Not Sure Here Either, but Let’s Look Into That!
Why Would ANY Adoption Agency Fight for This Baby?
I wonder that myself nearly every day. Carri and I still say it to each other all the time; “Why won’t they just give him back?” And, really, we don’t know why. Adoption by Gentle Care says that the consent is legal and therefore it has to be upheld. The history of this unethical adoption agencies dealings already speak for themselves. Behind closed doors, we know, they did consider returning Camden, but then, because of their public reputation being damaged, they decided to fight Carri. Yes, it really is a revengeful act of punishment.
There are times when I sit and try to imagine what the emergency board meetings must be like over there at the agency. I know someone must have been sitting there saying “Oh, just give that baby back!” though now that poor soul must be biting their tongue thinking ‘I TOLD you idiots to just give that baby back!” How does another human being get to the place where they say, as I imagine, “Oh screw that mother! We’ll show her. How dare you malign our good name. You sunk your ship. We’re going to call your bluff.”
I mean, even from a business model sense, Adoption by Gentle Care has put themselves in a no win position.
They can’t be doing this for the money as they certainly have long lost any chance to recoup the legal costs of fighting Carri. They lost money on this baby already; even a successful adoption of Camden in the end will not net them in the black.
They can’t be doing this to look good. Adoption by Gentle Care rejected every chance to just return Camden and make themselves look like decent human beings who cared about ethics and the best interest and well being of a child. I would think, at these secret board meetings, that at one point someone has to see the writing on the wall and think to cut their losses.
There comes a time when one must just admit defeat, but I will give Adoption by Gentle Cares some credit. They have staying power. I think it’s for all the wrong reasons, but they never disappoint. Just when I think I have seen them reach the lowest any human being can get, they surprise me again. I can’t say I am shocked anymore, but I still shake my head in surprise. I just can’t even pretend that I understand these folks, but I continuously wonder how they keep this crap up. I wonder who is driving this bus? Is it that yucky Trina Saunders? Is it the board calling the shots? How does anyone involved with them sleep at night? How does this get rationalized as acceptable?
Putting The Puzzle Pieces Together
I really appreciate that people like to tell me things they know about Adoption by Gentle Care. Sometimes it feels like pieces to a puzzle where I am only given one jigsaw piece at a time. Sometimes I don’t know where all the pieces fit until I take the time to lay out what I have and look at the big picture. Of course, no matter how insignificant, I like to share what I find out.
Adoption Circle Rumors and Facts
Now I already knew that supposedly there was a walk out of Adoption by Gentle Care social workers at one point. Rumor says the split was was over ethical issues and those social workers went on to form the Columbus Ohio Adoption Agency Adoption Circle.
Now, based on that and just by looking at the search rankings, I can tell you that out of Columbus Ohio adoption agencies, Adoption by Gentle Care and Adoption Circle seem to be in strong completion for each others adoptions. At least I can tell you that their pay per click campaigns are definitely targeting the same keywords and their websites are both optimized to show up for the same search results.
Thinking them rivals for the same market, I was rather surprised to find out that Patrick Hamilton has been the lead counsel staff attorney over at Adoption Circle for the past 20 years!
Pat Hamilton; Go To Baby Seller of Columbus, Ohio?
Mr. Hamilton and his involvement in Adoption Circle were further researched and the results of that research can be found already discussed here, but just to get us up to speed for this post;
Patrick Hamilton is the legal registered agency behind:
- Adoption at Adoption by Gentle Care(2002 cancelled- registered trade name)
- Adoption by Gentle Care (from 1992 to 2015- registered trade name)
- Adoptions with Gentle Care (1992 cancelled- registered trade name)
- Gentle Care Adoption Services, Inc. ( 1985 corporation for nonprofit)
- Adoption Circle ( from 1991 corporation for nonprofit)
- American Adoptions, Inc. ( 2011 to 2016 Foreign corporation)
- American Surrogacy Institute, LLC. ( 2006 Domestic Liability Company)
Adoption Circle and Adoption by Gentle Care
I was also recently told that someone else suspected that perhaps Adoption Circle and Adoption by Gentle Care had a secret plan for merging in the works. This thought was based on the fact that Adoption Circle recently moved from the building where they have been forever into literally, the very building next door to AGC. Granted, I don’t live in nor know Columbus very well, but I would think that there are more than just those two office buildings for let, yet it is convenient as indeed, Patrick Hamilton’s offices are on the first floor with Adoption Circle just above and Adoption by Gentle Care right next door.
