NAAM Day 2: Woman Says Selling Her Baby is a "different kind of adoption."

National Adoption Awareness 2024 kicked off with a bang in Texas.

According to the Houston Chronicle, several months ago a pregnant Juniper Bryson, 21, attempted to sell her up-and-coming-baby for $150, allegedly to keep him out of fostercare. This paltry amount, she said would enable her to “move into an apartment so I can work a job and get (my daughter) back, or a cheap down payment, or [sic] any car to get to different places to DoorDash. Nothing crazy at all.” Even though the baby was due in a few days, she said she was willing to travel to meet potential adopters.

According to court documents she did not view this proposed transaction as a crime, but as “a different kind of adoption,” comparing it to surrogacy. (Commercial surrogacy is legal in Texas).

The Chronicle article is paywalled, so I am taking the following information from 3 other sources, Internewscast.com, The Independent, and Newsweek.

Photo: Harris County Jail

On September 22, 2024, Bryson posted an “ad” on the Facebook group “Birthmothers Looking for Adoptive Parent(s)”* trolling for adopters. (Bryson told a relative that the baby would be drug-positive, but I’ve found nothing to indicate that she posted that information on Facebook). Somewhere along the line, either on that page or through some other source, she was informed that her proposal was illegal, but she didn’t quite get the message.

Neither did at least 7 potential adopters, though it seems that in at least one case money was never mentioned, and the couple believed that this was a legitimate adoption deal–until they didn’t. More about that in a minute.

The articles give a few examples of potential adopters. One of the weirdest involved a same-sex couple in Louisiana who drove to Houston to be with Bryson for the birth, which happened two days later, early in the morning of September 24. Bryson got them to send her $25.00 via Apple Pay to complete a food delivery. During their road trip to Houston she asked for $150. They refused and went back home. According to court documents, she responded, “If the baby wasn’t worth $200 to them, then screw all.”

According to the articles, (the Chronicle might have more details or even link to court documents) the Harris County Sheriff caught up with Bryson when adoptee, licensed foster parent, and potential adopter Wendy Williams turned her in to CPS after learning the truth.

Williams accompanied Bryson during labor and stayed at the hospital with her for 3 days afterward. Bryson allowed Williams and her husband to name the baby and signed notarized papers giving them the ability to make legal decisions for him. It doesn’t sound like these papers had anything to do with the relinquishment of parental rights. After Bryson posted the news on Facebook, tagging Williams, all hell broke loose, with angry strangers bombarding Williams with “how could you buy a baby?” messages along with Facebook screenshots from Bryson discussing money. Williams claims that money, however, had never been discussed, and when she questioned Bryson about it, Bryson kicked her out of her hospital room. One report says that Williams revoked the custody authorization, but others say that Bryson took the action. Whatever happened, Williams called CPS who called the cops, and the rest is history.

Bryson is charged with attempting to sell a child, a 3rd degree felony. The Harris County prosecutor requested a $20,000 bond, but the court upped it to $30,000, which does not bode well for Bryson’s chance for leniency. She obviously needs help, though, and I hope she gets it.

The baby is now in the custody of a friend of Bryson’s. Wendy Williams, says she feels a “biological connection” with the baby, and still wants to adopt him.

Juniper Bryson is scheduled for a court appearance on November 4, and if I find an update, I’ll post it here.

This story is so messed up.

I don’t know why I am surprised, but I am, that 7 desperate and childless potential adopters rushed to snatch up Bryson’s baby immediately after the Facebook post was published. It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World of baby grabbiers I suppose Wendy Williams won because she lived in Houston and could make it to the hospital first.

Nobody looks good in this case, but I am thrown by the ignorance and baybee- rabies greed of the potential adopters.

Juniper Bryson, comes across as messed up, drug-brained, confused, sad, desperate, and surely in need of help, which as a Texas resident I can assure you is hard to find– all of which generates a kind of sympathy. in me. I’m sure some would disagree with me. (In my misspent youth I knew a couple who left their baby in the care of some friends in a nearby city when they hustled off to San Francisco to bask in the residue of the Summer of Love, and when they returned they couldn’t remember who had him).

The potential adopters had virtually no information about Bryson–information that even the most odious adoption agency or lawyer would have collected and probably given as much as they could to them under Texas law. Information essential to the baby and the adopters. In fact, the potentials didn’t seem to care to know much. They just wanted a baby. The potentials all contacted Bryson probably on the day of the Facebook post and then only by email, phone, and text/IM). (Williams met her at the hospital when Bryson went into labor.) The baby was born only 2 days or less after the initial contact. I mean…really!? Would they purchase a home with that little information and short notice?

Did any of these people know how adoption works? Were these people even qualified to adopt? Surely Williams, an adopted person and foster parent herself, had to know this was screwed up even if she were unaware of the money angle.

Were any of the potentials traffickers?

Where were their lawyers? Did they even have any? Did the potentials think that adoption is a DYI project? I can’t imagine any adoption lawyer not telling them to hold their horses.

Didn’t the request for $150 seem a bit odd? That will not get somebody an apartment or a car It might buy groceries for a few days. Anyone taking Bryson up on her request would know that something was way off; but oh joy! A cheap way to obtain a Baby Bumble.

Did the potentials know that the baby had drugs in his system? ‘I don’t know much about that condition, but I am pretty sure that caretakers, even in the short run, need some type of training or expertise, not to mention temperament, to take on the task. Even though the baby went through withdrawal at the hospital, there can be life-long impacts on in-utero drug exposure.

No doubt there are more questions, but I need to get this up for my daily NAAM post.

Remember: Adoption is beautiful!

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*I ran a search for Bryson’s post on the “Birthmothers” Facebook page and came up with nothing in her name. It would take an inordinate amount of time to locate it manually. The group has what appears to be legitimate posts, but others are skeezy and reek of trafficking and re-homing. Bryson has a Facebook page, but has not posted on it since 2018.