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For Families Adopting from Haiti, Quake Brings Devastating Uncertainty

Only now is information about the 254 Haitian children who are being adopted by U.S. citizens beginning to trickle out of Haiti. Some of these children have already been legally adopted by U.S. citizens and are just waiting for their passports and travel visas. Some of them have been known by their adoptive families for months or years. Almost all have been visited by their adoptive parents at least once. A Washington State couple appeared on Thursday morning’s Today Show and spoke with Meredith Viera about the eight-year-old girl and six-year-old boy they are adopting. The adoption has been completed … Continue reading →

Will Changing Attitudes Toward Disabilities Affect the Future of International Adoption in China?

My last blog featured another profile of an elite athlete who was adopted—Jessica Tatiana Long, who was adopted from a Russian orphanage at 13 months of age, and had her legs amputated below the knee when she was 18 months old. She competed last week in The Paralympic Games in Beijing. These Games have brought changes to China, in both infrastructure and attitudes toward the disabled. Last May I wrote a blog about Chinese people applying to adopt earthquake orphans. This also represented a big change. Traditional beliefs in many parts of China included the importance of a pure bloodline, … Continue reading →

May in Review, Part Three

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I shared the news that thousands of Chinese are offering to adopt children orphaned by the quake in Earthquake May Prove to Be a Milestone for Adoption in China. However, some orphans of a previous quake reported feeling as though they were tolerated as foster children rather than fully part of their adoptive families or relatives’ families, and some social service personnel feel that the children could support each other better in a boarding school where they would live with other earthquake survivors. This controversy is discussed in Is Adoption the Best Solution for Earthquake Survivors? –The Disagreement. In What … Continue reading →

Landmark Dates in Adoption History

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Two notable dates in adoption history were the 1955 adoption of eight Korean War orphans by Harry and Bertha Holt, who later facilitated the adoptions of many Korean children. Although later accused of automatically assuming life in America was better for the children and of not doing proper background checks or follow-up on their adoptive families, still the Holts were absolutely instrumental in publicizing the needs of children around the world, especially in Korea. Another landmark date in international adoption was April 1975. At the order of U.S. President Gerald Ford, military planes and jumbo jets loaded with hundreds of … Continue reading →

Is Adoption the Best Option for Earthquake Orphans? –the Disagreement

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The Chinese government says it is drafting plans for adoptions of children orphaned by the massive earthquake on May 12. However, perhaps surprisingly to Americans, not all Chinese are in favor of this. This earthquake is being compared to the 1976 quake which killed over 240,000 people in Hepei Province. The quake is referred to as the “Tangshan Quake” for the area in which it was centered. Su Yuopo, whom the Chinese paper “People’s Daily” identified as a “quake reconstruction specialist”, has studied orphans of the 1976 quake throughout the years. He told the People’s Daily that most of them … Continue reading →

Earthquake May Prove to be a Milestone for Chinese Adoptions

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In a stunning departure from centuries of tradition, thousands of China’s people are considering adoption, moved by the stories of the orphans of the massive earthquake which shook Sichuan Province as well as neighboring provinces on May 12. In the past, adoption has been unusual in Chinese society. Until recently the government discouraged it, fearing that some people would use adoption to get around the one-child (or one-boy or two-girl in some rural areas) policy. But more than that, cultural mores have deterred adoption. An official from the China Center for Adoption Affairs explained that previously, people who adopted would … Continue reading →