I would like to say thank you To Mr. Hernandez for helping me in my adoption in January, 2004. Thanks for keeping adoption safe for all.

Having been a Blanca victim, I can give you a list of agencies that have used or are using Blanca.
Bethany Christian Services(no longer using)
Jessie Garcias Agency(no longer using)
Project Oz (no longer using)
Adoption Partners (no longer using)
Reaching Arms International

It saddens me to realize that agencies don't research their new lawyers before accepting referrals from them. The internet is a powerful tool and could have saved alot of people months of agony trying to bring their children home.

Its not that I did not do my homework when I started taking cases from that attorney. The cases I took from her are from over one to two years ago and at that time she was working OK and did not have a bad track record. Over time we all have discovered that she was not doing what she told us she was doing and basically lying to us. I, as well as some others, stopped taking her cases over one year ago. Unfortunately, bad attorneys do not show their true colores immediately. Currently, I'm helping the last few families complete their cases because I know that once a bad attorney is uncovered I have the responsibility to help the families get their cases completed and always keep them informed. Jessie

I was also a "Blanca Victim" and am so happy that she has been stopped. In the nine months that she was the attorney for my first referral (which never became a completed adoption), I suffered through her lies and gross incompetence. I do not know what finally brought her to the attention of the U.S. Government, but I am so happy that she has been stopped.

I just want to verify Jessie's explanation that Blanca did not always appear to be a bad seed. Over the past few years, a number of reputable and ethical agencies worked with her. And I have had a few tell me that she used to a good job. Then she started flaking, being dishonest, etc. and these agencies stopped accepting referals from her. It was at that point that Blanca started offering up large numbers of referals to new agencies and, as I understand it, having these cases worked through a less-than scrupulous facilitator who I shall leave nameless here. These new agecies, some of which raved about their super quick attorney to prospective clients, that offered referals with her in the past year or so obviously did not do due diligence.

In any case, since I am the originator of this blog I did not want there to be an implication that all agencies/facilitators who have ever worked with Blanca knowingly did their clients a disservice. Many of them, like Jessie apparently, have spent lots of time and pain trying to clean up after her mess and stopped working with her when they realized what they were dealing with.

-Kevin of guatadopt.com

Kevin-
Not all agencies stopped taking referrals from Blanca after they found out she had dealings with the facillitator that shall remain nameless. Also, I might add, referrals were given out AFTER it was proven that there was illegal activity on some cases.

I can understand the agencies from several years ago not researching Blanca based on the fact that she was referred to them from a well known person in the adoption community, but the agencies in the past year should have done more research and they would have discovered the truth.

I know I always respond to posts asking about Blanca and I would hope that the agencies that no longer accept referrals from her would also.

Jill

Since I'm getting a lot of personal replies to my last post let me just try to be clearer. I was not trying to defend anyone in particular. There were a number of agencies listed in a prior post as having worked with Blanca in the past. I also know of other agencies (none of those listed) who worked with her in the past and lived to truly regret what they unknowingly and almost unavoidably got themselves into. It was their perspective I was trying to convey as it seemed to be the same one Jessie was describing in her post.

I want to agree with the folks who have posted that some agencies continued to offer referals from her after her reputation was known. And in my opinion, that is unexcusable.

Hope that makes sense.

-Kevin of guatadopt.com

I just wanted to say we had Jessie as our agency,she was always honest and very helpful when Blanca was not doing her job. Jessie went out of her way to try and help get our daughter home to us,she should not take any blame for Blancas poor work ethnic and her lack of care when it came to getting the children home. So please don't put blame were it dosen't belong.

Could some of the comments be more specific? Lies about what? Flakiness about what? Who is the 'unnamed facilitator'--why leave that person unnamed? Please talk, be specific. My husband and I contracted the end of Oct 2003, Blanca is the attorney the agency employed for this adoption...What are you telling but not telling us?

As far as whether or not to put blame on the agency/facilitator here's my opinion. I feel it's understandable that an agency may accidentally works with an attorney who turns out to be unethical. Especially when the attorney is recommended by someone in a position of influence. What is most important is that they immediately correct this error and stop giving out referrals. If not then I feel their actions are inexcusable. I believe the bottom-line is there were facilitators and agencies that continued to work with unethical attorneys and turned a blind eye to their practices for whatever the reason. When this occurs I feel the agency/facilitator are as unethical as the attorney they are working with.

Does anyone use Aida Caldaron Gonzales and are you happy with her? She is our attorney and I need some research on her before we get too far in. Thanks.
Carla

I agree with Amy!!! Nobody is responsible for Blanca's actions, except for Blanca. What the agencies/facilitators are responsible for is giving out referrals after the unethical, illegal activity was proven. Also, they are responsible for "dumping" some of their clients and not staying with them until the end of their adoption. It's these "dumped" clients that the agencies/facilitators won't tell you about and believe me, there are quite of few of them out there.