I have heard no other grumblings about such a merge, but it would make sense and explain some things. If there was a plan to merge, then it really would not matter how badly the Adoption by Gentle Care names gets tarnished. It might explain how the board could indeed so callous and continue to take on the risks of this case. They can afford to ignore the writing on the wall because they actually have another exit strategy in the wings. Lord knows we have seen that kind of activity from within the adoption industry again and again. It’s a tactic. If an agency loses it license or gets in trouble in one state, all they have to do is move shop or make up a new name. It would be real easy for Adoption by Gentle Care to pretend to go under, but really, they just get re-absorbed into Adoption Circle.
While I could not really come up with any other connections besides the odd location move and the shared legal counsel of our beloved Patrick Hamilton, however odd it might be, the American Adoptions registration got me wondering about that affiliation again. So, I spent some time digging. I wondered what else was shared and decided to take the time and really look at the various board memberships of Adoption by Gentle Care and their friends.
In the end, I had to create a spread sheet to track what I found, but it was a very interesting exercise. By tracking the board members in a timeline, I was able to place a few more of those jigsaw pieces I was missing.
Looking at the Board of Directors for Adoption by Gentle Care
Connecting American Adoptions
Perhaps it would be easier if I explain the whole thing;
So Adoption by Gentle Care was founded in 1985 by Jim Albers. Adoption Circle was first incorporate in 1991, so we know the social worker walk out must have happened in that early timeframe. Not sure what else was going on back then, but things seem fairly consistent with Jim running the show and Susan Zelasko as the acting director of AGC.
In 2004, things drastically change. Susan Zelasko, Albers and Joel Laser are gone. John Cameron comes in as the acting director. My understanding was this was not a peaceful exchange of power, but what is very clear is that THIS is when American Adoptions basically took over. I’ll get back to it, but with the exception of Matt Moriarty (currently president of the board and the only consistent a BOD since 2002) and Craig Koenig (treasure and BOD since 2003) everyone else who sits on the board is from American Adoptions.
Previously, again based on rumors and things whispered in my ears, I knew that American Adoptions and Adoption by Gentle Care had a connection. I had, however, erroneously though that American Adoptions had come in and helped out Adoption by Gentle Care financially AFTER the whole Grayson Vaughn episode. While I had thought that the bigger national American Adoptions agency had been asked to step in and help the poor struggling Adoption by Gentle Care after the last legal fight, it’s actually the opposite that happened. American Adoptions was pretty tight in with Adoption by Gentle Care BEFORE and DURING the Grayson Vaughn situation and it was AFTER the ruling, that American Adoptions looked to pull back and disassociate themselves publicly from AGC!
After Grayson Vaughn, John Cameron becomes the fall guy and gets booted. Trina Saunders , who was previously only a non master degreed social worker, gets the title of Executive Director and we see the birth of the BOD that is there today.
Now none of this is really that juicy. I still wonder why Pat Hamilton was doing things for Adoption by Gentle Care back in the day when Jim still was as well based on the registered agency status. Granted, there is a possibility that the date of those filings transferred over with new ownership, so perhaps Pat wasn’t involved then?
Adoption by Gentle Care Shady Dealings with Tucker Ellis and the BOD?
