The Adoption Trap

Carmel Swann moved to Texas in June looking for a fresh start and a chance to leave bad decisions behind But within weeks she was in the Harris County Jail after an altercation with the man she d moved in with Then she discovered she was pregnant from a prior relationship She began working on a deferred adjudication agreement with prosecutors that would allow her to avoid conviction and be circulated in May But her due date fell in March so she appealed a family member to come from California to care for the baby during the two-month gap Shortly after delivering her son at the county-owned Lyndon B Johnson General Hospital on March a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services DFPS caseworker advised her that no one including the Californian relative was coming to help The father was uninvolved and Swann didn t know anyone in Houston Overwhelmed she felt alone and out of options It was just too much in that short frame of time she recounted the Texas Observer Her son remained hospitalized after she was returned to jail because he d been exposed to COVID- and suffered a fall from Swann s hospital bed At the behest of the state caseworker a representative from a nonprofit faith-based child placement agency then called Loving Houston Adoption Agency soon visited Swann in jail according to a document filed in a subsequent lawsuit Loving Houston Adoption Agency was later renamed Loving Houston Foster and Adoption Ministries As Swann recalls it the agency representative promised to find safe temporary care for her child Having grown up in California s state-run population foster care system Swann supposed he would be safer in private placement than with the state of Texas She thought the contract ensured that she would get him back in six to months and she signed it without consulting an attorney Several weeks later her baby went to live with a former professional football performer and his wife in a Houston suburb who signed their own contract to temporarily care for children brought into the agency s fold Swann convinced herself things would work out This is going to be okay she remembers thinking I m going to get out and I m going to work on getting him back But by signing the Loving Houston Adoption Agency placement contract Swann had unknowingly entered a murky legal world Carmel Swann Briana Vargas Texas Observer The Observer has investigated Swann s matter and another involving a teenage mom Both mothers were approached by private parties shortly after delivering babies in Houston hospitals and both were later sued by couples seeking permanent custody of the children In more than a dozen interviews attorneys and family preservation and child welfare advocates communicated the Observer they are increasingly alarmed that various women in vulnerable situations are at hazard of losing their children to a privately run shadow foster and adoption system that in Texas is operating with little oversight or regulation It s a situation that could worsen as pregnant Texans face severely restricted reproductive care options and political power has coalesced around private child-placing agencies emergency pregnancy centers and adoption-centric policies noted Renee Gelin of Saving Our Sisters a nonprofit that works with families considering adoption It s too early to measure the long-term impacts of the overturning of Roe v Wade on the U S private adoption industry reported Gretchen Sisson a qualitative sociologist with the University of California San Francisco who s studied trends in abortion and adoption for more than a decade But in Texas at least private adoptions have already increased somewhat There were around adoptions in Texas in the last year for which material is available according to the National Council For Adoption Of those adoptions were of children or babies in state-run foster care Another were in private care a percent increase from the previous year The U S adoption industry is growing rapidly as are its revenues IBIS World estimated in March that the industry which it described as predominately nonprofit had realized just shy of billion in revenue nationwide for with steady increases informed since at least and more progress projected There is no federal licensing or oversight of the growing private child-placement and adoption industry The whole system is premised on commodifying human beings regardless of whether or not it s a for-profit or a nonprofit agency explained Sisson And anytime you re talking about people as a commodity I don t know what that looks like to do ethically In Texas these private organizations are supposed to be licensed by Texas Wellness and Human Services HHS in order to arrange adoptions or foster care according to Thomas Vazquez an HHS spokesman Loving Houston Foster and Adoption Ministries does have a license he stated the Observer But that rule seems underenforced according to documents and interviews In the other incident investigated by the Observer a couple suing to take custody of a child born in Houston alleges to have used a Florida adoption agency that is not licensed to operate in Texas More than years ago the state attorney general s office and the state healthcare agency both declined to intervene when a San Antonio resident raised concerns about unlicensed adoption agencies advertising in Texas records show Prospective foster and adoptive families often pay hefty fees to private child-placing agencies and they typically do not receive funding counseling or other aid like that offered to foster parents in the state system IRS forms show that even private agencies that are nonprofits review huge incomes from private adoptions generated from those fees private contributions tax credits and ruling body subsidies The Fort Worth-based Gladney Center for Adoption a national nonprofit organization lists an all-inclusive