I Asked for Help. They Took My Baby.
When a Mother’s Story Becomes a Call for Change: Help Tia Goins Be Heard
What happens when a mother reaches out for help during a crisis—and the only help she finds leads her into an adoption she later wishes she could undo?
For Tia Goins, this is not a theoretical question. It is her lived experience.
Tia was 20 years old and facing homelessness in Michigan in 2018. She had a three-month-old baby and was trying to figure out how to keep a roof over their heads. In desperation, she searched online for an adoption agency.
What happened next is now receiving national attention.
According to reporting by PBS Frontline, Tia was connected with Utah-based Brighter Adoptions and was offered assistance that included transportation to Utah. Within days of arriving, she signed documents relinquishing her child. Tia has described feeling pressured, overwhelmed and uncertain throughout the process.
Her experience was also examined by FRONTLINE and Retro Report in Baby Brokers, which investigates the use of adoption brokers and the way vulnerable women can be targeted by the private adoption system. The program specifically features Tia’s story.
This is why Tia’s voice matters.
This Is About More Than One Adoption
Adoptionland has always been about bringing forward the stories that are too often missing from the traditional adoption narrative.
We hear extensively about the joy of adoptive families.
But what about the mothers who lost children?
What about adopted people who grow up with unanswered questions about how and why they were separated from their families?
What happens when a woman makes a decision about adoption while she is experiencing homelessness, poverty, isolation, fear, or an immediate crisis?
These are difficult questions—but they deserve to be asked.
Tia’s story allows the public to look beyond the simple narrative that adoption is always the solution when a mother is struggling.
Sometimes what a mother needs is support—not separation from her child.
And when a mother is in crisis, she deserves enough time, information, and meaningful alternatives to make a decision without feeling that the clock is working against her.
Tia Is Not Just Telling Her Story. She Is Living With It.
Tia has spoken publicly about what happened to her because she wants people to understand what can happen when vulnerable mothers encounter an adoption system operating under circumstances they may not fully understand.
Her story is particularly important because she is also an adopted person herself.
She understands adoption from both sides of the experience.
That perspective deserves to be heard.
The PBS reporting on Tia’s experience documents her account of being in crisis, being transported from Michigan to Utah, and signing adoption paperwork only days after arriving. Tia has said that she did not feel she had enough time to process what was happening.
FRONTLINE’s Baby Brokers expands the discussion beyond Tia’s individual experience, examining the broader structure of private domestic infant adoption and the role of intermediaries who connect vulnerable pregnant women with adoption agencies.
Her story is now part of the public record.
But Tia should not have to carry this message alone.
Help Tia Get Into the Room
Tia has been awarded a scholarship from Concerned United Birthparents (CUB) to attend its 50th annual conference.
Her conference tuition is covered.
What is not covered are the practical expenses that make it possible for her to actually get there—airfare, lodging, transportation and other travel expenses.
That is why we created the Adoption HerStory Project GoFundMe.
Our current fundraising goal is $2,400, and every contribution brings Tia one step closer to being able to attend.
Support Tia Goins through the Adoption HerStory Project GoFundMe
Your donation can help give Tia:
- A plane ticket to the conference
- A safe place to stay
- Transportation to and from the airport
- Food and other basic travel expenses
- The opportunity to connect face-to-face with other mothers of loss and adopted people
- A platform to continue sharing what she has learned from her experience
A donation is not simply helping someone attend a conference.
It is helping make it possible for a woman whose story has already been investigated by national media to sit at the table with others who understand adoption loss from lived experience.
Why Now?
The timing could not be more important.
In 2026, FRONTLINE and Retro Report released Baby Brokers, examining allegations of misconduct within the for-profit adoption industry and focusing in part on Utah’s adoption system. The documentary asks difficult questions about what can happen when vulnerable women encounter adoption brokers and agencies in moments of crisis.
Tia’s experience is one of the stories at the center of that investigation.
People are listening.
This is an opportunity to make sure Tia has the resources to continue being part of that conversation.
We Believe Stories Can Change What People Understand
The Adoption HerStory Project exists to preserve firsthand experiences from adopted people and mothers separated from their children through adoption.
These stories can help educate the public about experiences that are often absent from conventional adoption narratives.
Our focus is:
Crisis Prevention.
Protection.
Education.
Informed Choices.
We want future mothers to have access to truthful information before making life-changing decisions.
We want adopted people to have the opportunity to understand their own histories.
And we want stories like Tia’s preserved—not buried.
Please Help Us Get Tia There
You don’t have to be wealthy to make a difference.
$10 matters.
$25 matters.
$50 matters.
$100 matters.
If enough people who care about mothers, adopted people and family preservation each contribute what they can, together we can help Tia get to the conference.
And if you cannot donate, sharing this fundraiser is another meaningful way to help.
Please share it with someone who cares about:
- Mothers separated from their children
- Adopted people’s voices
- Family preservation
- Adoption reform
- Adoption trafficking awareness
- Human rights
- Transparency in adoption
- Protecting vulnerable families
Tia’s story should not end with what happened to her.
Let it become part of the reason we demand better protection, better information and more meaningful choices for mothers and children.
Please donate to help Tia attend the CUB conference and continue sharing her story.
DONATE TO TIA’S GOFUNDME → Adoption HerStory Project
If the fundraiser does not reach the amount needed for Tia’s travel, the GoFundMe states that funds will instead support community peer support and future educational events focused on adoption awareness.
Help Tia Goins Share Her Adoption Story: Support the Adoption HerStory Project
Your Donation Helps Give These Stories a Place to Be Heard
