but we just don't have any room currently. Our numbers have dropped drastically due to the fact I gave several children back to relatives that could care for them.... I of course made sure the relatives were legit.

Those who are no longer with us: D W**** C N S J M C

*Names removed for privacy*

This was a disturbing contradiction to what Heather had told our family about "W's" family and ability to return home. Either Heather was lying about his family life or she returned him to incredibly abusive parents. You be the judge after you read the next part of this story....the beautiful ending to a very ugly beginning.... 

.............

W is now at home with his parents and he is thriving. He was never relinquished legally and his parents never wanted to place him for adoption (according to investigators we sent to find him.) He was originally taken to an orphanage next to Giving Hope Rescue Mission to be treated for parasites and to receive health care. "W" was then taken to GHRM by a family member and wasn't returned to his parents. His father felt that he was receiving good care at GHRM, so he allowed them to care for him short term. Heather began to ask them for W's birth certificate, which the family refused to turn over. His family is poor, but they never wanted their son to leave Haiti. 

The beautiful part of this story is that our family is still a part of his life and we now get to see him grow and flourish with parents who care for him. We are sponsoring W to go to school. God has allowed us to see this little boy home, happy, and with his FAMILY. He is going to receive an education and hopefully break the cycle of poverty in his family. 

With their permission, I am posting these pictures. 

W is doing great and we share this story as encouragement to any adoptive family who have been given horror stories of their adopted child's history by Heather Elyse. We propose it is time to search for more information on each child....

Kim and Jeremy

Brian and Anne's Story: Supporting a mother to reunite with her child

We found Heather Elyse and Giving Hope Rescue Mission via a comment/recommendation from a missionary on Facebook in late 2011. At the time Heather had a lot of strong social media.

We reached out to Heather and asked if she could give us more information about adoption. She responded that she would would connect us to Michelle See (cofounder) and that she would like to take us to lunch next time we were in Haiti. When Heather emailed Michelle about us she copied us on the email and told Michelle that she had been "stalking" our family on Facebook and had all kinds of flattering things to say about us...it was odd because we don't post very much on Facebook.

Brian and I were intent on doing things the right way. We volunteer with an organization in Haiti and would never want to be involved in anything that isn't above-board.

We began researching. Brian and our daughter visited the Giving Hope Rescue Mission creche in April of 2012. They visited the crèche the week that one of the VOTO staff who was also adopting was there and she had very good things to tell Brian about the crèche and Heather. (She has since quit working for VOTO.)
Heather and her husband Steve took Brian and our daughter to dinner at Club Indigo (the resort where they lived) but Heather had to leave abruptly to go to a hospital in Port au Prince because a child from the creche had a seizure related to a very high fever.

There was one major red flag during this trip that we unfortunately chose to ignore. A woman approached Brian in Haiti and said: "if you are talking about Heather Elyse my advice is to run as fast as you can away from her". We talked about this and searched online to learn more about Heather but couldn't find anything. (We now know that her last name had only recently been changed to Elyse approximately a year prior so we were not getting accurate search results.) Everything online about "Heather Elyse" looked fine.

We signed our contract with Voice of the Orphan, Giving Hope Rescue Mission's partner adoption agency from Indianapolis, that summer of 2012. We believed that Voice of the Orphan was a licensed adoption agency. Our main contact was Heather, the Vice President of Voice of the Orphan and co-founder of Giving Hope.

In Oct 2012 I (Anne) visited the crèche for a day and had lunch with the missionaries who had just moved there to work for Giving Hope Rescue Mission. Heather was not there and I was curious about her life between two countries while raising 7 children of her own. I asked the missionaries if the kids travel back and forth with her or if they stay put somewhere. Specifically if they stay with her husband when she is gone. The missionaries didn't know who Heather's husband was. It was very awkward. Apparently since the previous spring he was no longer in the picture.

