Sent Tuesday,June 18
Shelly Burman
Andrea
I have been made aware of your intent to contact my husband and I regarding the children we have committed to. Tina and Randy Kacirek sent you an email regarding the fact that we have committed to three children. You have them listed on your site as Nolan, Lauren, and Paige although we learned of them under different names. Nonetheless they are the same children.
As Tina said in her email, we would like to avoid another family committing to the children and then learning they already have a family (us) leaving soon to meet them. With that said, we are asking that you change the children's profiles to inform other families that our family is intending on bringing them home.
Shelly
Andrea Roberts
This is our third attempt to reach you via email regarding our children and their grant funds. Per your email to Tina Kacirek you mentioned that you were going to get in touch with our family directly. You have all the documents of RR required grant application (minus the home study per the email sent by Michelle) including the additional letter signed, NOT BY ME AS PER THE ALLEGATIONS, by our social worker, the social worker pre approval form, and it is also clear you have her contact information above and beyond what she wanted released to RR, and you were notified by Grace Haven that we indeed do have "the correct" children so we are unsure as to what is preventing you from doing what is the next step? This next step is removing our three children from available status to that in which it states that a family is coming for them. There are so many children who need advocacy which should be where efforts need to be directed since the three already have our family just about ready to travel.
I would like to believe that indeed the children's lives are what is important here. Once our travel date is in our hands that will also be disbursed to RR per our email stating so. With all of this said I do not believe there is anything left which is preventing our children being removed off the available list nor will there be any trouble disbursing their grants.
We would appreciate an immediate response and action of sharing with the world that the three children known as Nolan, Lauren, and Paige will soon be son and daughters, brother and sisters.
Shelly(The last communication we received from anyone at RR was on May 22, 2013)
Then on June 8th we were contacted by our social worker who says that RR had contacted the HR department of where she worked (RR got her information from the TX social worker board) and had left a message with the secretary regarding our family that she was working with. That same day she also received this package sent to her by RR. In it we are publicly accused of criminal activity which is legally considered SLANDER. At NO time did we forge the approval of our social worker. She had sent the email to RR notifying them of our approval to adopt the three children plus she then filled out the Pre Approval form even though she had already completed our home study. RR had no reason nor proof to even accuse our family of such a thing. It is not the job of RR to verify that we had told our sw about our Bulgarian adoption. THEY ARE NOT AN ADOPTION AGENCY.
GRANT DENIAL LETTER RECEIVED ON JUNE 24, 2013
 |
| The letter sent to us denying the children's grant funds which total over $25,000 |
On Jun 24, 2013, at 22:48, Kelly Mokashi <klmokashi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Ms. Burman,
As per the letter sent to you, if you would like to file an appeal with the Board of Directors of Reece's Rainbow to review your case a second, and final time, the link is available here. http://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/forms/RRGrievanceProceduresPolicy.pdf (as described under Step Two under Dispute Resolution [Grievance] Procedure).
As per policy, you can send a formal written letter to be mailed and addressed to Reece's Rainbow, at PO Box 4024, Gaithersburg, MD 20885, addressed to Kelly Mokashi (see 'Letters of Grievance').
All communications between the Board and your family shall be handled through mail for confidentiality purposes. At this time, RR personnel and staff will not respond or participate in any email communications specific to this case.
The Board of Directors will await to hear from you,
Thank you
Kelly Mokashi
Kelly@reecesrainbow.org
On Jun 25, 2013, at 7:41 AM, "Shelly Burman" <burmanshelly@yahoo.com> wrote:
Kelly for confidentiality and security purpose we shall send our letter via registered mail. Please give me an address where I may send the letter.
Shelly,
Wife to Brian, mom to Madelaine, Ethan, Owen, Hudson, Evelyn, our Angel Mason, Carrington, Reagan, and Benjamin.
On Jun 25, 2013, at 15:57, Kelly Mokashi <klmokashi@hotmail.com> wrote:Ms. Burman,If you would prefer, send your letter no later than July 15 2013 to my office:Kelly Mokashi8849 Promontory RdIndianapolis IN 46236Upon receipt of the letter, I will email you of its arrival, and then the Board will review the case and respond to you no later than 3 weeks (as per the grievance policy).Kelly Mokashi
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 25, 2013, at 5:33 PM, "Shelly Burman" <burmanshelly@yahoo.com> wrote:
KellyYes I will send this info to this address. Thank you.
Shelly,
Wife to Brian, mom to Madelaine, Ethan, Owen, Hudson, Evelyn, our Angel Mason, Carrington, Reagan, and Benjamin.
FROM Kelly Mokashi TO You
Thank you- . I will email you with confirmation upon its arrival.
