Michelle Obama Came To Detroit

I have never been a fan of Michelle.

John Conyers, Jr. & Michelle Obama
at Detroit Institute of Arts

She has refrained from allowing the words of foster care and adoption to leave her lips in public.

That means she is either ignorant, or complicit in the suppression of the trafficking of tiny humans, of which I elect the latter.

I have heard chatter that she has a familiarity with the SOS Children's Village of Illinois, but do not know if she addresses this in her book, as I shall make it a point to never find the time to read it.

I wonder if she shared, in her new book, stories about Bobby Rush and that "royal clique" who have a strong aversion to those who hail from the fairer persuasion. 

But, allow me to stop there because opening up to tell one's story is the focus of her book tour.

Perhaps, she could help America become 'a little unlost right now' by telling her story about child welfare and the politics behind it.

Michelle Obama in Detroit: America is 'a little lost right now'

For the women who showed up at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night, seeing Michelle Obama was like meeting up with their super-smart best friend who just happens to be the former first lady of the United States and author of the best-selling hardcover book of the year.

They praised her intelligence, her poise, her grace, her style, her penchant for shopping at Target, her ability to live in the spotlight but remain down to earth. "She was a regular person, she was relatable," said Jacqueline Coleman, who lives in Lansing and brought her sister to the event as a birthday gift.

"She is an African-American woman who stands for peace," said Devin Massengale, who is 34 and lives in Detroit. "She speaks for the people."

But maybe Donna Ford-Brown, a 60-year-old Detroiter, best summed up the connection so many women feel with Obama: "She's us."

Obama took the stage in front of a sold-out audience of about 12,000 as Alicia Key's "Girl on Fire" pumped in the background.

More: Michelle Obama stuns Wayne State Uni. students at the Motown Museum

More: Check out Michelle Obama's Motown playlist celebrating Detroit visit

On the latest stop of the book tour for her memoir "Becoming," Obama spoke about growing up in her hardworking family on the south side of Chicago, being a black student at a majority white Ivy League college, how she met her husband and wasn't interested in dating him, at first.  "It's really the fuller picture of who they are and how they treat women in the world. That's not something you learn the first date or two," she said. "That's one of the reasons why I don't believe in love at first sight. Love is just so much deeper. ... I got to see that in Barack before I even considered him as a person to date."

Obama talked about the scrutiny that she and her family endured as the first black family in the White House. "We can't make mistakes. We can't get indicted," she said, as the crowd roared with approval at the zing of the current president's administration. "There is a difference in standards," she said. "We are seeing that right now. We live with double standards all the time."

People need to get to know themselves and each other, Obama said. And that's the purpose of her book.

"For me, I knew that, for folks to really understand me, they needed to know my whole story and they needed to know the context of my life. ... I think that's true for all of us. ... We see the superficial. We see each other through stats and skin color and race and party and that tells us nothing about each other ... which is why we feel so disconnected. ... We have to share ourselves with each other if we want to break this cycle of discontent and fear, we have to be brave enough to open ourselves up to each other. ... It's hard to hate up close."

The program, billed as an intimate conversation, was moderated by comedian Phoebe Robinson, who promised a "deep and profound" conversation.

Obama ended up being a motivational speaker ("women need to learn to stop putting themselves last"),  big sister ("young people need to explore more possibilities so they don't pick the wrong career") and best friend.

"No matter what we're feeling now, I've traveled all around this country, there is more good, more possibility, more kindness, more openness than than not," Obama said. "The here truly is. I'm an honest broker. If I was seeing stuff ... I would tell you. We're just a little lost right now."

Women described her message as uplifting yet real.

"I think she is a true role model for any person," said Katherine Kochanek, who is 49 and lives in South Lyon.

"I'm so proud of her and what she accomplished," said Denise Coleman of Detroit. Her sister treated her to the event as a birthday gift.

And if she had the chance to talk to Obama, here's what she would say: "Thank you."

Sales of the book, which hit the stores four weeks ago, have exceeded 3 million, according to its publisher, Crown Publishing. The hardcover version of "Becoming" is $32.50.

Also on Tuesday, Obama's book tour was extended to include 21 more cities in 2019.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama makes a surprise visit at the Motown Museum in conjunction with her "Becoming" book tour. Detroit Free Press

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Cocktails & Popcorn: The #HeToo Movement - Trump, Obama & "Protected By The Highest Order" Are CADs

On this exciting episode of Cocktails & Popcorn, Trump forgot to mention that #HeToo has an Inspector General report, obstructing justice in his backpocket.

