Brenda's Story: We lost a year to a scam

I never thought I would be in this position.  I have read about people being scammed or cheated through their adoption process and I felt very blessed to believe I had found a good Christian organization to work with so I wouldn’t have to worry about that.  This Christian organization, Giving Hope Rescue Mission, was even one of the voices speaking out against corruption in the Haitian adoption system. Unfortunately we ended up in the very position we never wanted to be in - feeling scammed.

We began our adoption journey one year ago, in September of 2012, following a visit to Haiti.  Our daughter lives in Haiti and we went down to visit. We stayed at the orphanage she works for (unrelated to Giving Hope.)  

That was my first trip to Haiti and my husband’s second trip.  I did not go there with the intent to adopt but God had other plans and we felt compelled to bring four of the girls from the orphanage into our family.  Those of you who have felt this call know that it is a strong and persistent call that cannot be ignored.  We began to pursue this adoption with a passion and were on a tight timeframe given that our oldest adopted daughter would be turning 16 (the cutoff age for adoption from Haiti.) My husband found Voice of the Orphan (VOTO) online through a blog post that he read by Heather Elyse, the director of Giving Hope Rescue Mission (GHRM).  She was speaking of how she was fighting the injustices of the adoption process in Haiti and we were drawn to her passion and her love of God and the children of Haiti. 

On September 19, 2012 we sent an initial application to Voice of the Orphan who advertise on their web site that  “Voice of the Orphan is committed to providing ethical and God honoring adoptions in Haiti. We are guided by the Bible and believe that caring for widows and orphans is a clear obligation of the Christian Church. Our goal is to process adoptions with integrity, honesty and compassion.” 

They also note that “Voice of the Orphan has been able to help families process the adoption of a child in other orphanages (more information coming soon). These situations will be evaluated on a case by case basis.  If you need more information about this we invite you to contact us.” 

This second paragraph was what we were looking for since the children we planned to adopt were in another orphanage.  

At that time we were not aware of the new draft adoption laws being discussed in Haiti that would limit which agencies and orphanages families could adopt from.  VOTO assured us that they could process our adoption and that Heather Elyse was a miracle worker in Haiti and could get adoptions processed much faster than anyone else. Their explanation for this fast processing was because Heather supposedly had a strong relationship with IBESR (Haitian Children’s Services).  They told us that the whole process would take 9 months to a year.  We were very excited. 

We have since learned that VOTO was not even licensed as an adoption agency in their state of Indiana until June 2013.

On October 11^th  2012 VOTO accepted our adoption application and told us we could begin preparing our dossier.  We had not received a contract from VOTO yet but they kept reassuring us that we would receive it.  This was finally received on January 3, 2013.  I’m not sure why it took so long to just get a contract but during this time we were able to complete our dossier preparation.  We were just waiting for VOTO to give our Home Study agency their license number to put on our home study so we could get it authenticated.   At this time we were told that IBESR was closing down to get ready to switch to the Hague policies so nothing would be done until they re-opened after the first of the year.  Once they re-opened under the Hague laws we would be able to enter the adoption system in Haiti.

On January 13^th, 2013 we received a call from our dossier coach at VOTO stating that IBESR was going to open for a short time to take dossiers under the old policy. We were told to rush our documents to them as soon as possible.  They told us to have the homestudy completed without VOTO's license number since we were filing this as a non-Hague homestudy and a license number was not needed.   We spent the next few days running around like crazy people trying to get the county and state authentications done and overnight our paperwork to someone at VOTO to take to the Haitian consulate in Chicago for authentication. We were told that someone was traveling to Haiti on February 1^st and would take our dossier there to be submitted. We were so excited that things were moving.

On February 7^th we got a call saying that the laws had changed and that the Haitian government would only allow each agency to submit one dossier for one adoptive family per month.  VOTO had told us that previously Heather had been able to submit 20 dossiers a month.  This was a serious blow and we were disappointed to say the least. 

