Whitney and Zach Bates - Part 3

[Carm_88]

Summer nights are for popsicles. They look super sweet.  

[nausicaa]

On 7/7/2017 at 10:24 PM, QuiverFullofBooks said:

That Apple Watch isn't exactly frugal. 

I'm still giving a lot of side eye to their budget. 

I suspect Zach is a long way from his "debt is evil" days. 

[Hmmm_idolatry]

I've gone back to old Whitney threads looking for the answer to this, but I haven't found it yet (apologies, if it's there and I just completely missed it).  What is the deal with Whitney being adopted?  She was adopted as a teen by a minister and his wife, but is still in contact with her bio parents?  Was she raised by the biological parents up until she was a teen?  What happened there?  Anybody know?  It looks like Bradley and Kaci have a close relationship with Whitney's bio parents.  Did they lose custody of Whitney at some point?  

[ColeJo]

14 minutes ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

I've gone back to old Whitney threads looking for the answer to this, but I haven't found it yet (apologies, if it's there and I just completely missed it).  What is the deal with Whitney being adopted?  She was adopted as a teen by a minister and his wife, but is still in contact with her bio parents?  Was she raised by the biological parents up until she was a teen?  What happened there?  Anybody know?  It looks like Bradley and Kaci have a close relationship with Whitney's bio parents.  Did they lose custody of Whitney at some point?  

This has been the million dollar question.

[JillyO]

3 hours ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

I've gone back to old Whitney threads looking for the answer to this, but I haven't found it yet (apologies, if it's there and I just completely missed it).  What is the deal with Whitney being adopted?  She was adopted as a teen by a minister and his wife, but is still in contact with her bio parents?  Was she raised by the biological parents up until she was a teen?  What happened there?  Anybody know?  It looks like Bradley and Kaci have a close relationship with Whitney's bio parents.  Did they lose custody of Whitney at some point?  

No one really knows. Here's the jist of what we do know (any someone please correct any mistakes I may make):

Whitney was adopted as a teen by a fundy-light couple. There was some kind of abuse going on in her birth family, but we do not know any specifics. We also don't know if she was ever legally adopted or if it was more of an informal arrangement. At the time Whitney and Zach's relationship began, Whitney considered her adoptive parents her parents. It was her adoptive father who walked her down the aisle. It was implied (stated?) that she had no contact with her birth parents and they did not attend the wedding. Sometime in the ten months between their wedding and Bradley's birth, Whitney reconciled with her bio parents and appears to have cut contact with her adoptive parents. Whitney's bio parents were the ones seen in pictures taken right after Bradley's birth, and they are the only ones talked about on the show and on their social media any more (all mother's and father's day tributes, for example, are now about her bio parents). We don't know what caused her to reconcile with her birth parents are what caused her apparent falling-out with her adoptive parents, and whether or not these things are linked. There has been much speculation that the Bateseseses pressured her into reuniting with her bio parents due to Gothard's fucked-up teachings about adoption, but we have no way of knowing if that is true or not.

[VelociRapture]

@JillyOThat was a good summary. I would just be very cautious regarding any claims of abuse. We simply don't know what may have caused Whit to move in with the Owens family and throwing around abuse allegations is serious. If I missed something about that then please let me know so I can update the summary thread.

@Hmmm_idolatryI covered this in the Bates family summaries thread. It's in the Zach and Whitney summary.  

[mstee]

@JillyO @VelociRapture there was that local website for the town that they live in and a commenter that knew Whitney mentioned that her bio parents gave her a bad beating. This was prior to her being on the show. It's not from Whit's mouth, but probably the closest thing to a confirmation of abuse that we will ever know about. (Sorry I can't remember the website). 

[VelociRapture]

5 hours ago, mstee said:

@JillyO @VelociRapture there was that local website for the town that they live in and a commenter that knew Whitney mentioned that her bio parents gave her a bad beating. This was prior to her being on the show. It's not from Whit's mouth, but probably the closest thing to a confirmation of abuse that we will ever know about. (Sorry I can't remember the website). 