"Stop being a CAD and let the heavens fall."

Alas, it seems Obama is also experiencing his own #HeToo moment.

Perhaps, if Trump stops obstructing justice, just being an absolute CAD by refusing to pull that IG report from his backpocket, then we would find out who the other #HeToo is.

#maytheheavensfall

Trump suggests investigation into Barack and Michelle Obama's books, Netflix deals

President Trump targeted both of Barack Obama's post-presidency deals in a series of tweets on Monday, calling for an investigation into the former president's book and Netflix projects.

"House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent - ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION," Trump tweeted. "So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that 'Trump' has done over his lifetime. But it doesn’t....

....work that way. I have a better idea. Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Dems in Congress, the “Congressional Slush Fund,” and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2019

In April, the former president and Michelle Obama revealed the initial projects their production company, Higher Ground Productions, would be releasing as part of a new partnership with Netflix.

BARACK, MICHELLE OBAMA REVEAL FIRST SLATE OF PROJECTS FOR NETFLIX

Spearheaded by Priya Swaminathan and Tonia Davis, the Obamas launched Higher Ground last spring in an effort to produce a diverse mix of content, which includes a scripted series, an unscripted series, a docu-series, as well as documentaries and features, according to a previous press release from the streaming giant, which announced the multi-year agreement.

And in 2017, it was revealed that the Obamas secured book deals with Penguin Random House. The former first lady's memoir "Becoming" -- which was published last year -- has already received a $65 million book advance. Meanwhile, it's been reported that Barack's memoir won't be released until next year.

Many social media users immediately reacted to Trump's tweets, stating that Obama "can make any deal he wants to make money."

"President Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are private citizens entitled to enjoy their success. (And, both are very fine authors.) It’s the American dream," said another individual.

While others simply wanted to see #ObamaNetflix trending on Twitter. "Get the trend going #ObamaNetflix," said one person. "I'm in with this Obama Netflix trend! #ObamaNetflix," echoed another person.

MICHELLE OBAMA'S 'BECOMING' MAY BE BEST-SELLING MEMOIR EVER

Earlier this month, it was the name of their company. The legal team representing the Obamas filed a petition to cancel the trademark of an e-book publishing company called Higher Ground Enterprises, much to the chagrin of the publishing company.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Michigan sophomore assisting White House anti-bullying forum

It is called assault and battery, not bullying.

Washington— A Michigan teen who was tormented by classmates is at the White House today to shed light on ways to prevent bullying and to make schools safer.

Ian Forster, a 16 year-old sophomore at Homer High School in Albion, is among 150 students, parents, teachers and advocates invited by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention.

Ian has multiple disabilities including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and paralysis on his right side. He has difficulty walking and climbing stairs and became a target for bullying starting in middle school, according to accounts from the Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service."If there's one goal of this conference, it's to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up. It's not," President Obama said. "Bullying can have destructive consequences for our young people. And it's not something we have to accept."

While using a wheelchair following foot surgery, fellow students dumped Ian on the floor and broke his chair. Another time, students pushed Ian to the ground and used a chair to pin him to the ground, according to Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, which worked on behalf of Ian with school officials to prevent future harassment.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for Ian to share his experiences on the bullying he has received since middle school," Elmer L. Cerano, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "In addition, this will allow Ian to share his thoughts with other students on preventive measures."

A third of middle school and high school students have reported being bullied during the school year, Obama said in his remarks at the summit. Almost 3 million students have said they were pushed, shoved, tripped, even spit on. It's also more likely to affect kids that are seen as different, whether it's because of the color of their skin, the clothes they wear, the disability they may have, or sexual orientation, he said"As parents, this issue really hits home for us," Michelle Obama said. "It breaks our hearts to think that any child feels afraid every day in the classroom, on the playground, or even online."

Notre Dame Fire Gets $600M To Rebuild, Louisiana Landry Parrish Three Churches Gets Nothing, Michelle Obama Has A Best Selling Book

It seems Michelle Obama was serendipitously in Paris for the controlled burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, during her miraculous book tour, where I have yet to find one person who has purchased her book that has generated millions and millions of dollars, in venues with extreme rates of poverty, like Detroit.

It must be a pretty good book.

