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Voddie Baucham's Latest Adoption


hoipolloi

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An alert FJer recently mentioned Voddie Baucham's upcoming adoption in the Babies thread but there are some, uh, interesting things about it that merit discussion, IMO.

According to his prayer updates for January & February, this baby, a girl, will be their 10th child. It appears that her mother had at least one other child who was adopted after birth (by the Bauchams?) and she is supposed to deliver this one by the end of February or so.

I do not have any adopted children nor do I know anyone who has gone through the process so some questions that come to my mind are:

How is it OK for the Bauchams to finalize the adoption and then take the baby with them back to Zambia where, undoubtedly, the state of Texas (or wherever the adoption is finalized) will not be able to conduct any follow up visits? Is this normal or acceptable with adoptions? Voddie says the following which seems problematic to me:

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We contacted the lawyers who have handled six of our seven previous finalizations, and they contacted the Judge (before whom we have finalized five times).  HE IS WILLING TO WAVE THE SIX MONTH REQUIREMENT FOR FINALIZATION!  That means we will not have to a) stay several more months, or B) return to finalize!  Praise the LORD!

Under these circumstances, how will the adoption agency be assured that the placement is a good one and that all is going well?

For the purposes of the adoption the Bauchams are claiming residency in Texas mostly because they haven't yet sold their Houston home:

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Praise God with us as we now see why he DID NOT answer us in the affirmative concerning the sale of our house in Houston (it has hurt us financially, but, if it had sold, we would not have residency, and this adoption would not happen!).

Is this really legal and acceptable? The Bauchams have made it quite clear all over the intertubez that they are moving or have moved to Zambia for good so Voddie can be a big cheese at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia so how on earth does an unsold house in Houston = current residency? Maybe I'm missing something because I don't know much about the adoption process?

Having followed other threads here on fundie adoptions with international aspects, I can't help but wonder how this will turn out for the child...:my_sad:

 

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I can only speak to what my paperwork said, etc when I was adopted. State laws would obviously differ slightly, but once an adoption is finalized that child is no different then biological children. They can do whatever they want and live wherever. There are not any follow up visits that I am aware of or anything preventing them from leaving. 

I was adopted privately, but I think the finalization process is the same for infants regardless of agency or private adoption. 

I don't know anyone who was adopted as an older child from the foster system, so I don't really have any idea how that works. My cousins went through an agency to adopt their children, but I don't remember there being any home visits after finalization. 

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I can speak to the adoption of children through the Department of Human services in my state.  Once a match has been made there are a series of short visits, which gradually turn into overnights and then weekends.   In the case of one of my clients this started in March.  The sibling group moved in with the family in early June, adoption finalized in November.  There is social work involvement until the adoption is finalized.  

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36 minutes ago, lynn0810 said:

I can only speak to what my paperwork said, etc when I was adopted. State laws would obviously differ slightly, but once an adoption is finalized that child is no different then biological children. They can do whatever they want and live wherever. There are not any follow up visits that I am aware of or anything preventing them from leaving. 

Thanks -- just the info I was seeking. So, it's quite likely the Bauchams can leave for Zambia once the adoption is finalized. One still wonders how a home study could be done honestly & competently  though while they're living in temporary quarters -- staying with a church member, apparently.

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1 hour ago, PsyD2013 said:

I can speak to the adoption of children through the Department of Human services in my state.  Once a match has been made there are a series of short visits, which gradually turn into overnights and then weekends.   In the case of one of my clients this started in March.  The sibling group moved in with the family in early June, adoption finalized in November.  There is social work involvement until the adoption is finalized.  

Is this the case with infant adoptions, too? I know that it wasn't in Texas at least as late as the mid 90s, or at least it wasn't with private agencies.

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I will be in Malawi this summer, which is right next to Zambia -- I won't have time to pop over and tour Voddie U tho... :(

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I have to wonder how the ever loving f*ck these people can adopt when their "philosophy" of brutal child beating in lieu of child rearing is all over the damned internet and in print.  This is a man who preaches publicly that children are born evil and need to be hit early and often.  I never realized that most (all?) of their children are adopted. 

spiritualsoundingboard.com/2013/06/17/voddie-baucham-prescription-for-spanking-and-the-shy-child/

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Rules might  be bent if he has the sibling as well.  Most agencies will move heaven and earth to keep siblings together, so they have at least that small bond. 

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Is it legal? Probably. It sounds like everything is by the book because of technicalities. Laws about adoption vary tremendously by state, but generally with a voluntary placement there is no transition period expected for newborns and post-finalization followup (if any) is usually at the discretion of the agency. 

Although the way they're going about this seems underhanded to me, I don't really see any way they could be prevented from it since they're keeping the letter (though not the spirit) of the law.

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Their home study was most likely updated before they moved (have they moved?) All they have to do to be considered for adoption is turn in their paper work. The agency is obviously familiar with them, so they must be ok with the situation. If they do indeed have a sibling it's likely the agency contacted them for the adoption, rather than them seeking it out. 

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11 hours ago, Howl said:

I have to wonder how the ever loving f*ck these people can adopt when their "philosophy" of brutal child beating in lieu of child rearing is all over the damned internet and in print.  This is a man who preaches publicly that children are born evil and need to be hit early and often.  I never realized that most (all?) of their children are adopted. 

spiritualsoundingboard.com/2013/06/17/voddie-baucham-prescription-for-spanking-and-the-shy-child/

I think Jasmine and the oldest son, Trey, are their bio kids and the rest are adopted, but I could be wrong.  