Thank you. I'm going to hold off on adding that to the summary for now. I believe you're being honest, but I'm not going to write it if I don't have solid confirmation.

Regardless, I hope that poster was wrong. I think Whit has disgusting beliefs, but I don't think anyone should have to experience that.

[JillyO]

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/la-follette-tn/TGS12KQK4OSCOADVQ

This is the website I believe @mstee was refering to. I sure hope her bio parents didn't beat her up. Being that it's not exactly normal to have a teenager removed from a home, however, I would say that there's a pretty good chance Whitney experienced some kind of abuse (not necessarily physical). You are right that I shouldn't have stated it as fact, @VelociRapture. My apologies. I thought I remebered that this had been confirmed, but I should have checked.

[Hmmm_idolatry]

40 minutes ago, JillyO said:

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/la-follette-tn/TGS12KQK4OSCOADVQ

This is the website I believe @mstee was refering to. I sure hope her bio parents didn't beat her up. Being that it's not exactly normal to have a teenager removed from a home, however, I would say that there's a pretty good chance Whitney experienced some kind of abuse (not necessarily physical). You are right that I shouldn't have stated it as fact, @VelociRapture. My apologies. I thought I remebered that this had been confirmed, but I should have checked.

What in the hell?  That sounds like some Jerry Springer type drama.  

I thought Whitney's birth mother was named Lydia?  

[RosyDaisy]

I found this while looking for something else: http://www.freejinger.org/topic/22337-bringing-up-bates-other-bates-family-doings/?page=16

[Hmmm_idolatry]

5 hours ago, RosyDaisy said:

I found this while looking for something else: http://www.freejinger.org/topic/22337-bringing-up-bates-other-bates-family-doings/?page=16

WTF?  That can't be right if she's now back in contact with her bio parents.  If those are her bio parents (the couple she's recently gotten in touch with again-and I think that is them-there is a lot of physical resemblance between Whitney, Bradley, and the "dad"), then they didn't die in a car accident. 

Also, if she was officially adopted and also if she was officially put into foster care by the courts, then her bio parents must have done something pretty awful, and repeatedly if they lost custody of her.  And if that is the case, and if it's true that Kelly Jo pushed for a reunion between Whitney and bio parents (to the exclusion of the adoptive parents), then that says a whole lot of horrible things about Kelly Jo and her beliefs.  It's one thing to forgive, but if they did something horrible to Whitney, and Kelly pushed for this knowing that questionable people would be around her grandchildren, then I have lost the tiny shred of respect I had for Kelly Jo.  

[season of life]

There's always been a degree of confusion regarding Whitney's upbringing. I remember trying to find some information online and getting rumors. I found people saying that Whitney chose to leave her biological parents, that Whitney's parents were abusive, that Whitney's adoptive parents were only supposed to have her for a short time. I have no idea what went on behind closed doors or how her relationship was with her biological parents. I think unless Whitney comes out and talks about her family life, we just won't know the exact circumstances about her adoption. 

[JillyO]

2 hours ago, Hmmm_idolatry said:

WTF?  That can't be right if she's now back in contact with her bio parents.  If those are her bio parents (the couple she's recently gotten in touch with again-and I think that is them-there is a lot of physical resemblance between Whitney, Bradley, and the "dad"), then they didn't die in a car accident. 

You're correct, it's not right. If you scroll down in the thread @RosyDaisy posted, @NotALoserLikeYou corrected this information: Whitney's bio parents (the Perkinses) didn't die in a car crash. They're alive and seemingly well. One of her adoptive parents' daughters died in a car crash. I believe she was Whitney's friend. That was back before they adopted her. It appears that Whitney was also with a pretty shitty foster mom before she came to live with the Owenses (her adoptive family).

[VelociRapture]

Thanks @JillyO!