In November of 2012 we received a phone call from one of the missionaries from the ministry we volunteer with in Haiti. There was a couple at the gate with a 17 day old baby they (baby's aunt and uncle) were trying to surrender for care. We were all very concerned about the baby as things can go terribly wrong quickly if a baby that young is not cared for. We called neighboring missions to see if they could help since we don't accept babies/children at our gates but no one had space available. 

We got in touch with the missionary working for Giving Hope Rescue Mission and he talked with Heather Elyse who agreed to take the baby. 
Ryan, the missionary, and a translator came the next morning and met with our Exec Director who happened to be in Haiti and the aunt and uncle. Ryan and Wesmin took the baby to Giving Hope Rescue Mission. 

We were concerned about next steps for the baby and asked a lot of questions. Would they send someone to investigate whether the baby was adoptable? (GHRM is a creche which means that children who live there are supposed to be in the adoption process. If she was not going to be adopted then we would need to look for another placement.) We also wanted to know if they could find the baby's mom and see if she was able to parent her.
 
Heather responded that that's not how they operate - they don't track down birth parents to ask them to parent their children. 

On Nov 20, 2012, at 5:17 PM, Brian (address removed) wrote:

Thanks Heather.  For the girl, we are wondering does the family plan to go to IBESR to fill out paper work? Do you have to bring baby girl to IBESR? How about her med exam -- do you do that at Giving Hope or do you have to take her someplace for that? Is she adoptable?  Has the family visited her?  What are the next steps for her?

On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 6:29 PM, <heather@givinghopehaiti.org> wrote:

Great questions. 

No the family doesn't go to IBESR. 

The family goes before a judge in Montrouis, to relinquish their rights, and agrees to adoption. Specifically to you adopting her.

Then she is added to our crèche license. A birth certificate has to be created and archived. Then we start preparing her dossier.  

She has to have blood work done, and our crèche doctor has to give her a medical exam and certificate. 

As long as the family agrees to adoption- there should be no issue. 

On the Voto Facebook group - there is a file called what goes into a child's dossier. All those items will have to be created in order for an adoption to take place. 

Hope this helps.

H-
Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 20, 2012, at 6:24 PM, Brian (email removed) wrote:

Couple follow-up questions.  Did the family visit her on 11/15?  Also is Giving Hope going to see the family and inquire if adoption is truly the best option for everyone (baby and her family)? 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <heather@givinghopehaiti.org>
Date: Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: Donation: $2,500 McNeill Family Adoption
To: Brian (address removed for privacy)

The family did not visit her on the 15th. 

That is an optional thing that bio parents can do. Many just don't care, and they just don't visit. We will not be pursuing the family--- that's not how we do things. 

I have an organized system that is ethical - I don't go hunting down birth parents begging to sign over their child. 

Here are the steps: 

- the bio family is invited to an adoption training class by me and a Haitian attorney. 

- they sign an integrity agreement 

- then they have a court appointment 

- then the child is registered into IBESR for adoption 

- the child's dossier is completed 

- the birth parents meet adoptive parents and agree verbally to an adoption--- they ask questions galore

- bio parents fill out all kinds of paperwork 

- bio parents are welcome to visit on the 15th of the month 

- bio parents are included and invited to participate during the entire adoption process 

- bio parents have an interview with the US embassy 

Etc etc Etc etc 

I could keep going --- but hopefully that gives you a glimpse of the process. 

I handle everything from this end.... 

Now you are not allowed to worry! :) once an investigation is made and I can tell you 100% that she is adoptable - then we will send you an official referral. ;) so be on the look out! 

I promise you this.... I have your best interest at heart ---and keep in mind--- I'm here to protect your heart and the heart of your potential child's ----until adoption is final ! 

Let me know how else we can serve you or explain the process. 

H-

Sent from my iPhone

(We later learned that this information ie. "we will not be pursuing the birth family - that's not how we do things" is in direct contradiction to Eric Ludy's online "Defense of Heather Elyse" click for link.)

