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Some couples will do almost anything to bring a baby into their family.

But there are too many others ready to take their happiness away.

There is a new and disturbing twist in the game of adoption deception.

Karen and Richard Kwasny appear to have it all, playful dogs, a beautiful home and a loving relationship.

Since marrying a few years ago, the couple has been trying to have a child. Unsuccessful at that, they decided to adopt.

They went online looking for a birth-mom and a connection was made.

“She says, ‘I have seen your profile and I have checked many and yours was the one that caught my attention’,” said Karen Kwasny.

The birth-mom, Debra Martinez, was from Houston. A married 40-year-old who says became pregnant after having a relationship with a man in New York.

“This is supposedly her 6-year-old daughter Ashley. Then this picture is her, who we said, ‘Wow a very attractive looking lady and her daughter is cute,’ and then her older daughter with the priest during her confirmation, which is her 14-year-old and this is supposedly the birth father,” said Karen, showing photos of Martinez.

For weeks, the two wrote e-mails and chatted on the phone.  

Martinez told Karen she was 8-months pregnant and that she would be delivering the baby at a certain hospital, but Karen suddenly became suspicious when she learned Martinez’ doctor didn’t practice there.

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The Kwasnys

“And she said, ‘Oh no, you know, he definitely practices there,’ and I came out and said, “Look Debra if you are trying to scam me please let me know now and it will be over with,” and she goes, ‘Why would I do that?  I am trying to find a home for this baby and if you don’t want to deal with me you know we don’t have to,’ and then you panic. You think ‘maybe this person is telling the truth’ and you desperately want you to bond with you and have her child,” Karen said.

The Kwasnys learned through an adoption Web site that 11 News had previously reported on a scam involving a woman named Belinda Ramirez who was arrested by the Houston office of the FBI, so they contacted us.

11 News checked out Martinez’ story and learned she lives in a northeast Houston home secured with a lock and that sadly, she wasn’t pregnant at all.

Martinez returned our phone calls to say her daughter had been playing on the Internet and was sorry.

“I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that somebody who had kids and then she blamed her children and said they were on the computer, but it was her voice and I know it was her that I was talking to. I just couldn’t believe someone was just sitting around and thought of a scheme like this. I don’t know what her motivation was. She never asked for money,” said Karen.

Houston lawyer Ellen Yarrell is president of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

“Many of these women are working multiple scams at the same time and if we can develop a system where Academy members can speak to one another in a confidential way that doesn’t involve violating anyone’s privacy rights. We are trying to come up with a way to be a catalog, or clearing house for information, but the main thing is don’t try and go it alone,” said Yarrell.

The Kwasnys believe Martinez should be punished fro ripping out their hearts.

But it is unclear if any law was broken. Regardless, they are moving forward.

“We are, we are hopeful. We know that someday we will have a child. We know that people in our adoption group have been successful, so why not us?  We just have a streak of bad luck going on right now,” Karen said.