Tammy Granath
Appearances
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Tara Lee said, she's huge and very low, and baby is big. She said, she has been going to the hospital for care. We are a bit unsure of her last period. She will come any day.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
So we told her at that meeting that we were pulling out of the situation with Stephanie.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
Stephanie, you are amazing and strong. Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of your life. We feel like you were absolutely put in our path for a reason. It's been such a tough decision and journey for us. At this time, since we have been in the hospital NICU for 17 days and counting with May, we both feel and know we couldn't give proper care to your baby boy at this time.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
We have nothing but love and admiration for how strong and how amazing you are.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
I'm sorry to hear about me. I hope and pray everything works out and you three will be in my prayers. God bless you. She had a huge heart.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
I distinctly remember getting told that the new adoptive parents were refusing to pay for Stephanie's bills and Stephanie's living expenses up until they got matched. And I remember distinctly thinking, like, oh, my goodness, who are these people that she chose? Like, that's horrible. Why would they do that?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
So meanwhile, I'm sitting in the car with our daughter, who's, you know, at this point 26 days old. And we have this huge security issue on our hands. We're worried about Sarah's current boyfriend. He knows we're getting released.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
We're watching every car, making sure nobody's following us.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And so we decided to drive straight to my sister's house, and we surprised them. Yeah, we rang the doorbell, and they opened, and my sister just screams, and it was very exciting.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
And then we asked a couple of questions in regards to birth certificates. She responded and said, you don't get birth certificate until finalization. Talia and Tanya will help you with anything else. So basically she avoided the question about the check.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I was sitting at the second chair of my island, and she said to me, I have to tell you that you and a few other families may not be able to keep your babies. And I went into a straight panic attack. You're not taking my daughter back.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
It was the worst call I've ever had in my entire life.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
But it was just so cathartic to know that Baby Boy was saved. And he's with amazing parents.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Yeah, and we were there when she passed away. We were able to go to Detroit, and we were able to say goodbye. And it was one of the hardest things I think we've ever done. But it was very important to me to be able to tell her, thank you for making me a mom.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
And I just went through the motions, and I didn't want to bond with her. I was so scared.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
About a week before Sarah died, she sent a voice memo to me.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
We had a teddy bear made that, you know, she can click the paw and at any time she can hear Sarah's voice saying, good morning, I hope you have a great day.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
I've noticed when May is happy or sad or, you know, having a moment, we can hear her click that bear and we can hear Sarah's voice go off in the other room.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
My phone rings, and it's Maria, Sarah's lawyer, who represents her. And she says, are you sitting down? And without even taking a breath, she says, Sarah wants Mae back.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
She said, Tammy, I love you guys. I want you to be her parents. She's in the right place. I know that from the bottom of my heart. Like, do not worry about this.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
We were told not to get our hopes up, and we were also told, do not think that your adoption's gonna go through today.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
March 14th, 2019, and to this day we celebrate her gotcha day.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Tara Lee would send very erratic text messages saying, Sabrina's having a horrible day. Sabrina didn't show to her doctor.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She would act as if they had drug issues, had no moral values. They were in the situations that they were in because of themselves. You know how these girls are.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
One of the things I said to her is, would you be able to take her to an ultrasound to get the gender reveal? Supposedly she was very skittish of the doctors and didn't want to do these things. And I said, could you please take her just so I could start prepping everything? I would love to know the gender of the baby. Oh my goodness, I'm hoping it's a girl.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Avery was always a name that I absolutely loved.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
It was a Saturday, and we just kept saying, hey, where are we meeting? Where are we meeting? I was waiting for this moment to be in person with her, to be able to find out all of the information about our child.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And our consultant ended up reaching out to us, and she said, so Tara Lee is not in town.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And so she gets on the Skype with us, and she tells us that the reason she can't come is because this birth mom was shot in her car in a parking lot and lost the baby.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She was taking entire bottles of pills. She tried to drown herself in a bathtub. They had to pump her stomach. She's saying that they had to bring her back to life multiple times. I was crying so intensely. It was just like a stab in the heart. I remember distinctly her saying that no matter what, the baby was going to be special needs.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
We turned off our cell phones that day and I just went on a drive. We just went and drove because we couldn't talk to our family. It was too heavy. We couldn't talk to anyone. We just drove.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Our consultant says to us that we have two different options. She's like, you can back out. Your other option is that you stay matched because our concern was we were told that Tara Lee made it clear that if we didn't stay matched, that it was very likely that Sabrina would kill herself and kill the baby.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Literally, yeah. So in that weekend, we made the decision to stay with Tara Lee and Always Hope and to stay with Sabrina.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She asked us a lot of questions, which I appreciated. She was very, you know, open about why she was going to be giving her baby up for adoption. She was having a baby girl. She has a son. She has a daughter. And then she's pregnant with another little girl. And the craziest part was that Sarah was due September 7th of 2018. I was like, wow, this is a baby girl who's literally due the same week.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She kept telling us, forget about Sabrina's baby. She says to us, Sabrina's going to raise that baby whether it lives or dies. And I'll never forget that. How did we go from being told we can't unmatch with Sabrina, we can't unmatch with this baby, and then being told forget about her and match to this new mom, Stephanie, and this new baby?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
The video has the heartbeat, and it has the picture up on the screen of the baby. It's a boy. It's a baby boy.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Did you see your baby? And I remember just kind of tapping Nick with my phone and handing him the phone. Did you see your baby? It didn't feel like we were given a choice.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
To be honest, I always knew that likely I couldn't have my own children. I just knew it. So how I felt is I want to adopt.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She's crying. She wanted it to be a girl. She's so scared you're going to say no. It's almost this guilt that you feel immediately, like you have to take this baby.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
I said no. My answer was no. I basically left the decision to him. Nick's feeling was...