On March 11^th I received my first phone call from Heather Elyse.  She spent almost an hour with me on the phone answering my many questions and assuring me that she could process our adoption even though our children were not in Giving Hope Rescue Mission and even though she could only submit one adoptive family per month for adoption.  

She said it was fine to have our children remain at their previous orphanage and that Giving Hope Rescue Mission could take custody of the girls in name/paperwork only. We told her at this time that we were planning to adopt all 4 girls and gave her the information on the girls and the orphanage where they lived.  She informed us at that time that this constituted us being “pre-matched” with these 4 girls.  She said they would begin processing the girl’s adoption paperwork in Haiti.  She said she loved our hearts and was so excited that we were willing to take 4 children because she had never had anyone willing to adopt so many besides herself. 

When I told her the age of the children and that the oldest was then 15 years old, she immediately informed me that we would need to change her age.  She said that it was not a big deal and that we just needed to have her father go file for a new birth certificate in the town where they live and say that she is only 13.  She said they could give the father money to do it but that we should make it very clear to him that he could never say that we told him to do it or that he received any money to do it.  She said it was normal process in Haiti. 

The next day, after prayerfully considering what Heather had told us, I emailed Heather back and told her that we were not comfortable forging a birth certificate for our oldest child.  She never responded to that email.

It was during this conversation that we first heard from Heather that Voice of the Orphan was no longer an approved agency to process adoptions in Haiti, although I am still unclear as to whether or not they were ever an approved agency.   

Heather told us that she was working hard at trying to get IBESR to allow Voice of the Orphan to continue to submit adoption dossiers.  She gave us the option to switch to MLJ Adoptions (an adoption agency she had just begun to partner with) but told us that it would be much more expensive and that MLJ Adoptions was "all about the money and not really interested in the children’s well being."  

We opted to not jump ship and to continue in our contract with Voice of the Orphan believing that Heather would get approval from IBESR to continue working with VOTO soon.

Heather also came up with a plan at that time to have us write a letter of appeal to IBESR explaining our circumstances and that we had tried to begin this process before the policy changes and see if they would accept our dossier directly.  We were planning a trip to Haiti on March 19^th so the plan was to get an appointment with IBESR while we were there. 

We drafted the appeal letter and were waiting to find out what we were supposed to do with it and if we were supposed to go into IBESR when we got there.  I emailed Heather, and 3 other members of VOTO to try to get an answer before heading to Haiti.  I got a reply on March 17^th saying to hold off on the appeal letter and that there was another window of opportunity opening up with IBESR and that MLJ Adoptions could submit our dossier right away. We were so excited that they were willing to do that!

On March 19^th as I sat in the airport waiting for our connecting flight to Haiti, I messaged a member of the VOTO staff and was told that MLJ Adoptions had refused to submit our dossier because our children were not living at the Giving Hope Rescue Mission crèche.  We were confused and devastated.  We were about to see our girls and now did not have any good news to report. 

When we returned home to the US we emailed asking for updates and to see what we should do now.  On March 28^th we received an email from Heather saying that they found other options for us so we would be able to “adopt this year” and they would give us more information soon.   On April 9^th I received a call from VOTO stating that MLJ Adoptions had agreed to take our case and would work with us even though our children were not in GHRM creche. Things were getting confusing.

On April 15^th we received an email from VOTO that was sent to all of their clients who were waiting to be submitted to IBESR for Haitian adoptions.  It outlined 3 options for their clients.  Option 1 was to transfer to MLJ Adoptions, Option 2 was to wait for VOTO to receive Hague accreditation in the fall and then try to complete an adoption and Option 3 was to find another agency that would take us.  Since we believed we had already been accepted by MLJ Adoptions and were being submitted by them to IBESR I was confused as to why I had received this letter.

I called MLJ adoptions that very day and had my first conversation with "L" the director of Haitian adoptions for MLJ.  L had no idea who I was! And MLJ Adoptions had never heard of our case and had never agreed to take us on or submit us to IBESR. I was shocked.  

I couldn’t understand why this was happening when I had specifically asked VOTO if they were sure that MLJ had agreed to take us under the special circumstance of our children being in a different orphanage.  They assured me they had.  

