I’ve has been diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma cancer that has metastasized.  This is not the best news a cancer patient would like to be handed but this is what it is.  The diagnoses is the worst one can get actually. I believe the ‘cure’ rate is less then 5%.  I’m at the place where I see the numbers on paper, but I also don’t rule out divine intervention.  I’m a believer in Jesus Chrrist of Nazareth and have turned my life over to him, so we’ll see what he has in store. I can truly say I have a peace and a joy and a knowing this is all in his hands for a divine purpose.

Currently, I  have still never been given a picture of my firstborn grandchild or any opportunity to know her.  This amazes our family but in a way doesn’t.

I’m being treated at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Tulsa and I have to say this place is INCREDIBLE, I’m so blessed my insurance is covering this. I’ve had two operations, had two different types of chemo, had radiation to the brain and was fortunate to undergo another therapy offered by this incredible place.  While I’m gravely ill, it’s hard tell just how ill I am by looking at me I hear.  I’ve just flown to Portland to be with my older daughter between treatments and am headed back to Tulsa for a few days for more treatment. After that right back on a jet to Portland to rest safe in the arms of my precious family.  It looks like Christmas will be spent in the land I love, Wyoming.  I’m such a blessed woman I can’t contain my joy.

Thank you for all your prayers that you have sent my way they mean so much to me.  I just adore my childen, my hidden grandchild, all my granddchildren and trusts the Mormon church will do some serious thinking here about withholding even just one picture. For three years I asked for two things.  I asked the laws not be manipulated and I asked for a picture of my first born grandchild.  I’m looking in my hand and still they’re empty. You denied me or set with conditions that our family drop all publicity.  We said no and continue to say no under such conditions.

To the people who have little Miss O’Dea, standing behind a law you want to use to hide yourself makes you look cold and heartless and quite frankly I’m not sure what you think you’re hiding.  I think the world wonders also.

To our supporters thank you and God bless you all.  Please also feel free to continue to donate, we still owe our hard working attorney and would like to see him paid off in a timely manner.

For those who wish to write please feel free! tenacity4jesuschrist@hotmail.com  I may not respond quickly because I truly have some real tired days but I will read what you send!

The couple from American Fork, Utah, Jed and Cally Nielson, who we posted about earlier who were ordered to give this baby back to his natural father are refusing to give him back! If you remember, they have a court order from Idaho to give this child back. It appears court orders from another state are meaningless to the LDS Family Services, the Nielsons and their attorneys.

This is no lie, the Nielsons are refusing to hand this precious baby over, DEFYING A COURT ORDER and have hired two attorneys, one in Idaho and Larry S. Jenkins in Utah to represent them. This is the same couple who asked for funds stating they have exhausted all their money, yet they can retain these high powered lawyers now? Wonder who ’s footing the bill, is it the Mormon Church?

So is the LDS Family Services and Larry Jenkins counciling the Nielsons to NOT hand the baby over and defy a court order? OMG, how arrogant!!

Here’s a couple of articles about this currently in the news.

This first article is in the Deseret Morning News, a Mormon owned newspaper. Here’s some quotes from that article:

“During a court hearing last week, an Idaho judge gave the birth father, Matt Tenneson, 20, of Coeur d’Alene, temporary primary custody of the 5 1/2-month-old baby.

But Jed and Callie Nielson, who have had the baby since June, say they won’t give baby Harvey back without a legal fight. In fact, they say they are thinking optimistically and have been buying Christmas presents for the baby.”

“Jenkins said he is reviewing the case and working on strategy.

“It’s early in the game,” he said.”

“Our goal is to keep the the little boy with the Nielsons.”

The second article is from the Coeur d’Alene Press.
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I’m praying Gods justice prevails here (which it will), and I’m standing on these scriptures:

Proverbs 21:15
When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

Proverbs 28:10
He who leads the upright along an evil path will fall into his own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.

For those who believe in the power of prayer, please pray for justice to prevail quickly in this case and this adorable child goes back to his natural father and the grandparents who are fighting for him. What is happening is WRONG! We’ll be posting people you can write if you choose to stand by the Tennisons. Look for this in a future posting. God bless you all!

Here’s an article about a young man who had his child ‘attempted’ to be adopted out by the mormon birth mother without his consent to a momon family.  He and his family battled in court and WON!

Not surprising, this fiasco was attempted with the blessing and help of the LDS Family Services. All I can say is HOW ARROGANT of LDS Family Services to take this baby and hand it to people in Utah thinking they could get away with this yet one more time. Do they really feel they’re untouchable? If so they’re sadly mistaken!