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2 hours ago, DomWackTroll said:

I think Jasmine and the oldest son, Trey, are their bio kids and the rest are adopted, but I could be wrong.  

No, that's correct.

That article I just found also indicates that they work with the same agency who only phones them up for succeeding adoptions:

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Voddie: So here we are with our 11-year-old and our 14-year-old and we walk into this agency and we said, “Hey, we are interested in adopting.”

And I think we said that we were interested in adopting several children. And the lady just went and got her supervisor. We didn’t know what was going on.

She said, “Tell her what you just told me.”

We didn’t know at the time that adoption agencies in this country have a hard time finding black families who will adopt. It was like an answer to prayer for them. We started our paper work in May and we were matched in July. It was almost scary, because we were just getting used to the idea. By the end of July there was another baby in our home.

That was our first of seven adoptions. And everything changed. We never went through that process again. The second adoption was with the same agency. Adoptions three through seven we just got phone calls. Seven times the Lord said yes.

 

 

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How the F can you adopt a child when your parenting philosophy says that spanking a child 3x before breakfast can be needed? :562479528aee8_32(4):

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18 minutes ago, imokit said:

How the F can you adopt a child when your parenting philosophy says that spanking a child 3x before breakfast can be needed? :562479528aee8_32(4):

when you are a christian and have the money I guess.

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I am not too familiar with this family so correct me if I am wrong but I am going to assume they are grifters, yes? How many out of their soon to be 10 are adopted? And how the hell did they pay for them? 

I only ask because whenever I hear adoption brought up I hear up how expensive it is and how it just isn't worth it with all the 'government overreach and fees'.

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16 minutes ago, tumblr said:

I am not too familiar with this family so correct me if I am wrong but I am going to assume they are grifters, yes? How many out of their soon to be 10 are adopted? And how the hell did they pay for them? 

I only ask because whenever I hear adoption brought up I hear up how expensive it is and how it just isn't worth it with all the 'government overreach and fees'.

Actually I dont' believe they are grifters. Voddie gets invited to speak at lots of conferences and was a pastor before moving to Zambia; so pretty sure there was a salary involved for that. Also he may have published some books; can't remember. 

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Depends maybe on how you define grifting. His current prayer update (linked above) has a fundraiser button for this adoption (#10). ACU (and his TX church previously) pay Voddie a salary but he's always earned $$ for speaking engagements.

Also, though you wouldn't know it now, Voddie was on the VF money wagon for years making $$ off the homeschooling conference circuit & other VF events until, of course, it wasn't cool anymore for fundies to be seen cashing in on the sheeple alongside Doug Phillips Is A Rapist.

In my book he's a grifter.

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41 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

Depends maybe on how you define grifting. His current prayer update (linked above) has a fundraiser button for this adoption (#10). ACU (and his TX church previously) pay Voddie a salary but he's always earned $$ for speaking engagements.

Also, though you wouldn't know it now, Voddie was on the VF money wagon for years making $$ off the homeschooling conference circuit & other VF events until, of course, it wasn't cool anymore for fundies to be seen cashing in on the sheeple alongside Doug Phillips Is A Rapist.

In my book he's a grifter.

Eh, to me a grift is someone who isn't truly earning the money they make, just asking. He is providing a service to people who choose to pay him, I might call it a cushy job but it is a job of some kind. 

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5 hours ago, imokit said:

How the F can you adopt a child when your parenting philosophy says that spanking a child 3x before breakfast can be needed? :562479528aee8_32(4):

Erm, I think that was 5x. It's because he's done all private or foreign adoptions through an agency. He's probably never had to do a honestly through the state. Though it really depends of what your certifier thinks is right. I've heard of some people being rejected because they spanked in the past, where others were told you can spank your own kids, just don't do it before the adoption is final. But even for normal main stream spankers (lol) voddie is extreme. 

He does have some books, and he had been teaching at homeschooling conferences for many years. I'm pretty sure the last time I heard him was at least 8yrs ago and he only had a couple of kids, and they were older, the daughter was already soaking about being a sahd.  I remember thinking he was out of place at that particular conference, where everyone had 6+ kids. He must have felt he needed to adopt so he could legitimize his message of family integrated churches, quiverful, etc. I was surprised to hear he had so many kids just a couple years later. 

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2 hours ago, Mango said:

WHich adoption agency is this? (I'm assuming it's in Houston). 

 

I ask because well, connections. 

At least several of his previous adoptions were through Covenant Care Adoptions. Don't know if this current one is.

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On Monday, February 22, 2016 at 1:03 PM, imokit said:

How the F can you adopt a child when your parenting philosophy says that spanking a child 3x before breakfast can be needed? :562479528aee8_32(4):

Is this domestic adoption? Meaning adoption if an infant. I know some people hide shit but foster care takes stuff like this very seriously. 

22 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

At least several of his previous adoptions were through Covenant Care Adoptions. Don't know if this current one is.

O god. I haven't heard good things about this agency

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1 minute ago, Toothfairy said:

Is this domestic adoption? Meaning adoption if an infant. I know some people hide shit but foster care takes stuff like this very seriously. 

The original post said the baby is due at the end of February, so yes, an infant adoption. Domestic just means the child is from the US (or a current citizen, children adopted from foreign countries that are readopted are still considered domestic). A domestic adoption can be private or through the state's foster system. 

They are not adopting through the foster system, and I'd guess, as I said above, their home study is through a private adoption agency.

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