L asked me to forward her the email I had received and then informed me that the information on that email from VOTO was incorrect.  L told me that she would attempt to contact Heather to find out why Heather had given us this misinformation. She said that she often had a hard time contacting Heather.  I told her that Heather had told us that she was waiting on MLJ to complete the contract work or she would have had us submitted already.  

This was the first of many contradictory stories we would receive, the lies appearing to come from Heather and Voice of the Orphan.

I also must note at this time that L was very professional and accommodating.  Through our conversation that day and in all future conversations with her, I found L to be a caring, compassionate person and an advocate for orphans.  This is very contrary to the picture that Heather painted of MLJ Adoptions.  

We spent the next couple of weeks trying to contact Heather by phone, text, and email.  On May 1^st 2013 my husband sent a thank you email to Heather for the work she is doing in Haiti.  This finally got her to respond to us.  She sent us a glowing email telling us “I just want your girls home in your arms?  I am cheering you all on, and am willing to stand beside you and fight so they can come home.  I also put in a good word for you all at MLJ – explaining it is critical we get your dossier in ASAP.”  She ended the email saying “I am busy---but never to busy to serve my adoptive parents.”

On May 14^th Heather sent a text stating that she was preparing our 4 girls’ adoption documents and asked us for their orphanage contact information again.  We texted her back and asked when we would be submitted and she said “either this Friday or next Monday”. 

On May 21^st we received an email from Heather in response to our inquiries stating that IBESR was not taking any agency dossiers at that time but reassuring us that we were first on the list to go in when they started taking them.

On May 25^th I received a call from Heather stating that IBESR would never accept a submission for 4 children that were not siblings.  We were devastated.  We had never been given even a hint of this during any of our previous correspondence with VOTO or Heather even though all of them were aware the entire time that we were trying to adopt 4 children.  

Heather acted like we should have know this would be the case but since we don’t know anything about adoptions we were completely taken by surprise.  

She asked us to pick which two we would like to submit first and if they would allow 3 which child would be next.  She vowed to fight to get all 4 but assured us that if she couldn’t get them all submitted at once that as soon as we exited IBESR with the first ones, we could immediately re-enter with the remaining children.  We have since learned that this is not possible.

On June 4^th after texting Heather to receive an update, since we were assured we were being submitted, we received this text:

"Let me reassure you:

You are not being ignored.

… Neither is your case.

You are with an agency so there will be no issue with getting you in…

My issue is: I feel like if you want me to get you in tomorrow I can-but I will only be with two or three girls.  If you can please give us some time to fight your case—I would feel better knowing we did all we could to get all four in;);)

I promise once you have Ibesr numbers we will shout it from the rooftops

I simply adore you guys and promise to do your adoption with honor !!!  Excited about this!!! I need like 200 more families like you all."

This was the last response we ever received from Heather.  We sent repeated emails and texts but never received a reply.  L at MLJ was also trying to obtain information for us.
We received an email from Heather's assistant via Heather’s email stating that Heather was still trying to submit for all 4 girls and that we should email back in a couple of weeks if we hadn't heard anything.

L at MLJ went to Haiti to meet with GHRM in July and called us on July 18^th when she returned from there to inform us that Heather was not able to get all 4 girls into IBESR but that we were matched with the oldest 2. 

Through some reading of things online we realized that we needed to get our immigration application filed before our oldest turned 16 so we began asking questions on what we needed to do.  During this process we found out that Giving Hope Rescue Mission was no longer a licensed creche in Haiti or able to submit dossiers.  

We also found out that our children’s dossiers (adoption paperwork) were never even started.  Nothing had been done for our adoption from September 2012-July 2013.

We began hearing other things about GHRM which prompted us to contact MLJ Adoptions to ask some very pointed questions. 

I spoke to L at MLJ on July 29^th and she told me that one of the reasons for her visit to Haiti was to look into the accusations being made against Heather.  She assured me that she had met with Heather and was confident that the accusations were false and that there were no problems with GHRM.  She told me that Heather had assured her that she could submit dossiers and that we were matched with our 2 oldest girls.  Also, in an email dated July 23^rd, L assured us that Heather had submitted us for the match with the 2 girls.