"The first condition was that the child genuinely did not have anywhere else to go. Taking in a child was always a “last resort” for Miss Elyse. Before she brought them into her ministry, she always searched for the biological family of the child (if they were alive) and attempted to reunify that child with family members, if at all possible. In many situations, Miss Elyse even financially supported the biological families of the children she rescued, in order to make it possible for the child to remain with family. But if the biological family was truly unable or unwilling to care for the child, Miss Elyse took the child, cared for him/her and sought to find a loving home for the child to grow up in."

We inquired if the baby's family ever visited or showed any interest in her and Heather responded with confusing information - no, they never visited. Then said they are dangerous people. Then said they are liars. 

Voice of the Orphan told us there was a window for submitting our dossier for adoption in early Jan 2013 so we rushed and had our dossier sent down then. We waited for our referral, waited for word of anything really. It was never clear what we were waiting for.

In April of 2013 we received and accepted our "official referral" for the baby that had been transferred from our ministry to Giving Hope Rescue Mission. We assumed that in that time the proper investigation into her adoptability had taken place and the proper paperwork was in place.

Brian was going to be in Haiti a few weeks later with our daughter for a baptism and they were given special permission to visit the baby. (At that point families were not being allowed to visit their children.)

By this time we had begun hearing some disturbing things about Heather and her operation via the missionary and expat community in Haiti. However, we had been matched with this baby and felt that she would have nowhere to go if we didn't adopt her.

Brian and our daughter arrived in Haiti and spent a few days in Port au Prince then went up to the resort where Heather was living to spend a weekend with baby girl. 

Sheena, one of the young missionaries working for Heather, texted Brian - "we are on our way, we just have to stop at the crèche and get the baby." 
Brian began texting me at the same time, updating me with what they were doing, how our daughter was reacting to the anticipation of meeting her baby sister, etc. While waiting Brian got another text from Sheena - "we're on our way, will be there soon."

Within minutes I received texts from Heather:

Knowing what we had heard about Heather and children disappearing from Giving Hope Rescue Mission, and already being hesitant and fearful about working with Heather, we were initially terrified. I texted Brian and told him to lock our daughter in their room and go see why the missionaries were coming if they didn't have the baby. He went down and met two scared women -- he said they were meek, scared and apologetic. We didn't understand why were weren't given this information in time to prevent Brian and our daughter from going all the way to Montrouis to visit.

In our opinion, knowing the control that Heather operates over the creche and volunteers, we find it highly unlikely that Heather had not been informed the night before when the little girl was removed....

We felt extremely concerned about the baby so we sent a Haitian friend to find the family and get the real story. Our friends found the family and the baby. The mother, who was young and had initially been afraid of parenting her newborn, said that she had decided to go to visit her daughter at Giving Hope Rescue Mission and they tried to give her the wrong baby. That was enough for the mom to know she had to get her out. She decided to take custody of her.

Brian and I began to maneuver our way out of this disaster, quickly realizing that we had made a mistake in working with an agency and creche that gave so little respect to birth families. We were wrong to have believed Heather's stories about the baby's birth family being liars. 

We were contacted by another staff member (NB) of VOTO who told us "I don't want you to be too discouraged. This same thing happened to a close friend and Heather was able to work over the situation and now they have their baby"  and we were even more disgusted. Our eyes were opened to the way Heather operated and in our opinion this statement was evidence that Heather was coercing birth families.

We sent an email to Heather, Michelle, Tim and AM (former staff) to tell them that we believed that God was closing the door for our adoption and we would like our money back. Heather texted me and said that we should consider adopting from Columbia - she has a friend that does adoptions there and it only takes 9 months. We were not impressed at all. A speedy adoption was not our goal. We wanted an ethical adoption.

The mother of baby girl, since removing her from Giving Hope Rescue Mission, has done a great job with a little support. She has brought her baby to our ministry for church and to see our doctor regularly. We sent formula and the clothes that we bought when we thought we were going to adopt her. We have realized that with a little support this baby can be well cared for by her birthmother and she is very obviously healthy and very much beloved. 