Sincerely
Kelly Mokashi
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
APPEAL LETTER WRITTEN BY BRIAN AND SHELLY
June
25, 2013
Reece’s
Rainbow
Attention
Kelly Mokashi
Board
of Directors
PO
Box 4024
Gaithersburg,
Maryland 20885
Re: Burman
Family Adoption of Three Children from Ukraine
Dear
Board of Directors of Reece’s Rainbow:
We write to
appeal your decision denying us the grant funds raised for three children we
intend to adopt: Paige, Nolan and
Lauren. For the details reasons set
forth below, the funds donated for these children should be provided to the
adopting family (us), and we ask for you to release them to us at the
appropriate time in the process.
On May 4, 2013,
we wrote an email to Reece’s Rainbow (“RR”) announcing our intention to adopt
three children who are listed on your site as “Paige,” “Nolan,” and “Lauren.” That date commenced our relationship with RR
for this adoption. We have included all
correspondence since that time as an attachment to this letter, per your
grievance requirements.
Our initial
communications with RR were with Michelle Zoromski, donations coordinator. As the correspondence reflects, the
relationship began on a very positive note and has deteriorated from
there. On May 14, Michelle informed us
that in order to receive the grant funds associated with the three children we
are adopting, we needed to provide RR (i) approval from our social worker, (ii)
the children’s full names and dates of birth, (iii) USCIS approval, (iv) our
appointment date in Ukraine, and (v) and estimate of our adoption
expenses. To eliminate any doubt, we
have reattached each of these items to this letter, with the exception of the
travel date which we expect to receive in the next 5 weeks. We also provided RR with our completed
application(attached).
While we have
had certain back and forth related to this documentation, as reflected in the
attached correspondence, the requested documentation is complete. And yet, instead of moving forward in a
productive way to release three children from the institutions where they reside,
we have suffered public attack and slander by members of your staff. First, we were publicly accused of criminal
activity – a claim that is not only false but completely fabricated. The letter
sent by the President of the Board of Directors of Reece’s Rainbow notified in
writing the desire by Reece’s Rainbow to know if our social worker did in fact
sign her name to our approval to adopt and to verify if we had fully disclosed
all information regarding a past adoption as well as correspondence to our
social worker with the belief of Reece’s Rainbow that we used our social
worker’s name and information without her approval. Then, Andrea Roberts made direct and inappropriate
contact with USCIS to discuss our pending case.
Notably, USCIS acted promptly and did not release any information to her
because she did not have our permission.
We have USCIS approval. Third, an
individual from Reece’s Rainbow contacted Baylor and attempted to speak with
our social worker without our permission or consent. All of this deeply saddens us, particularly
when we are seeking to bring home three children who need a family!
On June 20,
2013, we received a letter from you denying our grant application. The stated reasons for the denial are (i)
failure to complete the required application in full with all components, (ii)
failure to submit the required $25 application fee, and (iii) failure to
complete the required application within 10 days of verbal commitment. We respond to each of these reasons in
turn.
First, our
application is attached hereto. We have
also provided the additional information requested by Michelle and set forth in
the third paragraph of this letter. As
such, we are unaware of additional materials you may need to process this
application. Of course if such
information is outstanding, please advise us immediately. Second, we did not provide the application
fee because weeks ago the entire staff of RR stopped communicating with
us. We did not feel right paying the
money when no one was willing/able to respond to our emails letting us know
what the status was. In order to move
this process along, we have included $25 with this appeal and consider this
objection to our application resolved.
Last, you have stated that we did not apply within ten days of verbal
commitment. This is the first time we
are hearing of this requirement.
Michelle informed us, in her May 6 communication that documentation
needed to be provided to her “prior to our court date.” Moreover,
what your website does say is that, “Application for grant funds must be made prior to the completion of a child’s adoption.” (emphasis in original). It does not state that there are other time
constraints on the timeline of application.
Since our adoptions are not complete, we do not understand the third
reason for denial.
It is
unfathomable to us that we are in this dispute with a reputable organization
like Reece’s Rainbow. It is our sincere
hope that this documentation puts to rest any questions you may have about our
application for the grant funds given by numerous families in support of these
particular children. If there are
outstanding questions, please contact us directly and immediately. We expect to be traveling in the next few
weeks and as soon as we have the date, we will provide it to you, per your requirements.
Sincerely,
Brian and Shelly
Burman
4401 Westcliffe
Drive
Mansfield, TX
76063
817-899-7428
cc. Kelly Mokashi, Board President, by email
Andrea Roberts, Executive Director,
by email
Letter of
Grievance Compliance
·
Previous
written communication: attached
·
Statement
of the nature of the grievance: see
letter
·
Date
of the filing: June 25, 2013
·
(Addressed
to the Board of Directors and sent to the president: So addressed and copied
> Subject: Arrival of Appeal
> From: klmokashi@hotmail.com
> Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 19:12:06 -0400
> To: burmanshelly@yahoo.com
>
> Dear Ms. Burman
> I am writing to let you know I received your appeal today. The Board will review the appeal and will respond as per our policy within 3 weeks of today's date/(arrival of the appeal)- Tuesday July 23 2013.
>
> Thank you
>
> Kelly Mokashi
>
> <Burman.Confidentiality.pdf>d
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