This  ‘wanna-be’ adopted couple even had a story written about them in I believe a sad attempt to stir up sympathy for their plight. Sorry, no sympathy here, not when you try and use the law to deprive a birth father and grandparents of their own flesh and blood.

Click here to go to that story.

Here’s where you’ll find the story in the Coeur d’Alene Press that I’m going to post below,  ’Adopted child returned to biological dad’. There’s an online comment section underneath the story you can read and post if you like without having to sign up.

Sadly there’s comments by someone all to familar to us (one who follow us around the net trying to smear our family) that are full of lies and twist.  These two postings were done December 12th at 7:49 pm and December 12th at 10:00 pm. (I post under tencity on the CdA story comments)

I intend to keep my eyes on the blessing of this child being brought back to his daddy and grandparents for Christmas and not let anything or anyone interfere with or attempt to put a damper on the joy! How happy this young man and his family must be to have their little man HOME where he belongs! Oh my gosh, WE’RE HAPPY FOR THEM!! We’re sooooooooooooooooo happy that justice was done in this case and this little man is coming home. WHAT A CHRISTMAS PRESENT, thank you Lord!!

Adopted child returned to biological dad

By MARC STEWART
Staff writer

Magistrate rules father never gave up parental rights to newborn son

COEUR d’ALENE — A Utah couple is in the midst of an adoption horror story after being told they must return the baby to its biological father in Coeur d’Alene because he never waived his parental rights.

Magistrate Barry Watson ruled that Matt Tenneson, 20, be given temporary primary custody of his 5 and 1/2-month old son and ordered Jed and Cally Nielson of American Fork, Utah, to relinquish custody as soon as possible.

“It seems Matthew is amenable to learning to be a father,” Watson said. “My heart goes out to the Nielsons. Hopefully, (the custody transfer) is done in the least traumatic way.”

Tuesday’s ruling was another legal victory for Tenneson. His attorney, Anne Solomon, argued that the adoption happened without his consent. The adoption agency, LDS Family Services, is appealing an earlier ruling that nullified the adoption.

“Matt never signed a consent to terminate his parental rights,” Solomon said.

The birth mother, Cammie Knight, said she was shocked by Watson’s decision.

“I still haven’t come to grips with the fact my baby is coming home and we have the responsibility of taking him on,” the 19-year-old Knight said. “We couldn’t have done it then, and we still can’t. We’re going to be depending on two homes and having our parents support us financially.”

Baby Knight was born last June and given to the Utah couple shortly thereafter, court records show.

Matt Tenneson’s mother said her son won’t be granting interviews for the foreseeable future.

“It’s an ongoing case and we don’t want to jeopardize that,” Karen Tenneson said.

Court records indicate that Matt Tenneson stopped speaking with Knight around the seventh month of her pregnancy. Knight described her relationship with Tenneson as non-existent and that he failed to support her during the pregnancy.

“I always had to take the initiative and call him,” Knight said. “He never did that for me.”

Knight said she and Tenneson discussed the baby’s future often and that Tenneson was conflicted on what to do. Court records show that on one occasion Tenneson suggested she get an abortion. When Knight refused that idea, they talked about adoption or keeping it.

“He couldn’t make up his mind,” Knight said. “It was emotionally wearing. My son needed a loving family. I still stick by my decision to give him up for adoption.”

Cally Nielson told the Deseret Morning News that she and her husband are talking with their attorney to see how to handle the baby exchange.

“We’re absolutely devastated,” Nielson told the Utah paper in an emotional interview.

LDS Family Services handled the adoption for the Nielsons. The Mormon organization has filed an appeal of an earlier court ruling that gave Tenneson parental rights.

Knight said she picked LDS Family Services because her family is Mormon.

“I wanted the baby to have an actual home. I wanted him to have a good life,” Cammie Knight said in court.

Knight said she believes Tenneson’s parents are behind the custody battle,

“I think a big part of this is Matt’s mother,” Knight said. “She wants to be a grandmother.”

Watson cautioned the grandparents about becoming the primary custodians of the child.

“I want the grandparents to support this baby, but they need to take a back seat to the parents,” Watson said.