She is a miracle to our family, she educated us, and we stand in solidarity with the birthparents in Haiti who want to remove their children from Giving Hope Rescue Mission and parent them.

Brian and Anne

Visiting baby girl and her birthmother.

Faking kidnappings and a raid?

I believe that as Christians we often want to give each other the benefit of the doubt. So even when a situation recounted by a fellow Christian seems far-fetched and very unlikely we do not hold that person to accountability. We want to assume the best of one other, sometimes to our detriment.

This happened to the Voice of the Orphan staff while working with Heather Elyse. And when I first began questioning the account of the "raid" I found that staff and adoptive families simply couldn't conceive of a fellow Christian being so deceptive and emotionally manipulative.

I will call this situation the Summer of 2013 Fake Kidnapping and Rescue Raid. It was shocking to those of us who participated in communication about this at the time and continues to be a complicated situation to follow. Below are communications that should help you follow along.

In brief, Heather Elyse created a situation to plant extreme fear in the minds of the adopting mothers on the VOTO staff. 

1. She told us that many children had been taken by their birth parents who had been "raiding" the creche in groups to remove their children.
2. She blamed this on a couple who had enough concerns to remove their child from the GHRM during the adoption process. (I have since learned other parents were told of "raids" happening to the creche by bio parents but were given little information except to blame adopting parents like Kim who had simply begun to ask questions of her daughter's relinquishment.)
3. She told the staff that she needed money that adoptive parents had recently sent to Haiti for their adoption to "rescue" the children back in a giant raid on a fellow missionary.   
4. Instead of getting the legal authorities involved, Heather planned a "rescue" that involved hired police and a "middle of the night raid".

While I do believe there were some birth parents who did take their kids from the creche (because they do/did NOT want their children to be adopted... but that's another post for another day) I do know the following DRAMATIC TALE of their "rescue" via a "raid of hired police" did not happen based on physical evidence and several eye witness testimonies proving otherwise.
Below is the account that Heather gave to the staff, along with some very emotional emails and texts that played on their emotions. After reading a very convincing plea for help, you will hear the evidence to prove this “kidnapping” and “raid” never occurred. And for those of you who have heard of various "raid" stories this would be "raid" #3: 

1. First was the "raid" she accused adoptive parents and the Livesay family of conducting when they went to the creche with a judge and other legal entities to remove a child out of fear for his safety.
2. The second "raid" was the bio parent raid where the bio parents were supposedly removing their children from the creche.
3. The third "raid" is the one that she says SHE conducted on another mission to "rescue" her kidnapped children back.

Shocked? Confused? Keep reading....
 
Imagine that you are a parent who is being told your child is missing, kidnapped and hidden. Imagine the emotional trauma you would endure, and then ask yourself how someone who is supposed to be your boss or friend would have the ability to make this up and play on your emotions as you wait for your child to be found and brought back to safety when (s)he was NEVER MISSING in the first place! It’s quite concerning and disturbing, to say the least. That is what what happened to the staff who were working under Heather Elyse.


-----Original Message-----
From: Heather Elyse <heather@givinghopehaiti.org>
Cc: Tim Rowe <trowelaw@aol.com>; Michelle See <michelle@givinghopehaiti.org>; S.H.(email hidden)
Sent: Tue, Jun 25, 2013 7:32 pm
Subject: Re: does the *** family

Then since they are still up---- and we just gave into the most ridiculous demands by removing pictures of a child that WE cared for and RESCUED for two years....---I would like to request that they take them down immediately TIM...... (she was referring to taking down pictures of the adoptive family's son from FB who had been removed from GHRM before this.)

....I am starting to wonder when we are going to FIGHT BACK.... this is ridiculous... I am sitting in misery IN HAITI trying to clean up a MESS that they created. I am not wanting to play "turn the cheek" with them anymore. I am not seeking revenge----but I am ASKING THAT WE START DEFENDING OURSELVES and OUR CHILDREN AND ADOPTIONS. (The only mess it was creating was finally allowing people to start asking questions and began exposing some of the lies and inconsistencies.)