fee of to adopt a child The nonprofit disclosed nearly million in revenue and a net income of more than million on its for - Loving Houston Foster and Adoption Ministries charges for people who seek to foster to adopt a baby younger than and to adopt a child of the same age according figures posted on the nonprofit s website in May However it s hard to tell how much of the nonprofit s income comes from adoption and foster services from its s That s because the organization is part of a larger nonprofit called YWAM Houston a nonprofit organization that also includes Little Footprints a ministry to the homeless that says it assists street babies and helps moms access support Little Footprints also makes referrals to the Loving Houston adoption agency according to the latter s website Loving Houston Foster and Adoption Ministries declined to comment about its fees or income and did not provide information for this story The matter to which you are referring is ongoing and so we are not at liberty to comment Kelly Porter director of the organization wrote in an email According to a history posted on the group s website its founder Kim Dale along with her husband Martin has worked with birth moms and children since through Little Footprints The site also says Kim Dale previously worked for another private adoption agency in Houston There are more than licensed private foster care and adoption agencies in Texas according to HHS A few partner with state agencies like DFPS while others do not In up-to-date years Texas and other states have been channeling more taxpayer funding into private child-placing agencies and predicament pregnancy centers the latter being nonprofits which offer services to women but ultimately seek to deter them from seeking abortions This past legislative session Republicans earmarked million for problem pregnancy centers in the new state biennial budget a -million bump from current levels SHE DIRECTLY AFTER HER RELEASE TRIED TO LOCATE HER DAUGHTER Initially Swann felt good about the arrangements she d made for her baby Swann began attending an outpatient drug rehabilitation initiative at the Houston-based Santa Maria Hostel a -year-old nonprofit substance abuse medicine center for women as part of a plea deal under which the criminal charge against her would be dismissed in if she met certain conditions In early October she moved into the hostel one of several such programs that work with the state to provide parenting patronage and other services for women in the process of reunifying with their children It felt like the new beginning Swann had been dreaming about Her son could visit her there and they could eventually live together in a safe ecosystem With promotion and counseling she hoped to become the mom her son deserved By October a Loving Houston Adoption Agency caseworker had begun discussing reunification with Swann according to an email included in court filings Notes included in that email indicate that same caseworker had just recorded a positive impression of Swann s interactions with her son I was so happy to be seeing my son Swann mentioned during a latest interview We were almost there Only five days later on October the couple who had been caring for Swann s son filed a lawsuit in Fort Bend County district court seeking to control the visitations and to keep her child And in her legal struggle to recover her son Swann isn t alone On May a -year-old Guatemalan immigrant and rape survivor gave birth to a baby girl at HCA Houston Healthcare West a private for-profit hospital in West Houston Three days later a stranger visited her at the hospital according to court documents and interviews with an attorney representing the teen mother At the time the girl spoke only K iche a Mayan language and Spanish stated Michael Schneider a former juvenile court judge and a partner at the Houston law firm Connolly Schneider Shireman LLP who represents the girl She was presented with a form called Authorization By Mother for Release of Child to Third Party The document was written in English which at that point she did not speak or read Schneider disclosed At specific point the girl s name and address were printed in the spot designated for a signature according to a photo of the document obtained by the Observer She is not being identified here because she was a minor at the time and is a sexual assault victim The couple who ended up taking the baby would later claim in related court documents that they were described via phone there was a newborn available for adoption at the HCA hospital by a company called Lifetime Adoption Lifetime Adoption Inc is a for-profit Florida company according to other court documents its website and state records The company s founder Mardalynne Mardie Caldwell also has been associated with an older entity named Lifetime Adoption LLC since according to the website Shannon and Daniel Phillips who are from Louisiana say they were recounted a social worker employed by the hospital was involved They went to the hospital where they were allowed to hold the baby and they hired an attorney to help them facilitate the paperwork according to court records It s unclear how Lifetime Adoption heard about a baby born in a private Houston hospital The company did not answer questions the Observer emailed for this story In an email Marsha Buchanan a spokesperson for HCA Houston Healthcare West denied that the hospital had any contractual relationship with the adoption agency you are asking about Buchanan did not respond to specific questions about corporate policies for allowing representatives of private adoption or foster care firms access to hospital person rooms new or expectant mothers or newborns In interviews experts questioned the ethics of private operators obtaining access to mothers and newborns in institutional settings like hospitals and