Dear Baby, Dec. 12, 2007
Oh sweet little baby you are almost one and half years old. Daddy and I have been Christmas shopping for Trevan and we have been debating on what to get you! I look back at the pictures from when I was a little girl and remember how much I loved my Cabbage Patch doll. She went with me everywhere, my partner in crime So while your Daddy was resting up for work I went shopping. I searched through all of the Cabbage Patch dolls to find the perfect one for you. It seemed not one of them was what I had envisioned. Then at the bottom of the stack I found her. She had red hair and huge blue eyes. As I grabbed her I studied her face, her cute little innocent doll face. I wonder if that is how you look. Sometimes your Daddy’s hair looks red and Aunt Shannon had red hair as a baby. So I got her for you, sweetheart. Her name is Zoie Emely. I wonder what your name is?? Your Daddy likes the name Madison!!! Wherever you are baby girl, I want you to know WE LOVE YOU AND ARE WAITING FOR YOU!!! Trevan can’t wait to have his baby sister come home!!! Merry Christmas sweetheart and we will see you soon!!! Daddy and I would love to have you as our Christmas present, but we know it won’t be much longer! I love you little angel! Love, Tanya

Another bittersweet holiday as you’re with strangers, but I send out my love to you precious little grandchild across the miles. Although I’ve never seen you, nor heard your little voice, although I’ve never touched your baby soft skin, nor played with your soft baby hair, I love you. I love you and miss you more than anyone knows.

God knows though, he knows how my arms ache to hold my first-born grandchild. So I ask him, “Lord, go kiss little Miss O’Dea for me please. Hold her and whisper to her Lord about her family that misses her, make sure she knows she is loved and treasured by us. Tell her Lord about her family and how soon she will be coming home to them.

I ask you send your angels Lord to minister to my precious little granddaughter and keep her safe while she’s away from  home, guard her little mind, her little heart, her little soul. Lord, protect my little granddaughter I ask and rock her to sleep in your arms, holding her thru the long nights as she is in a strange land with strangers.

Tell her who you are Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, speak to her little soul. Comfort her I ask and put in her Lord a knowing about her real family. Let her know her family thinks about her all the time in great anticipation of her return as we stand on your promises great deliverer.

Thank you Lord, this child is in your hands, she’s yours.”

Little Miss O’Dea, I send all my grandma’s love to you precious little one. Though I can’t hold you now, I will.

Happy Thanksgiving precious child, you’re soooooooo loved and treasured us. We’ll set a little place for you at dinner little one and thank God for you and all the miracles he’s promised concerning you.

You will be coming home child, into the arms of your family, and the Lord will get all the glory and honor for bringing you home. In the meantime, rest in Him and listen child as He tells you secrets that only the God of this universe can tell you.

On this Thanksgiving little Miss O’Dea, remember, we’re thankful for you and waiting for you, you’re sooooooooo loved by your grandma and family…

Tanya has a precious 4 year old son, my little man Trevan, and now they wait for Cody’s little daughter to come home to add to this growing loving family.

What joy there is in this household celebrating this marriage.

LITTLE MISS O’DEA, you’re coming home to a house full of love!

Please sign the petition for the return of Baby Michael Hunter to his biological father Shawn.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/babymichaelhunter

If you have not added Shawn as a friend yet - here is a link to his profile.

myspace.com/babymichaelhunter

His myspace page is
http://myspace.com/babymichaelhunter

He is in court right now trying to get custody of his son who was adopted out through LDS Family Services without his consent.  He already has been awarded visitation and 100,000 dollars for his court fees.

From what I’ve been told by Shawns mother - It appears he was living with his girlfriend of three years and they already share a daughter together.

He was injured at work - which left him partially blind in one eye.  While he couldn’t work he was at home watching his daughter.  He found out she was lying about going to work and was really spending that time with another man.

She moved out and moved in with said man.  She hid her pregnancy and he found out two days before the child was due.  He went to the hopsital but was not allowed to see his son - who was placed with a couple in Idaho shortly afterwards despite Shawn’s protest. (I could have some facts wrong - as this is not my story and I am re-telling what I heard.)

He is in court right now trying to get custody of his son who was adopted out through LDS Family Services without his consent.  He already has been awarded visitation and 100,000 dollars for his court fees.

This is ridiculous the amount of men having to fight adoption agencies for their children!.

Please pass this along - Shawn needs all the support he can get.  Lets hope the judge gives him custody!

http://mormoncurtain.com/topic_ldsss.html

I’m going to let the article speak for itself.  To read the full article follow the link above.
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“As time wore on … the pressure grew. At first it was subtle, but then it became almost outright at the end. The lady from LDS Services told me that she thought I should give my baby up, as I was too young and couldn’t care for it properly - besides that, my baby needed a good two-parent home with temple worthy parents. Even the Bishop himself told me that I needed to give my baby up for adoption.”