There are more questions that come up such as what role does Matt Moriarty play as he is now not only the president of the board, but has tenure? I also wonder what deal has been made between Adoption by Gentle Care and the law firm he partners with, Tucker Ellis. Tucker Ellis’ attorney, Jon Oebker, also represents Adoption by Gentle Care alongside Pat Hamilton in what seems to be paid representation, but the Adoption by Gentle Care bylaws/policy does state something along the lines that board members cannot have Adoption by Gentle Care interests conflict with their own or benefit individual members. One might think that having Adoption by Gentle Care pay for Jon Oebker’s services might cause some concern as a partner normally then receives a portion of that profit hence, monies paid by Adoption by Gentle Care would end up in Matt Moriarty’s pocket? Unless of course, Tucker Ellis agreed to discount Jon Oebker fee’s thereby giving Adoption by Gentle Care a deal which would then free Matt Moriarty from any ethical concerns? Can that be worked out in a way that isn’t really too shady or is that connection just always shady no matter what?
Then there are other little instances that make me wonder if Adoption by Gentle Care ever get the memo saying that transparency and accountability is key to build trust? It seems they prefer to try to keep the wool over people’s eyes and just do what they do in the dark.
For instance, how is it OK that board member Sarah Dudding Callihan can write a public review for Adoption by Gentle Care from the perspective of an adoptive parent client and NOT disclosure that she also serves on the board? Does that not make her review look like it comes from a fair and balance client rather than presenting the true facts and disclosing them? I personally see that as quite misleading. Why not say that you believe in this agency so much that you are honored to serve on the board?
I really have begun to wonder if anyone over there has anything that even resembles a moral compass!
As American Adoptions seemed like they wanted to publically disassociate themselves from Adoption by Gentle Care during the Grayson Vaughn timeframe, I decided to look deeper into the American Adoptions empire. Maybe they are hoarding all the ethics here?
Here’s where it REALLY gets interesting.
Defining the Connection with American Adoptions and Scott Mars
So American Adoptions lists Adoption by Gentle Careas “an affiliate” agency along with a few others. Now the Metropolitan Adoption Council of the Greater Kansas City Area doesn’t yield anything interesting really. The website itself is what we would call a link farm and has basically zero value at all. The same “link farm” insult could be said about this 1-800-HomeStudy – Adoption Home Study Resource. The purpose of this site is to rank for words “home study” and direct traffic to the agencies listed. Then we have Adoption By Gentle Care – Ohio Adoption Assistance and The Kelley Law Firm of Arkansas.
Now what does 1-800 Home Study,Adoption by Gentle Care and the Kelley Firm ALL have in common? Adoption Kingpin Scott Mars!
Scott Mars is a very interesting guy. Based on what I can find of him, he founded American Adoptions out of Kansas in 1991 at the ripe old age of 22. Now one might wonder what a 22 year old guy is doing creating adoption agencies, but our man Scott also happens to be a 1969 Adoptee – an only child, much beloved, single son adoptee. I don’t think it is too far of a stretch to say he probably never read “The Girls That Went Away”, never searched, never reunited with his own family, and has redefined the words “Adoptee Loyalty”, “adoption overcompensation” and “people pleaser”.
Nope, he so wanted to prove how great adoption is and how much he adores his adoptive parents that he has fully embraces and pushes adoption on the world as his life mission. Really. It’s a family affair. A-dad ,Ted Mars, is tied into almost every venture Scott was involved in until his death in 2013. And A-mom, Susan Mars, is sitting on adoption agency boards as well. Let’s not forget Deanna Jones from Texas who is Ted’s sister and Scott adoptive aunt. The other character that seems to be very connected to Scott is Wade Morris. They have been together for over 20 years.
Now I know… you could be thinking, damn Claud, why are you so judgmental? Maybe he is really just a nice guy who loves his family and adoption, right? And yes, it is true, it might be mean of me to start labeling Scott Mars as a overeager people pleasing foggy ass adoptee, but we are so not done with our digging by any means yet. Let me tell you, this Scott Mars has adoption corporations and business ventures coming out of everywhere! Seriously, while Pat Hamilton might be playing the part of Adoption King of Columbus, Scott Mars can certainly teach him a thing or two.
Alas, there are so many interesting tidbits on Scott Mars, that you will have to wait for Part Two!