FAMILIES have been DESTROYED.

S.H.- I don't think my plan is going to work---- it's going to cost us way too much---money that we do not have. (She was specifically mentioning the need for money to S.H. because her child was supposedly kidnapped and she was willing to pay whatever it would cost to rescue him back.)

I hope we are all prepared to DEAL with ANGRY PARENTS this week.

CHILDREN ARE STOLEN.....

WE OWE THOUSANDS AND I MEAN THOUSANDS BACK TO THESE PARENTS.....

I am ready to fight back. I am tired of sitting down allowing this nonsense to keep happening to us.

Heather <heather@givinghopehaiti.org>

to: "trowelaw@aol.com" <trowelaw@aol.com>
cc: "mwilkins@bkrlaw.com" <mwilkins@bkrlaw.com> 
date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 8:12 AM
 
I hear you clearly Tim and I agree but...

I'm just a little weary ...

Sorry for my tone - but I have just had enough of this garbage from the enemy.

Maybe it's because I am sitting in Haiti with over 20 kids gone. My children and I had to move here for the summer just to defend our crèche and work and make sure no more kids get stolen. That's 20 adoptions ruined. That's 20 adoptions that need to be reimbursed. That's 20 times 12,000. Thats 20 adoptions that I hope the US staff is ready to explain to parents why their kids are missing. That's 20 adoptions that I am having to empty out my bank account just to go see if I can hire enough people to go raid where they are being held. I hate this corruption. I am trying to hold things together here but it's a mess here. I was summoned to go to a meeting at IBESR today. A.C. called just to find out it was a hoax and a lie. Wesmin said it was probably an ambush. I definitely don't feel safe here. Wesmin's reputation is ruined. He wants to quit. He has tried to quit on us like 10 times. We just had another MLJ family back out. We just had an agency drop us. They put a hold on our creche license and are not moving any adoptions through or accepting any new ones. They just conducted a huge investigation on the crèche. Our staff is weary. The community is starting awful rumors about us... Especially against our Haitian staff. Feeling a little overwhelmed that they have the nerve to ask for pictures to come down on my personal page. We rescued that boy. We had a bond with J.C. He lived with us for almost two years. Since birth until the day he was stolen from my personal apartment that they raided and trespassed. I just feel like we should in return request something like their story that is clearly about us down. That picture they posted of the huge binder is ridiculous and implies so much. (Heather is referring to the binder of evidence that another adoptive family took to mediation with some of the staff after removing their son and being denied their adoption paperwork.)

I am only feeling this way because these lives whom We raised are probably experiencing a lot of trauma today.

.... Trying to count it all joy as I face persecution... But it's getting difficult when I see the amount of damage they have caused.

... And my heart simply grieves for the following.
(Names of children who she claims were kidnapped, removed to protect their family and identity)

L. D.
S. D.
A. T.
B. D.
J. D.
J. H.
B. C.
K. H.
J. G.
M. G.
D. W.
J. C.
A.
H.
A.
E.
S. H.
D.
C. B.
S. V
M. V

Sent from my iPhone

Heather
-----------------

After these emails, the staff communication included:

1. "White people" had gone to the bio parents and picked up all the "missing" kids in white vans so in essence, "kidnapped" them. 
2. She said at that time she did not know the location where these kids were taken, but was sending one of her sons "out as bait" to gather information and find the location. Later she said she found out the location and it belonged a missionary who "didn't like her" and was friends with yet another adoptive parent who "was out to get her" and this was all part of a conspiracy against her.
3. The only adoptive parents that I know of who were informed their child was missing/kidnapped were the 2 parents on staff but some parents were told that "raids" were going on and kids were being taken.
4. One staff member was only told a couple days before the " rescue raid", while the other was led to believe for 2 weeks or more that her son was kidnapped. 
5. She told the staff she needed money to pay a private police force to go and "rescue" all these kids to which there was a lot of hesitation but Heather made it appear as if it was a last chance effort to save them.  One of the moms whose son was missing was ready to remortgage her house in an effort to save her son.

