THE ADOPTION AGENCY CHECKLIST Our Adoption Story SPECIAL NOTE: Adoption Choice, which we originally signed with in 1995, has never apologized for, accepted responsibility for, or been held accountable for the hell they put our family and other families through during our six year long adoption ordeal. In fact, to show the kind of caring, honest and kind adoption workers and human beings they truly are, they have worked behind the scenes to get my website shut down and silence me as only dishonest, underhanded, backstabbers would. When my sites were hosted by Tripod, they were shut down twice and my account terminated for alleged violations of Tripod's terms of service and acceptable use policy. Tripod would not give me a reason why I was shut down or what my violation was. Later, I purchased my own domain and moved my site to midPhase. Not long after the site was up,  midPhase suspended my site and contacted me with an urgent request to contact them. I did and it seems they received a complaint that two specific pages of my site were in violation of some kind of privacy law since I revealed names of children involved in adoption without permission. I was able to learn that the source of the complaint was the attorney for Adoption Choice, but was unable to learn about any specifics. For the record, after looking at the pages in question, I let midPhase know the following: 1. I had permission from the Libertos and the Clarkes to write about them at the time I wrote the story. They can be contacted to confirm this. 2. The names used are either part of the public record in all documents pertaining to the US vs. Mario Reyes, Arlene Lieberman and Arlene Reingold and obtainable via the federal freedom of information act and/or through contact with the US attorney in NY whose office handled matter pertaining to this case. I'm sure a competent attorney can access the contact information. 3. The names of many of the children in the story are the fabrication of Mario Reyes who falsified their identities as he stated in the transcripts of 8 hours of questioning in April 1999 that led up to his subsequent arrest, that I obtained from the INS special investigators and the US attorney who originally investigated and prosecuted the case. I'm sure other interested parties can also obtain copies of the same. It's onlyabout 240 pages long. I would think that someone making a claim that I'm violating some law by revealing names would have researched this case enough to know that publishing names that were fabricated and not true names, thatis names that were already fictitious, violates nothing. 4. Other named children are also in the public record as they appear in a NY Times article of June 2, 1999 by Ginger Thompson entitled, In Mexico, Children, and Promises, Unkept, available at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20713FE3A540C718CDDAF0894D1494D81&incamp=archive:search. I believe this article contains the published names of the children that I have also published and who I believe are the names for which midPhase received the complaint. I asked miPhase if the complainant also asking the NY Times to remove this article from their archives? Did they ask that all print copies still in circulation and all microfiche copies in public libraries also be recalled? Perhaps I'm just a smaller and easier target than the NY Times. In my opinion, the complaint that midPhase received was a bogus attempt to silence me. It was a smoke and mirrors attempt at threats and intimidation to scare MidPhase into taking part in silencing me and hiding the truth. I'd like to know the specific state law they claim I am violating and the specific jurisdiction to which it applies. If you are considering using Adoption Choice, read this and the story that follows and ask yourself if people who engage in these activities and tactics are the ones you really want to handle your adoption? In my opinion, the moral is to not use Adoption Choice, Inc. and to be aware of some of the lesser known tactics some agencies will use to keep the truth about them from being known.  Their tactics will not silence me and will not prevent the truth from being known. David K adoptive parent fighter for ethical adoption reforms victim of Adoption Choice, Inc. www.adoptionagencychecklist.com When You Wish Upon A Star: An Adoption Story Copyright 2001, 2002, by David N. Kruchkow INTRODUCTION: This is the story of the adoption of two little girls from Mexico, one by the Liberto family of Long Island, New York and the other by my family, the Kruchkow family of Queens, New York. As the reader will see, the stories of these two adoptions are remarkably intertwined. The Liberto's story is reported as it has been told to me, David Kruchkow and edited after review by Rosalie and John Liberto, so it would be chronologically correct and factually accurate. I want to thank the Libertos for agreeing to share their side of this tale with my readers and me. I also must thank them for the time they voluntarily contributed to this project. Another one of the families intimately involved is the Clarke family. They too contributed to part of this tome as far as the parts where their story touched the other stories. It is part of a larger story of greed, fraud, theft, smuggling and international crime that appeared in national headlines around the Memorial Day holiday in 1999. Here's a version of the original Associated Press story that made many of the newspapers around the country: "Two N.Y. women, lawyer charged with smuggling Mexican