(And sorry if I sounded like an asshole earlier! I promise I didn't mean to!)

@Hmmm_idolatryWhat Jilly O wrote today is correct. The only known facts are that the Owenses lost a daughter in  car accident and Whitney wound up living with the Owenses for some reason. We also know that the Owenses were present at the wedding, but that they haven't been mentioned or seen since.

Its an odd situation. I understand the curiosity since Kelly opened that door thanks to their blog. At the same time, I do hope Whitney doesn't feel pressured to talk about what may be a difficult topic if she doesn't want to. 

[Tater_Toddler]

On 7/9/2017 at 7:27 PM, nausicaa said:

I suspect Zach is a long way from his "debt is evil" days. 

Who knows. It might be less debt, more "wife is getting sponsored/we have money now!" days. 

[HereticHick]

On 7/13/2017 at 8:04 AM, mstee said:

@JillyO @VelociRapture there was that local website for the town that they live in and a commenter that knew Whitney mentioned that her bio parents gave her a bad beating. This was prior to her being on the show. It's not from Whit's mouth, but probably the closest thing to a confirmation of abuse that we will ever know about. (Sorry I can't remember the website). 

an anonymous comment posted on a random website does not equal "confirmation"

[mstee]

11 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

an anonymous comment posted on a random website does not equal "confirmation"

Yeah, that's why I said it was the closest thing to one, not a definitive confirmation. 

[Carm_88]

Zach has the special touch to get Kaci Lynn to sleep apparently. 

[SweetFellowshipper]

If she was legally removed from the home there was clearly some sort of major issue. Of course we should be careful with allegations, but it's certainly far from a stretch. It would be more of a stretch to assume there was not abuse or neglect as there's really no scenario in which she would have been removed without that. 

[Palimpsest]

I feel very sorry for Whitney.  I really don't think it is necessary to dig for dirt about what happened in her family when she was a minor child.

As far as I can see, all we know is that her family of origin was troubled, she was living with the Owens family when she met her now husband, and that Preacher Owens gave her away at her wedding.  As she never changed her name to Owens (Whitney Perkins) I seriously doubt she was ever formally adopted.  She has now apparently reconciled with her parents.

That is it.  All else is rumor and speculation.  Can we leave it alone now, please.

 @VelociRapture, I haven't read your summary (yet) but I am sure you were your usual judicious self when you wrote it.

ETA:  You were.  Very nice job! 

[speller24]

On 7/9/2017 at 7:27 PM, nausicaa said:

I'm still giving a lot of side eye to their budget. 

I suspect Zach is a long way from his "debt is evil" days. 

Yes! I was thinking the same thing. I think Zach and Whitney live the most "normal" life of the kids. Maybe Alyssa and John too. But I think that Zach and Whit do a lot of normal activities and I'm not sure I would classify them as full fundie anymore. Probably fundie-lite. 

[VelociRapture]

@PalimpsestHa! Just wait for my Duggar summaries. No way am I being judicious with those. 

5 hours ago, SweetFellowshipper said:

If she was legally removed from the home there was clearly some sort of major issue. Of course we should be careful with allegations, but it's certainly far from a stretch. It would be more of a stretch to assume there was not abuse or neglect as there's really no scenario in which she would have been removed without that. 

We don't know if she was legally removed or not. Whitney isn't discussing it (as is her right) nor are any of the parents. So, based off the very limited information we do have, it's not fair to make statements alleging abuse absolutely occurred. Claiming it's a possibility is another matter, but should still be addressed with caution.

[Palimpsest]

36 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

Just wait for my Duggar summaries. No way am I being judicious with those.

Go for it.  

And many thanks for the comprehensive Bates summaries.  Prior to today, all the Bates kids younger than Tori were an amorphous mass for me!  

[wandering woman]

Whitney and the gang have gone swimming in a pool that she referred to as belonging to her parents. Are these the adoptive or bio ones?