While Heather worked in Haiti on her "rescue raid" plan, several of the US staff spent countless hours over several days working on a communication plan to share with the adoptive parents as well as an "after the rescue" plan as we were all very concerned with the emotional impact it would have on the children and their adoptive parents knowing what they'd been through.

On the evening of June 26th, around 11pm, the staff had a conference call in which I participated. Heather was in Haiti texting her assistant everything that was happening during the "rescue raid". She claimed they went in 2 busses because there were so many kids to rescue. She sent names of children as they were "rescued", however, not all of them were rescued (I'm assuming these are the kids that were possibly actually taken by their bio parents).

During this time Heather gave accounts to her assistant and said things like, "The police have gone in, they're bringing out kids that aren't mine. I have A, B...oh my gosh, they're bringing sick kids onto the bus and I have to send them back, these aren't our kids! I heard shots. One of the girls has blood on her. Maybe it's not hers (leading us to believe one of the police was shot in the "rescue") ....." VERY emotional and dramatic, especially for the 2 prospective adoptive mothers who were led to believe their children had actually been kidnapped and were in the middle of all that chaos.

At the very end of the raid one of the staff member’s little boy had not been rescued. Heather said that they had to leave and did not even check to be sure her own son, the one used for bait, was safe. As they were pulling away she said, "My son C.E. just came out running out of the mission with B.C. (the missing child) in his arms". It was a very climatic ending with both moms rejoicing that Heather had risked her life to save their children.

At the time I felt in my gut this wasn’t true but since Heather was so good at convincing people to believe so many of her outlandish lies (just see the emails above) who would think to question the legitimacy of them? I knew that without concrete evidence there would be no way to prove my “gut instinct” or discernment, so I didn't say anything about my feelings. I still don’t understand her motive and can only assume it was either/both an attempt to get money for the “rescue”, or to create psychological trauma with her staff to keep them loyal to her and for her to continue to be “their hero”.

When I first started trying to gather evidence, there were things that just didn’t make sense:

• There originally was another list of “missing kids”. But when Heather arrived to Haiti the list changed and grew and she said the missionaries didn’t know the kids names and had the wrong kids listed as missing. I believe that some of the kids were in fact taken by their bio parents (which is very concerning in itself: Why are so many bio parents continuously attempting to or succeeding at taking their kids back? This is NOT something that most orphanages or crèches in Haiti deal with when their kids are all legitimate orphans.)

• If the kids were legitimately GHRM children, why wasn’t she using IBESR (the Haitian adoption authority) to have them get her kids back since that would be legal and free? Also, why would they choose to have a very traumatic rescue over using authorities that would simply walk in and demand the kids back. In that more logical event Heather would have taken her kids back peacefully without traumatizing them even more.

• Heather told the staff that a birth mother of a child at the creche had been the one to organize all the birth parents taking their kids back. I found this to be an incredible feat considering the fact that these parents were spread out that area and it was difficult enough for the staff to find and work with them for the adoptions, much less a very poor mother who was sick and could not afford to raise her own child. At the time she said all the kids were from the same area, however, that doesn't match up with background information known to some of the adopting parents.

• While Heather was telling the staff that (Amanda - story coming soon) was responsible for the bio parents taking their kids and that K.M and V.C. were responsible for taking the kids from the bio parents, she (Heather) was telling other adoptive moms that the raid happened because of Kimberly (who has already shared her story here). So she not only lied about the event but then lied about other adopting parents and missionaries to slander their name and reputation.

• I also found it amazing that some of the missing kids didn’t have living birth parents (or at least that's what some of the adopting parents were told). So how did they end up “missing” in all the birth parent “raids”, if there was no one to get them?

With all these questions in my head I began trying to find out about this person being blamed and I wanted to figure out if the details and description of the Mission location matched up with what we were told.