Perhaps, she can awe us, again, with her soothsaying skills to reassure everyone that the churches in Louisiana Landry Parish will soon awe us again.

The majesty of Notre Dame—the history, artistry, and spirituality—took our breath away, lifting us to a higher understanding of who we are and who we can be. Being here in Paris tonight, my heart aches with the people of France. Yet I know that Notre Dame will soon awe us again. https://t.co/p1mIDMbwe1

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) April 15, 2019

Perhaps, she can ask Bernard Arnault for a few pointers on rebuilding historic churches, archiving the history, since the Vatican seems to have omitted the history of black churches in the United States, but hey, what do I know.

I know she will never do it.


Suspected arsonist facing hate crime charges over Louisiana black church fires

Suspected arsonist facing hate crime charges over Louisiana black church fires originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

The man who was arrested after a string of fires left historically black churches gravely burned is now facing hate crime charges.

Holden Matthews was arrested Wednesday after investigators tied him to three church fires that spanned a 10-day period in Louisiana's St. Landry Parrish.

Matthews, the 21-year-old son of a sheriff's deputy, appeared in court in Opelousas on Monday. He entered a not guilty plea via his court-appointed lawyer.

The Associated Press reports Matthews did not speak during the hearing, which came after prosecutors filed papers to add three charges accusing Matthews of violating the state's hate crime law. Those three charges come in addition to three charges of arson of a religious building that Matthews already faced.

Holden Matthews

Matthews was denied bond on Monday, which law enforcement officials pushed for because they view him as a continued threat.

"We felt that he was an immediate risk to public safety," said Louisiana Fire Marshal Butch Browning, according to the AP.

(MORE: 'Evil acts': Deputy's son Holden Matthews arrested for 3 Louisiana church fires)

"In my mind, I felt another fire was imminent," Browning said in court Monday.

Browning made similar sentiments shortly after apprehending Matthews. During a news conference on Thursday, Browning said officials were still working to determine his motives, but added they found that Matthews had ties to "black metal and its association and history with church burnings in other parts of the world."

Black metal, a distant genre of devil-worshipping death metal music, has roots in the Norwegian heavy metal scene that reportedly was the inspiration for several church burnings in the country in the early 1990s.

(MORE: Authorities investigating fires at historically black Louisiana churches)

Matthews' father, who works for the local sheriff's department, was present at Monday's hearing. The AP said the suspect's parents watched from a video conference of the courtroom, and at one point his father was seen leaving the room in tears.

The three fires investigators tied Matthews to were all near the town of Opelousas, and no one was hurt as no one was inside any of the structures at the time of the blazes.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Boehner Seeks to Curb Obama’s Rules Power

The Child Welfare Industry strongly supports federal deregulation as it would not be in the best interests on the pharmaceutical industry.  The cild protective industry has been unregulated since as one of its theoretical revenue-maximization scheme. 

Children and families would be treated with more compassion under a mafia rule than what is now currently established and legislatively proposed.  Human trafficking is an unregulated component of the Social Security Administration.

It's like that, and that's the way it is...

iThe U.S. House today approved the second in a series of bills to limit the president’s authority to regulate business, a move Republicans called necessary for job creation and Democrats labeled a political power grab.

Children and parents would probably be treated with more dignity 

House Speaker John Boehner, who said the package is a top priority, will face difficulty winning final passage of the legislation, which the White House has threatened to veto. Still, Republicans said the votes would highlight the issue of government’s role in regulating business, which they have made a major campaign issue.

Today’s 253-167 vote would force agencies to adopt the least-expensive version of a regulation. Next week, the House will consider a measure taking away President Barack Obama’s authority -- and that of future presidents -- to issue major rules. Congress would have to approve them first.

“The ‘get government off our backs’ message is red meat for the Republican base,” Larry Sabato, director of the center for politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, said in an interview. To moderate voters, he said, “it’s not a full meal. Most people favor at least some regulations. ‘Do you want arsenic in your fruit juice?’ is a great Democratic retort.”

Fewer Regulations

The House voted yesterday, 263-159, to require regulatory agencies to calculate the small-business impact of new rules.

The series of regulatory bills fits with Republicans’ 2010 “Pledge to America” campaign document. Similar reforms appeared in presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract with America,” which helped him become the first Republican House speaker in 40 years.

