how discouraging...
"Dear Kristen,
Unfortunately, there really is not very much you can do with regard to Easter House's refusal to comply with the law. They are required by law to provide you with any non-identifying information they had at the time of the adoption (they can redact the information from the original files, though, and are not required to send the original file to an adoptee). The home study cannot be shared with anyone, I'm afraid. In the case of Easter House, they have long refused to provide adoptees with even basic background information (including one case where a woman believed her heritage was Jewish when she was actually Hispanic), claiming the files were "stolen" by a former director or lost or whatever. They also refuse to provide information to the state intermediary program, and a law currently pending would penalize them, monetarily, for doing this in the future (though I doubt the financial loss will get them to change their ways). In order to ensure that all adoptees received minimal background information (the birth mother's age after 1955, and other info on the obc before then as well as confirmation of the adoptee's actual date and place of birth) I proposed a change to the law which went into effect in 2000 (I was thinking primarily of Easter House adoptees when I drafted it!!)...
I am so happy to hear that you and your birth mother were reunited through the Registry. I worked on many of the changes that were made to the Registry in 1998 and 2000, but held little hope (despite mandatory PR through the Driver's Registration updates, etc.) that many birth mothers and their birth children would find each other through the Registry...Unless you want to go so far as to petition the court, through an attorney, to get the non-identifying information (knowing that your efforts might fail!), you could do that, but, otherwise, I really think there's little chance Easter House would be helpful. They are listed in the Yellow Pages if you want to give them a call...but, in my experience, they don't return calls from adult adoptees."
Unfortunately, there really is not very much you can do with regard to Easter House's refusal to comply with the law. They are required by law to provide you with any non-identifying information they had at the time of the adoption (they can redact the information from the original files, though, and are not required to send the original file to an adoptee). The home study cannot be shared with anyone, I'm afraid. In the case of Easter House, they have long refused to provide adoptees with even basic background information (including one case where a woman believed her heritage was Jewish when she was actually Hispanic), claiming the files were "stolen" by a former director or lost or whatever. They also refuse to provide information to the state intermediary program, and a law currently pending would penalize them, monetarily, for doing this in the future (though I doubt the financial loss will get them to change their ways). In order to ensure that all adoptees received minimal background information (the birth mother's age after 1955, and other info on the obc before then as well as confirmation of the adoptee's actual date and place of birth) I proposed a change to the law which went into effect in 2000 (I was thinking primarily of Easter House adoptees when I drafted it!!)...
I am so happy to hear that you and your birth mother were reunited through the Registry. I worked on many of the changes that were made to the Registry in 1998 and 2000, but held little hope (despite mandatory PR through the Driver's Registration updates, etc.) that many birth mothers and their birth children would find each other through the Registry...Unless you want to go so far as to petition the court, through an attorney, to get the non-identifying information (knowing that your efforts might fail!), you could do that, but, otherwise, I really think there's little chance Easter House would be helpful. They are listed in the Yellow Pages if you want to give them a call...but, in my experience, they don't return calls from adult adoptees."