Search Results for: blog exporting children

“Exporting” Children?

Here are a few of the comments I’ve gotten when people learn I’ve adopted internationally: “I could never do international adoption. I don’t believe in bribery.” “How much cash did you have to carry under your clothes?” The question I find most surprising comes when I mention that the Korean agency took a while to approve us while they satisfied themselves that my health condition would not unduly limit me as a parent. People get a puzzled look on their face and blurt out “Why would they care?” (A few clueless souls have even done this in front of the … Continue reading →

Concerns with the Hague Convention Requirements

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My last blog was an overview of the Hague Convention on International Adoption, a treaty which the U.S. put into effect two years ago and which is still being implemented in many countries, although some countries have chosen to continue adoption as usual without joining the Convention. This blog will raise some possible concerns with adoption procedures according to the Hague Convention. Hague-related concerns center not so much on countries that did not adopt the treaty, but with countries which have signed the treaty, but do not have the resources to implement all of its provisions by the effective date. … Continue reading →

On the Child Sent Back to Russia

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It’s been nearly a month since two nations were stunned by the actions of an adoptive mother and grandmother, who put a seven-year-old adopted from Russia on a plane to Moscow as an unaccompanied minor. He bore a note addressed to the Russian Ministry of Education from his adoptive mother. Apparently his grandmother, who lived next door to his adoptive mother in Tennessee, had spoken with a driver in Russia and hired him to meet the party at the airport and drive to the Russian Ministry of Education. The driver was under the impression, from phone calls the week before, … Continue reading →

China Adoption Book Review: Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son

Kay Ann Johnson is a professor of Asian Studies and Politics at Hampshire College. Yet when she adopted her daughter from a Chinese orphanage in 1991, she felt not only the anxiety of participating in what was then a new adoption program, but also a great desire to learn more about her daughter’s story, or at least the story of many girls like her. Why are children, especially girls, abandoned in China? What consequences—emotional and practical—do the birthparents face? Do most foundlings enter the orphanage system? Johnson’s 2004 book, Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption and Orphanage Care … Continue reading →

Issues Illuminated in The Waiting Child

Last week I wrote about Cindy’s Champnella’s book The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Love of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another, which tells the incredible story of her four-year-old daughter’s campaign to find a family for a toddler she had been assigned to take care of at her orphanage. In addition to the central story of trying to bring their daughter’s ill-nourished “baby” to the U.S., the book also deals with many aspects of adoption: the “voluntary donation” fees paid to orphanages, the deprivation some children have experienced in the orphanages, fears and insecurities in older children, … Continue reading →

Prospective Parents Health: Possible Impacts on International Adoption

My last blog began to address a reader’s questions about whether health conditions would disqualify someone from adopting. In that blog I talked about possible impacts on domestic infant adoption and adoption from state foster care. This blog will talk about possible impacts a health condition could have in pursuing international adoption. For international adoption, someone with a serious health issue may very well be disqualified by certain countries. Other countries can set their own standards on who is eligible to adopt. They often do not have the same anti-discrimination laws we do. Various countries have set conditions that their … Continue reading →

Book Review: A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China

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The uniqueness of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China is that adoptive parent Chris Winston has not only encouraged her children to feel pride in their Korean heritage, but has made connections with Koreans and Korean-Americans on a scale most adoptive parents have only dimly imagined. Winston helped to begin both Friends of Korea, a regional group (in Sacramento) for adoptive families that welcomes anyone interested in Korea, and the Korean American Adoptee/Adoptive Family Network (KAAN), a national networking organization linking groups and individuals concerned with adoption from Korea. Winston and her husband had … Continue reading →

What Will They Think I’m Doing to One of Their Kids?

Yesterday I wrote about whether when people see me with my kids, they think of my interactions with them as a reflection on adoption. Sometimes I would like to be a bit less conspicuous. There is another situation which brings on an even more intense feeling of being conspicuous. That is when I am around people from my daughters’ country. There are times when I have sat quite demurely patting my child’s back while she screams and kicks the sidewalk at our city’s central plaza. It took her a full half hour to realize she wasn’t going to get what … Continue reading →

Top Adoption Myths

November is National Adoption Month. In honor of this month’s emphasis on educating people about adoption, I am offering a personal “Top Ten” list of myths I hear about adoption, and my responses. 1. Myth: Adoption has become an activity for the wealthy only. Reality: • Adopting from the foster care system is free, and the children often continue to receive a subsidy for medical and other necessary care. Contrary to popular belief, there are infants to be adopted this way. • International Adoption has many up-front costs, but these are usually substantially offset by the $10,000 tax credit and … Continue reading →

A Sampling of Overseas Child Welfare Efforts by U.S. Adoption Agencies

A common phrase one hears from good adoption organizations is, “We’re not in the business of finding children for parents; we’re in the service of finding parents for children.” One measure of this “children first” philosophy can be an agency’s commitment to helping those children who will not be adopted. It is common for agencies including Holt, Children’s Home Society and Family Services, Catholic Community Services, WACAP and others to partner with organizations in sending countries to support children’s homes, orphanages, and medical facilities in sending countries. Some of these partner agencies sponsor job training and counseling for unwed mothers … Continue reading →