Since we knew that these statements were not true and that Heather had not even obtained basic information on our children from their orphanage, we contacted another agency to try to get some help in rescuing our adoption. 

On August 2^nd we spoke to MLJ about terminating our agreement with them and getting our dossier and money back.  MLJ was able to make arrangements to get our dossier back and were very helpful and accommodating to us.  Since that time we have learned that they also terminated their relationship with Giving Hope Rescue Mission.  We also got a refund of what we paid to Voice of the Orphan but were unable to get any money back that was donated by our friends and family to them in our name.  According to my records that amounts to $2200 but I am not sure I have a record of everything that was sent to them.  The only way I ever received notification of donations sent was if I sent an email requesting confirmation of money received when friends told me they donated.  If someone did not tell me they made a donation then I didn’t know to ask so they may have more of our money than I think.

When our new adoption agency got our dossier they informed us that it was never legalized with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Haiti, which should have been done when our dossier arrived in Haiti in February, 2013.  

This made it even more clear to us that Heather Elyse had never attempted to submit our dossier to IBESR (despite her repeated and ongoing assurances that she had tried) since this step would have been done if she had.

This entire ordeal has been an emotional roller coaster ride.  I have no idea what it profited Heather or anyone in VOTO to lie to us or string us along the way they did.  I do not write any of this down in an effort to hurt or slander anyone.  I just want everyone considering starting this process to know all of the facts about Giving Hope Rescue Mission and Heather Elyse before they put their trust in them.

We feel like we are starting over now after a year of this ordeal.  It is disappointing to us and to the girls, who unfortunately know that we are trying to adopt them and have been strung along in this process.  Ultimately, we know that this is all in God’s hands and He will work things out according to His perfect plan and His perfect timing.  We pray that we will still be able to bring all 4 of our daughters home some day soon.  Thank you for reading our story and praying with us. 

Brenda

Our girls. Still waiting.

Shasta's Story: Truth will set me free (Part II)

Shortly after we began working on our dossier for adoption I was told by Heather that I could only get into IBESR if my homestudy was altered or modified to remove my bio children. 

The document alteration took place at Heather's apartment in Haiti after I arrived with my homestudy and dossier. 

I knew that other families contracted with Voice of the Orphan were asked to do this also and were assured it was fine on the Haiti side. Heather said that she was the “only one doing ethical adoptions in Haiti”.  (I don’t know why I listened to her words instead of seeing her actions.)

Heather told me that she could only get a certain number of dossiers in IBESR before they closed in May for the summer of 2012 and mine wasn’t one of them, so the dossier didn’t get accepted until Sept. 2012. 

During the summer I was asked to become part of her (Voice of the Orphan) staff to help Heather with “Intervention Cases”. These are cases where families had paid for adoptions with other organizations but had never been submitted to the government.  I was told that Heather would complete one of my adoptions for $8k and I could work off the other one.  That seemed like a great option and I was willing to work to help other families while seeing through our adoption as well.  (She has since tried to charge me for thousands more and since I submitted my resignation she has accused me of trying to get a free adoption from her. However, I absolutely worked many more hours than the cost of my second adoption.)

Fall of 2012 I spent many hours, day and night, working with multiple families that had turned their dossiers over to Heather Elyse after having failed adoption attempts with their own orphanages. I went to Haiti that fall and got to see Giving Hope Rescue Mission's main creche plus another building where she was “hiding kids”. I was told that this other location had to be kept a secret because the original creche kept getting “raided” by bio parents and/or IBESR (the Haitian adoption authority).  

At the time Heather said she was doing everything for the safety of children. I truly believed Heather was everything she said she was and began to feel like we were close friends which made it very difficult for me to believe anything negative about her. I didn’t question her even when things seemed a bit “off.”  