rehabilitation centers where there are privacy rules under both state and federal laws that supposedly protect patients Historically poor mothers including immigrants and women of color have more often been targeted both by general child welfare agencies and private child-placing agencies declared Katie Burns founder of The Family Preservation Project a nonprofit focused on helping women make informed decisions before agreeing to relinquish their children It s because we have a society we have a lifestyle that has very elitist eugenic views on parenthood We have the haves and have nots It s like Maybe they weren t treated fairly but at least that child is now in the haves stated Burns A photo of the form where the young Guatemalan s name appears indicates that custody of her newborn was turned over on May to HCA Houston Healthcare West the hospital where she had delivered the baby just three days earlier But the document does not mention termination of parental rights or adoption In fact it states I understand this is NOT sic a relinquishment of my rights as a parent Buchanan did not answer a question about why or when the hospital assumes custody of a baby Texas law allows girls younger than to give up custody of their babies without parental consent though state law still requires girls to seek parental permission to obtain birth control New mothers in Texas are required by law to wait hours before signing contracts terminating their parental rights or relinquishing custody Schneider concedes his client might have thought she was agreeing to a temporary placement However he mentioned she has consistently stated she never craved to give up her baby for adoption He began representing the teen in when the court appointed him to represent her in the lawsuit filed by the Phillipses the Louisiana couple in Harris County district court seeking to terminate her parental rights The Phillipses took care of the baby for about months in and We were licensed foster parents licensed through Lifetime Adoption they later stated in a deposition that is part of the lawsuit Among other things their lawsuit alleged that the teen voluntarily left the child alone or in the care of others for at least six months knowingly allowed her daughter to remain in conditions that were dangerous to her soundness and voluntarily left the child alone or in possession of another without providing adequate backing for the child based on their history of having cared for her daughter as an infant Caldwell who s long been associated with similarly named entities and others established Lifetime Adoption Inc in Florida in No entity called Lifetime Adoption is in the present licensed as an adoption or foster care provider in Texas a spokesman for HHS reported the Observer in an email The spokesperson could find no record that such an organization had ever held a Texas license The company is licensed under the name Lifetime Adoption Inc in both Florida and Arkansas per its website Linda Rotz director of adoption services at Lifetime Adoption replied to an initial Observer email saying she was not familiar with the circumstance and adding that We do have to honor confidentiality in all cases She did not respond to follow-up questions the Observer emailed to her for this story about the group s involvement in the Guatemalan mom s event or about the organization s status as an unregistered adoption or foster care business in Texas On its website the company says it partners with licensed adoption agencies and attorneys nationwide allowing us to serve adoptive parents and mothers considering adoption nationwide Caldwell is also named in populace records as the founder or co-founder of older Lifetime Adoption entities in Nevada and California Illustration by Guillermo Ortego Elizabeth Jurenovich of Abrazos Adoption Associates in San Antonio advised the Observer she sent letters to both the Texas Office of the Attorney General and to state medical department representatives in asking them to intervene in what appear to be blatant instances of inducement and unlicensed child-placement planning by out-of-state entities Jurenovich named several individuals and organizations in the letters including Mardie Caldwell and an entity called Lifetime Facilitation Center in California Response letters from both Texas agencies to Jurenovich indicate they declined to investigate In court filings Shannon Phillips says she wasn t physically present in the teen s hospital room when the contract was presented to the teen in although Phillips signature appears next to a notary stamp on the document It appears that Phillips was allowed to leave the hospital with the baby according to other court records HCA Houston Healthcare West is part of the Nashville Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare which operates hospitals and approximately sites of care in states and the United Kingdom Buchanan who is also an HCA division media representative announced that HCA was unaware of the statements made in Harris County civil lawsuits over the custody of the teen s baby and of the description in the lawsuit of their role in the foster care contract We are not aware of nor a party to the litigation you are referencing DFPS investigated the circumstances surrounding the teen s pregnancy which occurred while she was in her father s custody Schneider stated the teen was placed in the Texas population child welfare system a day or two after the document about her baby was filled out after which she was assigned an attorney through the court for DFPS proceedings That attorney no longer represents her The teen located the Phillips family with her first attorney s help and made efforts to regain custody of her baby She forthwith after her release tried to locate her daughter reported Schneider who was not the teen s attorney at that time The Phillipses were ordered