• I found out that the person who supposedly organized picking up the kids in white vans from their bio parents and hiding them (and ran a very small mission in Port au Prince) wasn’t even in the country at the time.

• I went to Haiti and went to the mission to see it myself and saw that the alley leading up to it was very narrow (see photo below). So narrow that the van had to back down just to be able to get out. There would be no room for two busses or vans anywhere near the mission and it would be impossible for it to go unnoticed by neighbors or the other ministry located right next door. 

• The actual mission was TINY. There was no place for more than a couple kids, much less over 20! No one living in that area ever saw a group of children being kept there nor did they ever see busses or a police force on their road or entering the mission.

• This mission gets medical visas but does not house or take care of multiple “sick” kids so there would never be any “sick” kids to bring out mixed in with Heather’s kids during the rescue.

• Heather stated their guards fired the shots as if there were guards and a security wall, however, there is no wall and no need for security because it's really nothing more than an office and very small apartment.

• This ministry is located in PAP, not anywhere near the GHRM but the timeline Heather gave was inconsistent for the time it would take to get there or the idea of sending out her son as "bait". 

•  I suggested immediately after the raid that we send some staff and counselors to help the kids debrief and talk about their experience.  I wanted to hear it from the kids to see if it really happened but was told the Nannies would be dealing with that.  What?!  We have kids who were abandoned or dropped at a creche who were then taken back by their bio parents who were then taken by strangers in white vans and then held in a new location away from everything they knew then woken up in the middle of the night with men with guns and they nannies are going to "counsel" with them?! 

• And, since I’m sure a rebuttal from Heather would include the idea that there was a “safe house” closer to the crèche where the kids were kept, I wanted to note that in addition to the fact they don’t house sick kids (and that was very much a detail that was mentioned multiple times by Heather) that even IF they did, it would be even more illogical to move the sick kids (that are so sick they require very difficult-to-get medical visas to the US) away from a mission they had in Port Au Prince, to a secret location that wouldn’t be set up to meet medical needs.

However, even with all this “evidence” I did not feel I would be able to convince the staff it was a lie, since Heather is so good at covering up the things she does. I had already "gotten in trouble" several times for trying to verify information we were told and was told that "I didn't need to verify, I needed to trust her (Heather) completely", that I "wasn't loyal or a good friend" and that I was "wrong for ever questioning her integrity".  I have continued to provide evidence to the VOTO lawyer on various situations and events like this and he has continued to only accept Heather's versions of everything without asking for any other information.

As I continued to “dig” what I found confirmed everything I believed about this “rescue raid” and gave me the evidence I needed to prove it was all a LIE.

• During the week of the “raid”, when the kids had supposedly been kidnapped for a week or more already, there were short term and long term missionaries at GHRM.  Several of those at GHRM that week were not informed that the staff had been told of 20 missing children who had been "kidnapped" from their bio parents.  They also didn’t realize that many of the kids they were taking pictures of while they were there were kids that were supposedly “kidnapped” during that time. Those photos and testimonies provided digital time stamps and evidence that proved they were at GHRM and NOT kidnapped and in hiding somewhere. Which means this "rescue raid" was ALL MADE UP.... A LIE.... NOT THE TRUTH!

I don’t think I would have pursued seeking the truth on this, except for the fact that I listened to the anguish in the voices of my two friends who truly believed their children were gone, kidnapped, and had to be rescued by force by police with guns.  It made me sick to my stomach to know that someone was purposely hurting them in the most damaging way…. through their kids. Who does that? Who tells their closest friends their kids are missing for weeks when they aren’t? Who makes up dramatic and traumatic details to a raid that isn’t even happening in an effort to emotionally torture someone? I thought I knew that person, but I don’t know the Heather Elyse that is capable of that and if nothing else that has been said about her, and if all the other evidence mounting against her is not true (which I believe most of it is), then I would still have nothing to do with her after this one event because someone who is capable of manipulating a situation and people like this and then, even with all the evidence, try to dispute it, is not someone I want to ever deal with again or watch anyone else have to deal with.