I would like to make an addition to my original comment on this subject, Reaching Arms International is no longer taking referrals from Blanca. At the time I made the post I didn't know either way, but it has been brought to my attention that they no longer do and have not in the year 2004.

RAI did give referrals in 2004...they may have stopped now, but they were doing it earlier this year.

I would like anyone from RAI to clarify what Becky has stated. I would hate to think I posted incorrect information.

Whether or not RAI gave out referrals in 2004 is not really all that important. I am sure that no agencies are currently giving out referrals with Blanca’s name attached to them and hopefully none are doing so by creating a false paper trail with lawyers working for Blanca. The important thing at this point is to thank the Embassy for making sure no more families get involved with her and to help the families currently stuck in the middle of this get their kids home!

RAI was not the only agency working with Blanca. As I posted earlier, many agencies got burned by her and stopped using her over the past couple of years. So for the moment, let’s try to give anyone who worked with her recently the benefit of the doubt that they too would have stopped. That may be a leap, but nothing constructive can come from speculation. Any family considering hiring an agency that had been affiliated with Blanca certainly should ask the agency to explain, talk to families involved at the time, and reach an educated, informed decision.

I think that any agency whose name and reputation are mixed with Blanca have to explain what happened. And I think that those agencies with current/recent Blanca cases can make or break their reputation on how they handle this here and now with their clients. Times of trouble can make villains or heroes out of people, it depends on how they handle the situation.

-Kevin, guatadopt.com

Kevin,
I couldn't agree more. Any agency can find themselves in a bad situation. Even the best of attorneys can 'go bad'. So...the true test of an agency is how they handle the difficult situations when they occur. If they treat their clients respectfully, if they are honest, upfront, communicative, and they do all that they can do to resolve the situation...then in the end I personally would have a lot of respect for the agency.
I have always said that what makes an agency 'great' is how they deal with the difficult cases...not the easy ones.

Thanks for bringing this up Kevin...it is a very good point.

For those of you in this mess, I urge you to seek each other out. I know when I was going through it, I felt alone and helpless. I found a woman who had the same agency, same lawyer and had brought her child home. I affectionately called her my "therapist". She knew exactly what I felt, what I was going through. She helped me get through the rough times by understanding what I was saying. My friends and family would listen, but they really didn't know the in's and out's of an international adoption.

There are alot of us out there that have or are going through an adoption with Blanca as the lawyer. We know what it is like to feel helpless, to lay awake at night worrying about our children, who have cried gallons of tears, who avoid public places in fear of running into a friend that might ask how the adoption is going, who just want our lives out of the hands of someone who just doesn't seem to care.

The support from someone in the same situation as yourself is different than the support that you receive from your agency.

Would someone PLEASE explain what is going on with Blanca? I haven't visited this site in several weeks and just happened to do so this morning. Everyone's posts are so vague and I NEED SOME ANSWERS to what happened with Blanca.
The reason this is so important to me is that we just brought our second son home from Guatemala in March: RAI was our agency and Blanca was our attorney. With the exception of a few weird "bumps" in the road, our adoption proceeded fairly smoothly (considering everything that was going on the past year with Guatemalan adoptions.)
But, PLEASE, someone either post more definitive information to this site about Blanca or email me DIRECTLY at DeniseFein@aol.com with all the specifics. I can't even imagine why she has been banned and it's starting to sicken me, especially when I read some of the posts about her being unethical. Someone PLEASE respond to my request and fill me in. Thank you!

As a sidenote, we seemed to have had very little to no problems with Blanca. With all that happened in Guatemala last year, it's hard to know where to place the blame regarding delays, etc.
Our case made it through the PGN VERY fast. The problems we incurred ALL fell within the US Embassy.........our DNA was processed fast with no glitches.

The only problem we had may have had nothing to do with Blanca. We originally agreed to adopt two boys: a newborn and a toddler. We agreed to this early last summer. In October, our communications virtually came to a dead stop with RAI. With my husband's persistence, we finally got a return call on Yom Kippur informing us that Daniel's biological Grandmother decided to intervene and raise him. Other than that, our experience after September with both RAI and Blanca was fairly smooth. Granted, it wasn't as easy a process as our first adoption in 1999, but I assumed it was because of all the backlog and unknowns from the governments attempts to stop adoptions.

I'll be quite frank with you when I tell you that we got more bullcrap from our original agency, of which I'd rather not reveal the name, this round. They TOTALLY dropped the ball on us in March of 2003. That is why we switched agencies and went with RAI. Because of them, and Blanca, our "little Lucas" made it home on St. Patty's Day.

In all honesty, I can't say a bad word about Blanca. She delivered! And, I don't understand what's happening to her other clients. It makes NO sense to me. With the exception of Kevin, please advise. Thanks.

Denise-

Consider yourself one of the few lucky ones that have had no problems with Blanca. I'm sure the stories will surface once families have their children home.

The embassy just doesn't ban attornies on a whim, I know for a fact that they have received complaints about Blanca for almost 2 years now.

Jill