In the summer of 2012 Heather informed us via facebook that two children from the Giving Hope Rescue Mission creche were murdered. I did not get any further details until the fall of 2012. You can read more about this story here. Hearing that story from Heather was the first time I began to feel concerned and suspicious about what was going on at the crèche. I have worked in Haiti off and on for a long time and know that culturally, while children may die of neglect or lack of food, it is rather unheard of for families to violently murder their children.  The various, very different, versions of the stories she told also raised red flags for me that it was not true. But I couldn't understand the logic behind making up this story.

In February 2013 I made another trip to Haiti. During that time Heather shared with me incredibly serious concerns about the Haitian adoption liaison (who also acted as creche director) she was employing, Pierre Wesmin Garcon. (According to witnesses in Haiti Heather is now married to him - though they may deny this.) The stories were about abuse, death threats towards Heather, threats to destroy adoption documents, the halt of all adoption processing between November-February and additional information that would definitely prevent an adult man from working with children if he lived in the U.S. Heather told me that Wesmin was blackmailing her and she had no choice but to keep him employed. I kept thinking she would find a way to distance herself and the program from him but never saw any effort of that and in fact noticed the opposite...more authority and responsibility being given to Wesmin. (He was promoted from an "adoption liaison" to "creche director"!) 

As a staff we were approving wire transfers to this man via Heather and I became more and more concerned.

Shortly after I visited in February and was feeling my own red flags about Heather, Wesmin and the Giving Hope Rescue Mission creche a family that had been part of the program for about a year, Jeremy and Amanda, went to Haiti to take custody of their son. 

The story we, as Voice of the Orphan staff, were given about this situation was that the family had “raided” the crèche. The dramatic explanation by Heather (who was not in Haiti at the time) was so horrifying and traumatic that I was furious with Amanda. But knowing that I had hand carried her dossier to Haiti the year before and had never seen her act irrationally, I went right to her to find out why she and her husband took their child.  I can't say I believed her right away (because Heather had painted such a terrible picture) but I kept asking questions. What I was hearing from Heather about the incident and what Amanda was saying about it were completely opposite and I just really wanted to know the truth. In the months that followed I obviously realized exactly why Amanda and Jeremy did what they did and have learned that many of the stories and versions of “emergencies”, including almost all details surrounding Amanda’s “raid” on the creche we were given as staff were wildly exaggerated or even completely made up!

My own personal adoption issues started when I realized in February 2013 that all the intervention families that had transferred to Giving Hope/VOTO were not being helped and had even been lied to about the progress made on their adoptions.  

I was devastated because I had done everything I could to help them and then passed on their dossiers for Wesmin to try to submit to IBESR. After 7-8 months of NOTHING for these families (not submitted to IBESR which is the first key step in any Haitian adoption) I asked that they get their dossiers back.

The parents, along with another adoption liaison, 2 different lawyers, an orphanage director and IBESR worker ALL stated that they had not been put through "Pre-IBESR" since 2011 (these dossiers had expired when we got them so to get them in formally to IBESR and the adoption system they had to go through Pre-IBESR again in 2012 which should have been our job).

I messaged Heather to tell her that the intervention cases had not been through Pre-IBESR and that I was worried about them. They were my responsibility and I had grown to love each of these families.

I was assuming the best and that she just didn't know that Wesmin had been lying about processing the paperwork. But instead of calmly asking for clarification or engaging in a conversation with me Heather became very angry at me, forwarded my email to Wesmin (which infuriated him) and since then my adoption really hasn't moved.  

At that time (early spring 2013) I had been told I was out of IBESR and courts (we had an adoption decree and were legally our children’s parents) yet from then until now (Sept. 2013) I still had never been submitted to MOI which is the last step before passports are produced.  

I have multiple text messages telling me that Wesmin had my dossier, which meant I’d be moving to the next step.  But after every text I would later be told my dossier was “stuck” with a Haitian attorney who had previously been fired and then was inexplicably hired back. The stories surrounding this attorney, Guerdine Jean-Juste, were ridiculous and far fetched. I began to believe that I might never see my dossier again.

To be continued...