“During all of this, Steve was away. He had since moved to another city after our breakup, and I had eventually told him the news - which had stunned him. I knew he was also afraid and shocked. He asked me what I was going to do, and I told him I did not know. And during the course of all these months the LDS Family Services had plotted with me.

They told me that it didn’t matter whether Steve agreed with the adoption or not — they had ways to coerce him to agree, or to guilt-trip him or force him to agree. And if that did not work they told me, then they could secretly sneak me into Alberta (as I live in British Columbia) where I could give birth to the baby and give it to an adoptive couple. There were loopholes, I was assured, that could make sure Steve could never see his baby, or at least never get custody.

There were many sympathetic judges and cities where the Mormons always won custody battles and there were “many ways” that were told to me of how I could sneak off and deceive whomever I wanted.”

“One day, I got a call from my younger brother. He was deeply grieved and worried. It turns out that his girlfriend (18 years old) had accidentally become pregnant. She and her family were MORMON.”

“Now Jenny had been intimate with my brother (a non member and atheist) and the pregnancy had been the result. She was afraid and confused”……..”She also wanted the child to have a two-parent home with all the the necessary support and proper care.”

“At first she lied and denied the pregnancy. But through sources, my brother found out about it. Then she admitted to it, but refused to state that my brother was the father. Finally she gave in, and admitted that he was. She then wavered with her considerations on what to do.

“Sometimes she seemed to want to keep the baby, but she also changed her mind constantly. My brother told me that her parents were pressuring her to give the baby up for adoption, and that she had been seeing people from LDS Family Services who were counseling her to do the same.

My brother had offered to take custody of the child, but Jenny refused his offer. Her parents and LDSFS also vehemently denied his offer. My brother was afraid and worried and didn’t know what to do. He loved his child and desperately wanted to have custody and keep his baby.

I was immediately concerned. I knew about the resources at the church’s disposal. I knew of its scheming, conniving and barely-legal ways. I knew what my brother was in for. I began to give him advice and instructions at once. I told him everything I knew and gave him all the ammunition I could. He immediately got lawyers and began legally doing everything he could to prepare for the birth and ensuing court case.”

“All the meanwhile LDS Family Services harassed him, and tried to guilt-trip him, coerce him and used scare tactics to try and make him submit. He continually refused to sign any papers, make any agreements or consent in any fashion to the adoption.”

“I blamed a few over-zealous people in LDSFS who I felt were wrong, but doing what they thought was right. I still, even then, was so brainwashed that I thought it was God’s true church on earth and that my brother was somehow just having a bad experience with a few bad apples.”

“After Jenny gave birth to my brother’s daughter, she secretly fled to Alberta. There, my niece was given to the adoptive couple. My brother was not notified, had not given his consent, and could not find his daughter as LDSFS hid the location from us. We only found all this out by going through the court.

The court case ended up having to be moved to Alberta, and to Lethbridge city (one of the places I’d been told was “sympathetic to the Mormon cause”) and to a sympathetic judge. After endless battles in court and much arguing-the ruling was handed down.

My brother had lost his case. He had lost his daughter. I had lost my niece. ”

“I’m sad to say that my brother lost his case, lost his appeal and nothing has been done since. This September it will be 2 years since his daughter was born. He has not seen her once and is not allowed visitation. He has not been sent any photographs or letters by mail, nor has he been updated on her condition or life. He has not seen her, or heard anything about her EVEN ONCE.”

“In so many cases, the church had just taken the children to another province or state and they had never seen their child again. Or the church had overwhelmed them in court with unlimited money and lawyers and PR and they had lost their children. Or mothers had consented to adoption (from pressure and guilt and force) and changed their minds only to have the LDS cult refuse to return the children, or find a legal loophole to keep them from getting their children back.

Countless fathers had been lied to, conned, out-manipulated, out-spent, or just plain had their children kidnapped from them. Especially non-LDS men who wanted to keep their children but never had a chance. THIS IS HAPPENING EVERY DAY!”

“And that the church uses loopholes and barely legal (and UNETHICAL) ways of winning custody of the children from fathers or mothers or both. And that EVERYDAY children are being literally kidnapped and taken to different states or places and hidden from parents - and then given to adoptive parents who are privy to this crime.”

If this doesn’t get to you, I don’t know what will.