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Most couples wait years. We'd have both at the same time and we're done. We've already bought two of everything.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
I remember telling people, like, there's this crazy chance that there could be three. In the back of your mind, you're like, what if? Because you're so attached to Sabrina's child that you're thinking, well, if this baby's born and if this baby lives, how could we not take her home? If, of course, she didn't want a parent. Of course we're going to say yes.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
In walks this lady who has jet black hair and is covered in tattoos. She has like her name brand jeans. She has her nails done.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
I knew the lawyers had to come, and so I wrote everything down, every red flag down.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And they flat out tell you, you know, are you looking for a Caucasian baby or are you looking for, you know, an ethnic or African-American baby? And for us, we were open to any gender, any race. And they right away just made it very clear, oh, wow, okay, well, you guys are going to, you're going to match quicker. And also, if you go for an African-American child, it is less money.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
The first person she told us about was Tara Lee. It's called Always Hope Adoption Agency out of Detroit, Michigan. She had reassured us there's so many babies coming out of this agency.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
This is where it gets even more wild and I can never forget it. It was a Saturday and I had done a wedding. I came home and he was mowing the lawn and Tara Lee calls me. Immediately your stomach just drops because you're thinking, oh my gosh, something's going on with my match. And I answer the phone and she said, stop what you're doing. And I said, oh, Nick's mowing the lawn.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Do you want me to stop him? Yep, stop what you're doing. And so I walk over and I could distinctly, I can even tell you like on my driveway where I stood and I signaled to him to stop. And I threw speakerphone on and then she's like, okay, Tammy, Nick, meet birth mother, Stephanie. And all of a sudden you just hear this voice that goes, hello? And you're thinking, what?
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She has me on the phone with another birth mom? Tara Lee starts telling us that she accidentally, and that's the word she used, she accidentally showed our profile to Stephanie.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
I knew it had to be you. This was God telling her that it was us.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She said, you'll be in the hospital at the same time.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And we're just staring at each other like, there's no way this is real.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
So we did on March 30th have a phone call with Tara Lee. And I distinctly remember, and I've now heard that this is kind of her spiel to everybody. She was like, I cuss like a trucker. I'm extremely blunt. I'm not out here for the money. I'm doing this to help young women. There was nobody in Detroit helping them. I have so many birth moms. And basically she told us the story of Sabrina.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And Sabrina is a girl who loved makeup, loved doing hair, loved them all. She was Caucasian. She was blonde with blue eyes.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
She lived with her parents. They described it as that's their only daughter. Sabrina was raised in a town, a very little town. And this town had like 4,000 people. It was very small. And she said it was a fishing town. And we were told that birth mom was receiving daily therapy. We weren't allowed to see her picture, and we couldn't receive any medical updates related to her or her future child.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
When she gives birth, we are to be at the hospital, but they're going to provide a room next door because she doesn't want us to meet her.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
We were told that she was a victim of gang rape. She had been at this party. She was just 19, wild, having fun. And this horrible, horrible thing happened to her. I remember distinctly the story being so at a trap house. Like stairs were broken. She couldn't run.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Yeah. Exactly. four men had committed the crime and they weren't caught and that the identity of the birth father was unknown. And her parents right away told her, you're going to put the baby up for adoption. They did not believe in abortion.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
Like, I just pictured this girl who was, you know, young and just living her life and just got into this horrible circumstance. And being that she loved to fish and she loved makeup and she loved shopping and she loved perfume and everything, I just pictured her almost as myself. Like, I really connected to her.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
It's between you and another family, but... Sabrina wants to know, how are you going to tell this child that it was conceived? So I said, we're going to be honest. We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there as to how honest. And she was like, okay, great.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
So we were told by Tara Lee that she chose us because in our profile book, there's a sentence about, I love to fish. I grew up fishing. Like of all the things. Yeah, so of all the things.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
just calling her, calling her, calling her. And finally she answered her phone and she was like, you know, I'm going out to dinner. I'm going out to dinner and I'm thinking, well, I need to know if I'm signing to adopt a child. We just felt so like, oh my gosh, we're in, we're left alone, kind of. You feel left in the middle of a field.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And I remember being like, no, we could totally do this.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And then March 31st, we were matched. Tara Lee said, I want to be very upfront that you're matching with her at three months pregnant. And due to the fact that she's in therapy daily, your fees are going to be way higher than a normal match.
The Binge Cases: Baby Broker
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
And I'm like, okay, I can start buying stuff. I could start getting clothes and doing the nursery. I loved our nursery. I love our nursery. Like, I just wanted it to look almost like a castle style, but all pure white. And I did the theme like stars because I love Coldplay. And so everything was themed after their song Yellow. Over the crib, it said, look at the stars, look how they shine for you.