babies NEW YORK (AP) -Two women and a lawyer have been charged with running an illegal baby-smuggling operation that sold 17 Mexican children to adoptive families in New York. Arlene Lieberman, 48, and Arlene Reingold, 47, neighbors in Medford on Long Island, were charged Thursday in federal court with conspiracy to violate immigration laws, along with mail and wire fraud. Mario Reyes, 40, was arrested Wednesday night at his home in Douglas, Ariz., which abuts a Mexican border town called Agua Prieta where he had a law practice. He faces the same charges. Prosecutors say the three sold babies for $20,000 or more without any of the required immigration and adoption paperwork. The adoptive parents were unwitting victims, authorities say. A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said the children would be allowed to remain with their adoptive parents and that the government would work to legalize their status, The New York Times reported Friday. But some parents still remain fearful about the children's future. "Our biggest concern is that we don't want anyone to take our child away from us," Sara Kruchkow said of the 3-year-old girl she and her husband adopted. The court papers allege that Reyes paid to have babies smuggled from his Agua Prieta office across the border to his Arizona home, sometimes by Mexican women posing as the children's mothers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Macht said he could not comment on how the children were obtained. Some of the children were babies as young as two weeks old; others had serious medical problems despite assurances given to adoptive parents that the children were healthy, authorities said. One couple was presented with a 7-year-old girl who was mentally retarded, malnourished and also showed signs of sexual abuse. The couple, in their 50s, returned her to Mrs. Lieberman and never got a refund on their $20,000, court papers said. "I'm very happy they've been arrested," said Rosalie Liberto, a Long Island woman who adopted a little girl through the defendants two years ago and is still fighting to resolve the child's immigration status. "We put our trust in people and they took advantage of us." The two women, referred to in court documents as "The Arlenes," first came to the attention of authorities in 1990, when the state Department of Social Services received complaints that they were misleading adoptive couples and arranging adoptions without a license. Mrs. Lieberman's phone number is unlisted. A man who answered the phone at Mrs. Reingold's home had no comment. Calls placed to lawyers representing the women were not returned. Each woman was released on $150,000 bond. They have not yet entered pleas to the charges. If convicted, the defendants face up to 10 years in prison for each child illegally smuggled into the country. The wire and mail fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison. The state attorney general's office also filed suit Thursday against the two women and their husbands, Jay Lieberman and Dennis Reingold, seeking an order preventing them from participating in adoption placements. APTV-05-28-99 0526EDT " Mario Reyes as I remember him best, in federal custody in June, 1999. Credit the Arizona Star and www.azstarnet.com. Dedication and Disclaimer: This story is dedicated to the millions of children around the world who have no family and have no home. This story is an account of true events and facts as experienced by and presented to me. I apologize if any facts are in error and am open to corrections, especially as new information regarding this case comes to light. Undoubtably, there are facts and events of which I am unaware. I would be more than happy to hear them, verify them, publish them and present any change to my opinions and/or conclusions as a result of them. This website will grow over time as footnotes and even new chapters are added as new information becomes available. I've tried to portray events in chronological order here, but deviations were necessary for two main reasons. First was to follow a sequence of events as experienced by the parties experiencing them through to the end of that sequence. Then I have backtracked to pick up on a simultaneous sequence of events taking place that involved the experiences of different parties. I hope that doesn't get too confusing for the reader. The second reason for deviating from a strict chronological sequence has to do with the nature of this story. As time goes on, more information about what happened previously is revealed and that causes us to go back and revisit a past sequence of events, plugging in newer information, changing the perception of that past sequence and filling in missing pieces of the story. I have placed an Appendix at the end of this story. It contains a cast of characters in the order they appear in this story. If the reader gets confused as to who is who when a name appears, please refer to this Appendix. Additionally, I have stated my beliefs, opinions and interpretations of the events and facts described herein and have invited the reader to either share these or form his or her own. This is my right under the guarantees of freedom of speech afforded to me by the U.S. Constitution. In no way do I have any intent of committing slander or libel against any person or entity. As you read this, you might want to print out the cast of characters so that you can easily keep track of the players.  Click here for the Appendix, to do so. Next, click here for The Grand Jury Indictments.