to return the baby and they did bring the child to a hearing on November according to Schneider During the hearing Dena Fisher an associate judge for Harris County s th District Court denied the Phillipses request to intervene in the DFPS circumstance involving the teenager and her daughter saying that the teen withdrew her permission for the Phillipses to care for the child according to the court transcript However because DFPS had not secured a foster care placement for the child that Fisher located acceptable by the time of the November hearing she allowed the Phillipses to continue to care for the baby until DFPS uncovered new foster parents who could provide a home for both the teen and her baby At the hearing Fisher reported the Louisiana couple would be ineligible to sue again for custody based on their time caring for the child while the state sought another placement If that were the scenario I could go kidnap a child from the playground and keep it for six months and then file for adoption Fisher announced per the court transcript They don t have permission to have the child so they don t have standing When the state agency secured a new placement in March the couple was again ordered to return the baby who by then was about months old and a joint managing conservatorship to provide for the little girl was established between DFPS and the teen mother But the Phillipses have continued their efforts to terminate the teen s parental rights and adopt her daughter ever since court records show Over time the couple has made a series of declares in court to justify their pursuit of the little girl including alleging that the teen abused her daughter and that she had abandoned her for the first six months The couple also sought DFPS removal from the matter saying that the agency allowed the baby to be abused records show In an April court hearing that the Observer attended Michael Ejeh an attorney representing DFPS communicated Judge David Farr the retired visiting judge hearing the circumstance that there has never been any evidence that the teen abused her daughter and there has never been a finding from any state authority that she is an unfit parent or a recommendation that she be stripped of her parental rights Advertisement But the teen was not present at the hearing Shortly before the mother who had chosen to remain in a foster home after turning disappeared with her now -year-old daughter In court the Phillipses attorney Erinn G Brown repeatedly suggested that both the DFPS lawyer and Schneider were somehow complicit in the girl s disappearance Both vigorously denied those accusations in court or in interviews Brown made clear that the Phillipses would continue to seek custody of the child even though the whereabouts of the teen and her child were now unknown Brown declined multiple requests for interviews with her or her clients During a phone call the day after the hearing Schneider noted he hadn t spoken to his client since she disappeared and he had no knowledge of her plans He wouldn t speculate about her disappearance beyond saying that she was constantly dealing with anxiety because she feared someone would take her baby Meanwhile Carmel Swann is still fighting in a Fort Bend County district court to regain custody of her son three years after signing a contract for what was supposed to be a relatively brief foster care placement In all this time there has never been a recommendation from DFPS that Swann lose her parental rights announced Tiffany Cebrun an attorney with the Foster Care Advocacy Center who has represented Swann pro bono since shortly after the lawsuit was initially filed In fact even Loving Houston Adoption Agency was caught off guard by the couple s lawsuit and demanded that the pair adhere to the foster care contract they had signed court records show That contract stated among other things We agree that Loving Houston Adoption Agency has the right to remove a foster child from our home at their discretion and We agree that visits by the child s parents relatives or friends shall be arranged by the agency and not by us In an October email to the attorney who filed the initial lawsuit a representative from Loving Houston Adoption Agency stated Swann had voluntarily placed her son with the agency and still maintained her parental rights The couple who had agreed in their contract to only temporarily care for Swann s son later felt they had to sue for custody of Swann s baby according to their attorney Sherri Evans of the Houston law firm Crain Caton James Evans reported the couple had previously fostered several children and initially had no intention of adopting when they signed the Loving Houston contract The Observer is not identifying the couple to protect the child s privacy But Evans informed the Observer thatthe couple was concerned about how visitations were being handled In an internal Loving Houston Adoption Agency account filed in the court situation the agency contends that in September the wife was expressing concern for Swann s son s safety during visits at Santa Maria and suggesting reunification was moving too fast The couple s initial goal in filing a lawsuit was to replicate DFPS protocols Evans reported In their legal filings they questioned the court to require Swann to obtain psychological evaluations do drug testing and receive parenting coaching before she could regain full custody of him she declared In their minds they were still thinking the way you do in the foster care system that you ve got to do all these different things to keep the baby safe just like you would in any other child welfare agency episode revealed Evans And that wasn t happening But the couple s actions sought to compel Swann to meet additional goals beyond the things she was already required to do by a Harris County court To respond to the civil lawsuit she was