The package’s centerpiece legislation, scheduled to be voted on next week, is called the Regulations in Need of Scrutiny, or REINS Act. It would require Congress to sign off on every agency rule with an annual cost of $100 million or more on business. Now, Congress must vote to block the president from issuing regulations.

The bill “provides a long-term solution to stopping job- crushing regulations by creating a process to responsibly evaluate whether or not regulations that have a significant economic impact are necessary,” Boehner said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement Nov. 29 it would recommend a presidential veto if it passes both houses of Congress.

Obama’s Regulation Record

The administration works “very aggressively to ensure that we take the necessary action to protect our air and water and that we also issue regulations and reform regulations in a way that makes them as efficient as possible,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said at a briefing yesterday.

Recent reports have questioned the extent to which the administration is regulating business.

Obama has weakened proposed rules at a greater rate than his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush, according to a study released Nov. 29 by the Center for Progressive Reform.

Obama had imposed fewer regulations on business than Bush through the first 33 months of their tenures, while the cost of those rules had been higher under Obama, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Regulations ‘Save Lives’

Democrats warned of the consequences of loosening the regulatory environment too much.

“The trio of public safety-killing legislation would make it harder to control and make safe our products that we count on,” Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said on the floor yesterday. “Regulations don’t kill jobs, they save lives.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t focused on bringing the package to the floor for a vote, Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for the Nevada Democrat, said in an e-mail.

Even if eventually defeated, the House bills on regulation will emerge in the 2012 presidential race because they capture the conservative theme of getting government out of business, Noah Sachs, an associate law professor at the University of Richmond, said in an interview.

“Each presidential candidate will be put on the spot and forced to take a stand,” Sachs said.

Should Republicans capture the White House and Senate while keeping the House, “I would expect regulatory reform to be one of the first things to pass,” he said.

‘Regulators Gone Wild’

Presidential candidates Representative Michelle Bachmann and Representative Ron Paul have signed on as co-sponsors to the REINS Act. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney endorsed it in his Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth, released Sept. 6.

Regardless of the political party controlling the executive branch, REINS is necessary to stop “regulators gone wild,” Representative Geoff Davis, a Kentucky Republican and lead sponsor of the bill, said yesterday in an interview.

Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers back regulatory reform.

“Manufacturers of all sizes are impacted by harmful and unnecessary regulations, but small businesses are disproportionately affected,” President and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement yesterday.

The measure “truly would kick-start our economy,” Representative Rick Berg, a North Dakota Republican who co- sponsored the bill, said in an interview yesterday.

Uncertainty for Business

“Regulatory uncertainty -- there’s not a business that exists that doesn’t think about that,” Berg said. “The goal is to have businesses make decisions based on supply and demand, not out of concern about regulatory and tax burdens.”

REINS and the other two bills “are aimed at bringing the regulatory system to a halt by tying agencies up in knots,” Rick Melberth, regulatory policy director of OMB Watch, a liberal advocacy organization in Washington, said in an interview. He said the bills “usurp” presidential power.

The legislation passed today is H.R. 3010. The bill passed yesterday is H.R. 527. The measure being considered next week is H.R. 10.

Human Trafficking in Child Welfare: The Rehoming Experience

In the world of child welfare, there are many public relations campaigns to promote the integrity and moral ecstasy of taking in one of those heathen children who need to be saved.

It is called foster care and adoption.

The financial incentive to adopt children is quite enticing for the States and families who need a few extra dollars on the side, but the monetary allure of international adoption is even more profitable through subsidies and tax incentives.

Interstate adoptions under the Interstate Compact on the Placement of the Child, (ICPC) are excluded from the purview of public because no one knows about it and if they do, states like Michigan do not really care as it has no enforcement mechanisms.

The U.S, child welfare market is regulated in concept, only, leaving children after they have been formally adopted to become movable chattel or victims of human trafficking.

NOTE:  In many instances, adoptive parents will keep receiving adoption subsidies and adoption tax credits after a child has been rehomed.  

The funding does not kick in until there has been a judicial determination.

There are no data on rehoming or sexual assaults after adoption.

Girl spent months harboring secret, fearing she would be sent away again

NO IDEA: Nita Dittenber, now 18, said she had no idea that her adoptive mother
was using the Internet to look for families willing to take Nita. "There could have
been murderers or killers," Nita says. 
Authorities say an Ohio mother used ‘re-homing’ to keep allegations of sexual abuse from coming to light

MARYSVILLE, Ohio - On an Internet forum where parents sought takers for adopted children they no longer wanted, a teenager from Haiti was offered more frequently than any other girl.

