Search Results for: blog landmark dates in adoption history

Other Adoption Loss Scenarios

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My last blogs, What is Adoption Loss? and and Legal-Risk Placements, talk about the disappointment and grief that ensue when a planned adoption does not happen and describe some situations when this might occur. Other situations of adoption loss can occur when a child whose birthmother who had arranged to place with specific parents literally dies before or after the birth. A famous, thankfully rare, situation was the crash of a jumbo jet carrying several hundred Vietnamese children to the United States for adoption during Operation Babylift just before the fall of Saigon in 1975. A baby may be born … 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 →

Book Review: We Rode the Orphan Trains

I’ve written a blog before on the story of the orphan trains, a true story which has captured the imagination of several writers who have written either memoirs or historical fiction. We Rode the Orphan Trains, by Andrea Warren, is different because it interviews adoptees at the other end of their life stories, those senior citizens who are still living today (the book was published in 2001) and who rode the orphan trains between 1854 and 1929. We rarely hear from adoptees looking back on their entire lives. The book’s format consists of introductory and concluding chapters, and a second … Continue reading →

Found: a Book Review

Found is an adventure story based on the worst fears or stereotypes about adoption—stolen children who “belong” somewhere else–yet, it also educates about positive adoption language, “real” parents being the ones who parent you, and birth parents as possibly wanting better things for their children, not as “giving them away”. This paradox makes Found–also called The Missing: Book One—a worthwhile read. The author, Margaret Peterson Haddix, has written over two dozen books for children, including the Shadow Children series, which has sold over 4 ½ million copies. In the prologue to Found, an airplane carrying three dozen babies is found … 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 →