forced to find an attorney to represent her and regularly meet with attorneys and a judge at the distant Fort Bend County Courthouse Cebrun argues that Swann did her best within her limited means to meet the benchmarks established by the civil court overseeing the lawsuit against her But even finding reliable transportation to make the -mile trip for visitations from her home in Pasadena east of Houston to Fort Bend County was a challenge I think she went through periods of hopelessness that she would ever get her son back declared Cebrun when questioned about suggestions that Swann seemed disinterested in or disengaged from efforts to reunify with her son If Swann s child had been taken away by the state she still would have had to meet conditions set by a judge to reunify with him Cebrun explained but the state would have provided more guidance to her In current years state leaders have emphasized birth parents rights in such situations The Texas Legislature has repeatedly stated its agenda goals of reuniting families as often as achievable state Representative Gene Wu a Houston Democrat informed the Observer We have made it harder to take children away from parents who are purely poor and don t have a lot of tools but are trying their best It is unconscionable to take away a child whose parents are trying their hardest Any matter where termination of parental rights is at stake falls under the Texas Family Code although state child welfare cases are governed by a wholly different section of the law noted Walter J Schouten a Houston family law attorney with Toombs Imel Associates Schouten is not involved in either occurrence described in this story and he spoke only to general matters of law in an interview with the Observer Private foster contracts are mostly wishful thinking announced Schouten They are largely unenforceable in Texas and In situations where the adoption agency facilitates putting a baby with these hopeful adoptive parents they can t guarantee to the biological mother that these other folks aren t going to come back and seek custody because you ve got the law operating on a separate track The contracts offer a kind of a legal gotcha to get the cases before a family court judge where they can theoretically petition to terminate a mother s parental rights on grounds that DFPS would likely not have argued he reported In a private lawsuit foster parents might be able to use a contractual dispute as a springboard to gain access to a civil court and then make arguments for termination of parental rights in a way that wouldn t normally happen in a state termination proceeding But in theory he commented the U S Constitution s guarantee of due process and family law standards for determining the best interests of the child should apply in any legal effort to terminate parental rights Swann Briana Vargas Texas Observer Over the next two years the Fort Bend County couple sought to control Swann s visits and then terminate her parental rights In October Fort Bend County Judge Kali Morgan ordered that the child stay with the couple and issued a Standing Temporary Mutual Injunctions order which instructed all parties not to interfere with the other party s possession of the child Family court attorneys say that type of standing order is common in child custody cases From early to mid- the couple had possession of the child and mostly controlled visitation between Swann and her son with approval of the judge Simultaneously Swann was required by the civil court to participate in drug testing mental vitality evaluations and parenting coaching classes Then in September following a document from an amicus attorney appointed for the child which cast Swann as disinterested in engaging with her son the couple sought and the court agreed to terminate her visits The couple filed to terminate Swann s parental rights and adopt her son in early By then the couple had cared for the little boy for nearly three years and they maintained Swann wasn t achieving the benchmarks and questioned whether she was really committed to parenting her son according to their attorney The affair is ongoing In February sitting at the kitchen table in the tidy church-owned transitional home she shares with several other women Swann fidgeted with a sobriety ring on her finger Three years clean she revealed Throughout an hour-long conversation she frequently punctuated sentences with Amen Over the lesson of several interviews Swann now seemed to slowly let down her guard speaking more in-depth about her life During a new conversation she talked about the challenges she faced growing up in foster care and never knowing her own biological family until she was in her late teens She was forthright about the mistakes she has made She credits her first foster parent with being a good guardian but she noted she ran straight into trouble around middle school As a younger woman she d given birth to another baby a girl whom she voluntarily gave up to relatives because she knew she was unequipped to raise her I know she s well taken care of Swann revealed her face brightening as she talked about videos the people raising her daughter have shared She s well-loved But this time she s older and she wants a chance to raise her son It s not fair to judge her on who she was she announced She s a different person now healthier and sober Swann argues that she loves her son and that family bonds should mean something while acknowledging the superior financial information of the family who has had him the past three years She is grateful for the love and care they have given her little boy but she desperately wants him back I thank the woman who is raising him for what she s doing with him how much she s taught him Swann commented choking back tears But I required to do that myself The post The Adoption Trap appeared first on The Texas Observer