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Adoptive "Mothers" 3: Women Who Don't Deserve Mother's Day


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Jean Mulvahill (No Place Like Home) has moved back to Minnesota. Her latest blog post says, in total, "What are the children doing now that we have had a budget cut? Good things!"

As far as I can remember, she's never mentioned this budget cut before. That makes the post sounds a lot like protesting too much, despite saying very little. What the heck happened to make them move to Colorado and back in such a short time? I don't think she's going to say.

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1 hour ago, Ausje said:

Jean Mulvahill (No Place Like Home) has moved back to Minnesota. Her latest blog post says, in total, "What are the children doing now that we have had a budget cut? Good things!"

As far as I can remember, she's never mentioned this budget cut before. That makes the post sounds a lot like protesting too much, despite saying very little. What the heck happened to make them move to Colorado and back in such a short time? I don't think she's going to say.

I used to read her regularly but have fallen off of blogs in general.  Just went and caught up on the last year after your post.  There was a post about a year ago that mentioned her husband's business was about to launch a product or something and he'd been traveling to CO a lot for that, so I'm guessing that they moved to CO since his company was based there, and then the product launch wasn't successful.  

I can't imagine keeping up with 16 kids who had been adopted at older ages... how on earth do you find the time for all of the attention that would entail??  

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3 hours ago, Ausje said:

Jean Mulvahill (No Place Like Home) has moved back to Minnesota. Her latest blog post says, in total, "What are the children doing now that we have had a budget cut? Good things!"

As far as I can remember, she's never mentioned this budget cut before. That makes the post sounds a lot like protesting too much, despite saying very little. What the heck happened to make them move to Colorado and back in such a short time? I don't think she's going to say.

She has thrown in some hints about budgeting in the past. When they moved to Colorado there was a posting where she said something like, "We need to find affordable activities for all the kids".  There was an incident where they were at her bio son's college soccer game and someone anonymously paid for popcorn and water for all of the kids and the kids loved it. I kind of wondered if they cut back on expenses at events by not buying any food or beverages. But, on the other hand she used to post a lot of pics of them eating out in restaurants for their travels and IIRC, she also admitted that she isn't a fan of cooking.

I think Jim's job and business may have hit a slump. The company he worked for was trying to develop and sell a needle free dental anesthetic. As another FJer suggested maybe the product wasn't a hit. Jean and Jim may have recent money worries due to job issues, the medical needs of some of the kids, and general expenses. I know Jean inherited a large sum of money from her side of the family. It is possible that whatever the amount is, it can't sustain them forever. I suspect that Jean and Jim sometimes live about their means. Jim was disbarred in Minnesota for his mishandling a client's retainer.

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It really freaks me out that the only thing good about the  Jean/Jim situation was "at least they have the cash to afford support for the kids", because they were basically running an over-populated group home, with staff and such - now what is happening?  This is why even wealthy-seeming child collectors are dangerous.

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6 hours ago, Granwych said:

Did this couple adopt a little one named Shadrach, who was born without arms and legs?

Are you asking if the M family did? (The No Place Like Home family?)

If so, no.

(But I had a few guesses and will message you so as to not add unrelated families into this thread)
 

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On 3/2/2018 at 4:07 PM, Lurky said:

It really freaks me out that the only thing good about the  Jean/Jim situation was "at least they have the cash to afford support for the kids", because they were basically running an over-populated group home, with staff and such - now what is happening?  This is why even wealthy-seeming child collectors are dangerous.

I think Jean and Jim started off with good intentions. But, it just got out of control as they adopted too frequently and I agree with your description of an over-populated group home.  Jean and Jim may be worried about their financial future as they are entering into their 60s.

Another adoptive mother who probably started off with good intentions and then ended up running an over-populated group home is Ann Belles out in Orange County, CA. Ann said she was inspired to adopt orphan boys after seeing Oliver. She grew up and became a foster parent. She eventually started adopting boys with various disabilities and special needs domestically and internationally. Later, she met her now ex-husband Jim Silcock online. Jim is a quadriplegic and he moved to California from Florida to marry Ann. They kept adopting kids and newspaper articles about the family gave off the vibe of a a group home. They had hired caregivers to help with some of the boys. Ann and Jim eventually divorced. Even before the divorce, I got bad vibe from Jim and Ann.

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22 hours ago, lilwriter85 said:

Another adoptive mother who probably started off with good intentions and then ended up running an over-populated group home is Ann Belles out in Orange County, CA. Ann said she was inspired to adopt orphan boys after seeing Oliver. She grew up and became a foster parent. She eventually started adopting boys with various disabilities and special needs domestically and internationally. Later, she met her know ex-husband Jim Silcock online. Jim is a quadriplegic and he moved to California from Florida to marry Ann. They kept adopting kids and newspaper articles about the family gave off the vibe of a a group home. They had hired caregivers to help with some of the boys. Ann and Jim eventually divorced. Even before the divorce, I got bad vibe from Jim and Ann.

