Pound Pup Legacy

Alberta adoption hopefuls in limbo after Ont. firm falters

Province to aid broke agency's applicants

By Robin Summerfield, Calgary HeraldJuly 16, 2009 7:22 AMBe the first to post a comment

Delores and Shawn Bertin hold some of the paperwork they received from the adoption agency imagine adoption, which went bankrupt monday, leaving about 400 prospective families uncertain about their applications to adopt.

Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald, Calgary Herald

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia

Organizations: Imagine Adoption

Local couples left with nothing but grief

ADOPTION: Bankrupt

Posted By RACHEL PUNCH, THE SUDBURY STAR

Posted 1 hour ago

Natalie and Chris Fournier turned to international adoption after trying for five years to have a child.

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia

Organizations: Imagine Adoption

Anxious adoptive parents wait for agency's bankruptcy to be sorted

Last Updated: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | 7:43 PM MT Comments38Recommend19

CBC News

Three-month-old Wondimu was approved to be adopted by a Calgary couple before an adoption agency went bankrupt. (Courtesy of Thurmeier family)

Children approved to be adopted by Canadian parents using a now bankrupt adoption agency are in good care, according to the bankruptcy trustee for Imagine Adoption, which specialized in adoptions from Africa.

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana

Organizations: Imagine Adoption

Mother's fight to get newly adopted child

Updated Wed. Jul. 15 2009 8:21 PM ET

A Kitchener woman is taking matters into her own hands after hearing Imagine Adoption has filed for bankruptcy.

Jennifer Ziegler says she will fly to Ethiopia to make sure her adopted daughter is safe while, she waits for the child's Canadian visa to go through.

Officials are advising against this. Citizenship and Immigration Canada says they can't finalize the adoption cases until the paperwork is in order.

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia

Organizations: Imagine Adoption

Agency folds, puts couple's adoption plans on hold

Bankruptcy trustees take over company conducting arrangements for two children

By Sarah Mclellan, Edmonton Journal, with files from the Calgary HeraldJuly 16, 2009

Tammy Campbell and her family have been planning for the arrival of two adopted children from Ethiopia for months.

She and her husband, Scott, have been collecting Ethiopian art, tasting Ethiopian food and gathering children's books about African folklore.

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia

Organizations: Imagine Adoption

Ethiopian kids in limbo as adoption agency folds

Last Updated: Thursday, July 16, 2009 | 6:18 AM PT Comments0Recommend0

CBC News

A woman from B.C.'s southern Interior who is in Ethiopia to adopt two children is calling on the Canadian government to help dozens of children stranded by the bankruptcy of an adoption agency.

The Ontario-based agency Kids Link, which operates Imagine Adoption in Ethiopia, went bankrupt Monday, jeopardizing hundreds of potential adoptions for new parents.

Countries: Ethiopia, Canada

Organizations: Faith Village, Ethiopia, Imagine Adoption

Debt mounting for Imagine Adoption

570 News/The Record Cambridge | Thursday, July 16th, 2009 5:58 am

Cambridge - There's new information this morning about the Imagine Adoption agency in Cambridge that folded earlier this week.

The company is facing huge debt. A preliminary bankrupcty report finds the company owes $80,000 for two luxury vehicles it leased. The vehicles include a Lexus and Nissan Pathfinder. The company was also renting three properties in Cambridge with payment obligations of $13,000 a month.

Bankruptcy trustee Susan Taves tells today's Record that while early accounting shows the agency has a $363,000 shortfall, that number could rise because of the $800,000 in fees collected from families who applied to adopt.

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia

Organizations: Imagine Adoption

Adoption Agency Collapses, Takes Dreams with It

15/7/2009 - Taking prospective parents by surprise, the collapse of Canadian adoption agency Imagine Adoption and its associate, Kids Link, made headlines all accross the nation.

Imagine Adoption, an Ontario-based Government-licensed international adoption agency, surprised its expectant parents by filing for bankruptcy earlier this week. Now, 200 parents are left to pick up the remaining pieces of their dream of providing a home to an impoverished child.

Surprisingly, this is not some isolated case of financial mismanagement. Stories from adoption analysts and from parents say that the dangers of adopting abroad are increasing. The expansion in the number of international adoption agencies, especially in countries with corruption and a weak rule of law, means that accountability and transparency in their financial books may not be 100% reliable.

While a heartfelt way for some people to attain their dream of being parents while giving back to the world, international adoptions may not be the surest route.

Countries: Canada, Ethiopia

Organizations: Kids Link International Adoption Agency, Imagine Adoption

U?oar? relaxare a adop?iilor interna?ionale

14 Iul 2009 Oana Craciun | 0 comentarii | 216 vizualizari

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Countries: United States of America, Romania

Former Erie trustee draws 90 days' jail, 12 years' probation Novak barred from adoption work

See what Novak's daughter said:
My mother taught us a morality and spirituality that is completely inconsistent with the way she was portrayed in this courtroom."

I think the same goes for so many adoption workers - they mean well, charity.
But get caught in money and criminality and have no, no idea.

http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=14310

Former Erie trustee draws 90 days' jail, 12 years' probation Novak barred from adoption work

BOULDER — A judge sentenced former Erie trustee Lisa Novak to 90 days in jail and 12 years of probation Friday, and has also barred her from working in the adoption field.
Novak, 48, was convicted in December of stealing from clients of the Claar Foundation, an international adoption agency she operated with her husband Martin Claar. A jury found her guilty of two counts of theft of $20,000 or more, one count of theft between $1,000 and $20,000, and fraud by check.
Boulder District Judge Maria Berkenkotter said Novak must also pay back her victims and work 100 hours of community service. The judge denied a request to postpone the sentence until after an appeal is resolved.
"I do have concerns ... that this is not a case of simple poor decision-making," Berkenkotter told Novak at the sentencing. "Some of your statements suggest that you may not understand the impact of your conduct. ... What was stolen in this case went beyond money. You stole families' trust and, in some cases, their ability to adopt a child."
Prosecutors accused Novak of taking payments from clients and then failing to arrange for the adoptions. Her defense attorney, Lance Goff, said at the trial that international adoptions are risky and that payment never guarantees success.
Testimony for and against Novak at Friday's sentencing frequently grew emotional. Her 19-year-old daughter, Alexandra Speers, begged the judge to grant clemency, saying that Novak's two adopted daughters from Russia were still too fragile to have their mother gone for so long.
"The mother I knew is nothing like the portrait created in the newspapers," Speers said. "My mother taught us a morality and spirituality that is completely inconsistent with the way she was portrayed in this courtroom."
By Scott Rochat
Longmont Times-Call

Countries: United States of America

Organizations: Claar Foundation