Starting at age 14, Nita Dittenber was passed among four families over two years through a practice called “private re-homing.”

In September, Reuters exposed an underground market in which desperate parents use online bulletin boards to offer adoptees to strangers, often illegally and with no government oversight. The Internet forums, including the Yahoo group where Nita was advertised, can enable abusers to acquire children easily; in one case, a pedophile in Illinois took home a 10-year-old boy hours after an ad for the child was posted online.

In the last home where Nita was sent, re-homing served a different purpose, Ohio prosecutors contend. They say it was used to silence Nita and another girl in an effort to conceal the repeated sexual abuse of children.

For 17 months - from early 2011 until July 2012 - Nita lived in the Ohio city of Marysville with Jean Paul and Emily Kruse. Jean Paul was an information-technology specialist with the Ohio National Guard. Emily was a stay-at-home mother. The Kruses were the fourth family to take custody of her in America.

Not long after she was sent there, Nita says, the younger Kruse children told her they were being molested by Jean Paul. Nita says she struggled for months over whether to speak up about the allegations, fearing she’d be thrown out of the house and sent to yet another set of strangers if she did.

“I didn’t want to get passed around anymore,” Nita, now 18, says in an interview.

Months later, according to criminal charges filed in Union County Court here, Emily Kruse abruptly put Nita on a flight back to her original adoptive parents in Idaho - alone and “with only the clothes on her back.”

The reason: Kruse discovered that Nita had told relatives of the Kruses about the abuse accusations. Prosecutors say Emily sent Nita away to ensure the teen “would not be around to answer questions or participate in the resulting investigation.” They say another girl - an alleged victim of the abuse - was also threatened by Emily with re-homing unless she wrote a letter saying her accusations against Jean Paul were “not true.”

Jean Paul Kruse, 41, has pleaded not guilty to 17 felony criminal counts, including raping two of his daughters and sexually abusing another daughter. He and his attorney didn’t respond to interview requests. Emily Kruse, 36, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of obstructing justice and intimidating a witness. She declined to comment; her attorney did not respond to questions.

SHOCKING CHARGES: Ohio National Guardsman Jean Paul Kruse, 41, was once the subject of a heartwarming story about the children he and his wife had adopted. Now, he faces charges of sexually abusing three of his daughters. REUTERS/Staff Sgt. Kim Snow/Ohio National Guard Public Affairs/Handout

RE-HOMED LIKE A PET

Since the late 1990s, Americans have adopted about 243,000 children from other countries. If the failure rate of international adoptions is similar to the rate at which domestic adoptions fail - estimates by the federal government range from about 10 percent to 25 percent - then more than 24,000 foreign adoptees are no longer with the parents who brought them to America.

No government agency tracks what happens to these children after they reach America, and none monitors how frequently children are transferred to strangers via the Internet. But on a single online message board examined by Reuters—a Yahoo group called Adopting-from-Disruption — a child was offered for re-homing about once a week during a five-year period. Most of the children were adopted from overseas. One was Nita.

After Reuters published messages from the Yahoo group, Nita’s adoptive aunt began reading the posts. Reporters had removed names and other identifying information. But Tammy Dittenber says she quickly recognized that some of the messages were about Nita, based on details about her age, nationality and state of residence.

Tammy says she knew that Nita’s adoptive parents - her in-laws, Tony and Michelle Dittenber - had sent Nita to other families. But Tammy says she had no idea how until she read the posts.

“I said, ‘Oh my God! All the puzzle pieces are coming into focus,’” Tammy Dittenber recalls. “...I realized she had been re-homed the way you re-home a pet.”

Re-homing a child is easy. No state or federal laws specifically prohibit it, and state laws that restrict the advertising and custody transfers of children are often confusing and rarely spell out criminal sanctions.

An agreement among the 50 U.S. states called the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, or ICPC, is meant to ensure that child welfare authorities oversee custody transfers, review prospective parents and account for what happens to children sent from one state to another. Many law-enforcement officials - including police who investigated the Kruse case - have never heard of the compact.

Even so, Ohio state officials say prosecuting the Kruses for breaching the pact would be futile. “There are no sanctions or criminal penalties in Ohio for violating the ICPC,” said Benjamin Johnson, a deputy director of the state’s Department of Job and Family Services.