——————————————————

Birth mom angry she wasn’t told of baby’s death

By: Kirsten Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune

Jayni Anderson wants Utah law changed to require that birth parents be informed if a child they put up for adoption dies.

Since placing her newborn for adoption in June 1979, Jayni Anderson has wondered about the girl she called “my Sarah Marie.”

Was she a fussy baby? Did she excel at school, make friends easily? How was her “sweet 16th” birthday?

Anderson conjured happy images of a healthy and loved child maturing into a young woman. But those hopes were crushed two weeks ago when a social worker at LDS Family Services, which handled the adoption, told Anderson that 28 years ago her baby died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The child was 6 months old.

“It was like someone took scissors to a movie reel in my head. Everything just went black,” said Anderson of the initial shock, which gave way to feelings of betrayal and anger.

The 50-year-old Montana native wants to know whether the adoption was ever finalized. She wants to know where her baby was buried. And she wants to know why it took LDS Family Services so long to disclose the death.

Scott Trotter, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, declined to comment, citing a church policy against discussing litigation.

Anderson hasn’t sued the church. But she does want Utah law changed to require adoption agencies to notify birth parents of deaths.

“I don’t want this to happen to someone else,” said Anderson on Thursday. “Adoption hurts, and it stays with you. But you take heart knowing your child is going to a good home, and you trust the adoption agency. That trust was violated.”

Nothing in Utah law or licensing rules - then or now - requires adoption agencies to keep contact with birth parents after relinquishment, said Ken Stettler, director of the state Human Services division that oversees adoption agencies.
Contracts can be written to order continued contact, he said. But Anderson’s was a closed adoption.

“If I could have opted for an open adoption, I would have, but it didn’t really exist back then,” she said.

As for changing the law, Stettler isn’t sure how an agency could be expected to track children over the course of their lives.

Further complicating matters, for Anderson: the adoption may never have been finalized, which would mean that the agency had legal custody of her daughter at the time she died.

In such cases, there’s still no disclosure requirement for a death, but “it’s good practice,” said Utah adoption attorney Larry Jenkins.

Legislators recently changed state law to allow for adoptions to be finalized posthumously, but the law applies only to adoptions after May 2006, said Jenkins.

Anderson may have remained oblivious to Sarah Marie’s fate had she not recently reported an address change at the LDS Family Services.

That prompted a phone call from a social worker who asked Anderson to come into the office. There, she shared the news of the baby’s death. Anderson recalls her explaining, “I didn’t want you to go through the rest of your life thinking your daughter might come looking for you.”

When Anderson asked, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” she said she was simply told, “That’s a good question.”

Anderson said the social worker claimed to have no information on her daughter’s place of burial. Nor would she say whether the girl was ever “sealed” to her adoptive family, an LDS practice to assure that family members meet again in the afterlife.

“She’s my daughter, she’s dead and I can’t even place flowers on her grave,” said Anderson, who is LDS and said she surrendered her baby at the urging of her ecclesiastical leader.

“I was a young, single mom with a toddler and pregnant. I didn’t want to be on welfare,” said Anderson. “I was adopted; it’s something I believe in.”
Anderson doesn’t want to think there’s something purposeful behind the church’s silence, noting, “They’re not above making mistakes.” But, she said, “the agency had ample opportunities to fess up.”

After relinquishing her rights to her daughter, Anderson surrendered two more children through LDS Family Services: her firstborn, a toddler son, in 1980 and another boy, a newborn, in 1981.

The same social worker handled all three adoptions, said Anderson, who believes the woman has since retired.

“I asked her if my boys could live with their sister, but she said, ‘No, the parents moved back East,’ ” recalls Anderson. Queries about her daughter’s well-being, Anderson said, were met with, “Oh, she’s doing just fine.”

Anderson said she has had second thoughts about the adoptions, but never any regrets. It provided her children with a brighter future, she always assumed, and gave her time to mature and later raise a son.

But now, she worries about her boys, who live together with a family about whom she knows very little. And she says she won’t rest until she knows for certain what happened to her little girl.

“I’m not sure why, if the adoptive parents were so grateful to me, they never told me she died,” said Anderson. “I need closure. I hope she wasn’t hurt, but your mind thinks all these icky things.”

For now, she holds onto the memory of those “tender” three days that she fed, held and sang to her daughter in the hospital before saying goodbye.

“Hardly a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about her,” said Anderson. “That’s more than 10,000 days, and to what end?”

kstewart@sltrib.com