Paying the Piper

There are so many things about the CNN story linked below that I just don't understand.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/30/kids.abused.ap/index.html

I've been through the adoption process three times now. It was grueling, and not an easy thing to accomplish. How did Mrs. Leekin get through the adoption process 9 times without at least one social worker noticing that things were amiss? The story tells how Mrs. Leekin used adoptions as a way to make money. How in the world can that happen? I am further in debt now that when I had only my one birth child, and I do receive subsidies for my other three. I realized early on that the subsidies help, but they in no way cover all the expenses for raising a child properly. Maybe the key word here is 'properly'.