Authorities handling the Kruse cases are now calling for state measures to address re-homing, and other states have already taken action in response to the Reuters investigation.

“I was scared and nervous. I didn’t want to get passed around anymore.”

In Illinois, lawmakers held a hearing on the practice, and Colorado, Florida and Wisconsin are moving forward with bills aimed at stopping re-homing. “We need to protect kids who are literally being traded between homes,” said Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, who sponsored the Wisconsin bill. The state senate passed the measure this week, and it now awaits the governor’s signature. “This legislation puts Wisconsin on the national forefront of addressing re-homing and attacking it head on,” Kleefisch said.

At the federal level, a group of 18 Republican and Democratic members of Congress is seeking hearings to “identify ways to prevent these dangerous practices.” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, called for broad action in a letter to Obama administration officials, writing that it was “stunning” that “this practice of advertising children, usually over state borders, does not seem to violate any federal laws.”

Yahoo shut down the re-homing groups that Reuters brought to its attention, and the Illinois attorney general is pressing Facebook to explain how the social network polices itself. Reuters found that adoptive parents also were offering unwanted children there on a private page called Way Stations of Love. In a Jan. 21 letter responding to the attorney general’s inquiries, Facebook said it had found “no evidence of the type of Pages you described” but that “if people were discussing the activity in closed Groups or in private messages, we do not know about those communications unless they are reported to us.”

‘HOW CAN PEOPLE DO THIS?’

Born Nita Durand and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nita still speaks with a trace of a Haitian accent. She says her birth parents were poor and sent her to an orphanage when she was 9, hoping she would have a better life than they had.

THE FUTURE: Nita Dittenber recently completed
a residential treatment center for troubled girls.
Now, she says, she is focusing on her dream:
to return to her native Haiti to help orphans.

In 2009, Tony and Michelle Dittenber adopted her and brought her to their home in Nampa, Idaho, just outside Boise. Tony helps operate a food warehouse. Michelle books flights for an airline.

Nita was 13 at the time. She became one of nine Dittenber children, four biological and five adopted, including Nita’s younger biological sister. Each of the adoptees is Haitian.

The Dittenbers and Nita clashed from the start. Nita had “behavioral issues,” Tony Dittenber says. Nita says she thought the Dittenbers were harsh and treated her unfairly.

After the family tried without success to get help from social service agencies, Michelle says she turned to the Internet. She had read offers for children in the online forums. “My first thought was, ‘How can people do this?’” Dittenber says. “Then as I read through it and read people’s stories and what they’d been through, I understood.”

In August 2010, Michelle posted a message on the Yahoo group Adopting-from-Disruption. Her profile name: idmomofmany.

“I have a 14 year old daughter I adopted from Haiti,” she wrote. “Unfortunately we are needing to find a new family for her. Where do we start?”

Re-homing victim: ‘I could have been dead’

Since she was adopted and brought to America at age 13, Nita Dittenber was passed from family to family through an underground market for adopted kids. The practice, called "private re-homing," was uncovered last year by a Reuters Investigation

It was the first of several times Michelle offered Nita on the Yahoo group. In her posts, Michelle portrayed Nita as a “bully” with an “attitude of entitlement.” The girl “lies” and is “manipulative,” she wrote, but “does love little kids very much” and has “a soft spot for elderly people as well.”

Each time they transferred custody of Nita, the Dittenbers used a notarized power of attorney document stating that Nita was now in the care of the new family, Tony says. No social workers or attorneys were involved, he says, and there was no official vetting of the parents taking in Nita.

Nita says she did not know that she had been advertised on the sites until her aunt read the Reuters report and told her about it. “I didn't really know what was going on,” Nita says. “I had no clue about where I was going to live and for how long.”

The first two families to take Nita — one in Ohio, another in Idaho — sent her back to the Dittenbers.

Then, Nita was sent to the Kruse home in Marysville. It was her third move in less than a year. She was 15.

‘NINE IS ENOUGH?’

It seemed like a good option. Michelle says that the first Ohio family who’d taken in Nita knew and vouched for the Kruses.

In 2008, the couple also had been profiled in a heartwarming story distributed by the Ohio National Guard, headlined “Nine is enough?” The article described how the Kruses happily scrambled to care for their large family.