I tried to find an update on this family and could only find an article from 2013 about how one of their SN sons--who up until then had been living independently--was beaten into a coma by some teenagers and sustained even more brain damage. :/ Stories like that make me wonder even more why these families don't think ahead. That tragedy is only one of many things that could potentially happen; last I checked, there were 50+(!) boys that had been adopted, most (if not all) with special needs. Did Ann really think that she could handle all of them? It's challenging enough to give one disabled child the life-long care they need and deserve. What will happen to them when Ann passes away?

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2 hours ago, Stormy said:

I tried to find an update on this family and could only find an article from 2013 about how one of their SN sons--who up until then had been living independently--was beaten into a coma by some teenagers and sustained even more brain damage. :/ Stories like that make me wonder even more why these families don't think ahead. That tragedy is only one of many things that could potentially happen; last I checked, there were 50+(!) boys that had been adopted, most (if not all) with special needs. Did Ann really think that she could handle all of them? It's challenging enough to give one disabled child the life-long care they need and deserve. What will happen to them when Ann passes away?

I think Ann overestimated herself. I first started following the family back in 2004 or 2005 after they appeared on a show called Adoption Stories. I found their website and articles. I admired them because Ann said her main focus was adopting boys who had little chance of being adopted. But, over the years they kept adopting and adopting and I started to like Ann and Jim less. There was a point where Ann was dealing with backlash over the family size and assistance that the boys were receiving. I think those issues combined with the attack on Viktor are probably why she and the other boys are very low key in recent years.

Hopefully, Ann has some plans in place for the boys after her passing. Some of them are living on their own. But, there are several whose needs are quite severe. I do recall that one son eventually moved with his biological relatives out of state.

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I miss Adoption Stories, especially since a good percentage of the parents they featured were LGBT.

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10 hours ago, smittykins said:

I miss Adoption Stories, especially since a good percentage of the parents they featured were LGBT.

I think I saw a couple of episodes but I'm not really sure.

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On 3/2/2018 at 3:53 PM, Granwych said:

Did this couple adopt a little one named Shadrach, who was born without arms and legs?

I believe this was "Mama Jeane" from Blessed by a Child. Shadrach passed away before they picked him up. At last count they have at least 38 kids (most of them adopted). They've adopted at least 12 from Ghana in the last five years. They always gave me a group home feeling. Interestingly, many of the older girls are in their 20s and still living at home (gotta cook,clean and homeschool). Guess they don't need to marry off the daughters if they are still adopting toddlers in their 60s!

This is my first ever post (been lurking forever) so hopefully I haven't done anything against the rules!

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On 3/4/2018 at 7:28 PM, Tatertotcasserole21 said:

I believe this was "Mama Jeane" from Blessed by a Child. Shadrach passed away before they picked him up. At last count they have at least 38 kids (most of them adopted). They've adopted at least 12 from Ghana in the last five years. They always gave me a group home feeling. Interestingly, many of the older girls are in their 20s and still living at home (gotta cook,clean and homeschool). Guess they don't need to marry off the daughters if they are still adopting toddlers in their 60s!

This is my first ever post (been lurking forever) so hopefully I haven't done anything against the rules!

I have recently fallen into rabbit tole. Welcome to FJ.

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  • 1 month later...

Has Kimmie flounced? I don't think she's updated since last year. I'm curious about how Sissy and Blossom are doing, poor girls.

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Me too!  I keep checking every now and again in the hope that she's updated.  I hope everything is going well with her, the girls, the million cats and couple of thousand dogs.

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  • 1 month later...

I live the same area as Kimmy and briefly saw either Jie Jie or Sissy with Kimmy’s German Shepherd on Mother’s Day.  I was driving my family and desperately wanted to turn around and get a better look but we were in a hurry and I didn’t want to take the time.  They live very close to a main road and whichever girl was with the dog in a small ponding basin along the main road. I wish my husband had been driving so I could have had a better look lol.

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22 hours ago, keepercjr said:

I live the same area as Kimmy and briefly saw either Jie Jie or Sissy with Kimmy’s German Shepherd on Mother’s Day.  I was driving my family and desperately wanted to turn around and get a better look but we were in a hurry and I didn’t want to take the time.  They live very close to a main road and whichever girl was with the dog in a small ponding basin along the main road. I wish my husband had been driving so I could have had a better look lol.

One of them is still there, at least!

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  • 3 months later...

Welp, as of five days ago, it's officially been a year since Kimmie last updated. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. I still think of the girls from time to time and I'm very curious as to how everyone's doing.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
On 12/6/2018 at 4:45 AM, grantedgrant said:

And now Kimmie's blog has gone private...

This worries me.  I suppose it could mean that she realizes how awful she was and wants it gone from the public domain, but she could just delete it if that were the case, couldn't she?

What if she's about to start detailing a new round of crappy parenting and only wants selected people to see what she's up to?

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The last time Kimi made an appearance on "the firefighter"'s social media was October of 2016, and it appear he has a new girlfriend. Facebook really doesn't make it easy to find old posts. 

Please don't ask me what I've been doing for the past hour. 

ETA: I found Kimi's facebook. She has 15 friends, none of the the firefighter. Some appear to be blogger friends, but also a couple of locals. 

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Damnit! I would love to know what's going on. Worried about the poor girls and hoping they are okay...

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Maggie Mae, unfortunately, that was nearly four years ago in January of ‘15. Who the hell knows what’s transpired since then. 

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