At the time, the story said, the Kruses had five biological children - four from previous marriages — and four adopted overseas. A photo showed a grinning Jean Paul tickling one of the adopted children, a girl born in Liberia.

“We wanted a girl because they have it so hard there,” the story quotes him as saying. “They are often raped and molested from a very young age.”

Within weeks of arriving at the Kruse place, Nita alleges, several young girls in the home told her they were being sexually abused by Jean Paul. She says she wasn’t abused herself but was terrified to come forward. It took her about nine months to share the allegations with Emily, she says. When she finally did, Nita says, Emily accused her of lying and promised to put her on a plane back to Idaho if she told anyone else.

FELT REJECTED: As she was passed from home to home, Nita Dittenber says she developed an eating disorder and contemplated suicide. "I remember praying to God, 'Please take me,' because I did not want to go through that again," she says.

Nita kept silent for another eight months. “I was like, ‘I’m not about to ruin this one,’ ” Nita says. The stress of being sent from family to family was overwhelming, she says: She suffered an eating disorder and contemplated suicide.

Then, in July 2012, Nita and two of the girls were visiting with a Kruse family relative. Nita says she recalls feeling glum that day, burdened by what the young girls were continuing to tell her. The relative asked her why she looked so down. Nita told her of the alleged abuse, and then the other girls told their stories.

The relative took Nita and the girls to see other family members, Nita says, and they went over the allegations again.

In court documents, authorities describe what happened next: After learning that the abuse allegations had come to light, Emily picked up Nita at a local hospital where the teen was working as a volunteer. Emily then took Nita directly to the nearby airport in Columbus.

“Michelle was on the Internet a lot. She’d come back and say ‘there’s a family here who will take her.’ I was like ‘OK.’”

Emily “did not tell the child where she was going and did not permit her to pack her clothing or other belongings,” prosecutors allege in court documents. At the airport, they say, she ordered Nita to get on a flight to Boise so that the girl couldn’t be questioned in any investigation of Jean Paul. The move was so abrupt, they allege, that Emily didn’t give the Dittenbers advance notice that Nita was heading back to Idaho.

The Dittenbers were away on vacation at the time, so they asked Tony’s brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Tammy Dittenber, to pick up Nita. When Nita walked off the plane, she “looked lost and really confused,” Tammy wrote in a police statement as part of the Kruse criminal cases. “…She said she had nothing. No suitcase, duffle bag, carry on, nothing.”

Almost immediately, Michelle Dittenber again began offering Nita for re-homing.

In a July 24, 2012, post on the Yahoo group, Michelle blamed Nita for the rupture with the Kruses.

“The last straw with the last family was her making allegations that the dad in the family was sexually molesting all the kids but her,” Michelle wrote. “...I would love to be done with her permanently.”

Soon, however, child welfare workers and police began to investigate the Kruses. In August 2012, 10 children were removed from their home.

Later that summer, police in Nampa, Idaho, interviewed Nita as part of the investigation. Sgt. Don Peck says he never looked into how Nita came to live with the Kruses. He says he had no reason to believe her custody transfer was improper, despite an Idaho state law that prohibits anyone without a state license from advertising children for adoptions.

Jean Paul Kruse is scheduled for trial in May; Emily Kruse is scheduled for trial in July. The two no longer live together, and some of the couple’s children have been returned to Emily’s care.

‘HEART TO HEART’

Eventually, the Dittenbers sent Nita to Mercy Ministries, a Nashville residential treatment center for troubled girls.

In December, Nita received a certificate for completing the program. In her eight months at Mercy Ministries, she says, she recovered from her eating disorder and regained a sense of self-worth, making friends and bonding with staff.

“I had no clue about where I was going to live and for how long.”

Michelle, who says she now regrets her decisions to re-home Nita, traveled to Nashville for the graduation ceremony. For the first time, Michelle discussed with Nita how she had used the Internet to seek new families for her.

“I was like, I do understand that you needed help…but there could have been murderers or killers,” Nita says. “You don’t know those people. I could have been dead.”

Michelle says she told Nita that “she always has the option to come back home” to Idaho.

Nita has no such plans. Today, she is living outside Nashville with Sandra Booker, a nurse she met through church. With Booker’s help, Nita intends to finish her education and “focus on the future.” Her ambition, she says, is to return to Haiti and work with orphans.

(Additional reporting by Blake Morrison. Edited by Blake Morrison and Michael Williams)

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