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Feelings About Countries Closing to Outside Adoption, Part Two

In my last blog, I wrote about countries that are successfully promoting domestic adoption, with the ultimate goal that all of their children will be taken care of within their country, at which time they will close to international adoption. I wrote that this is in many ways good news for the country, the birthmothers, and the children, and I gave reasons why. Today I will look at the closing of countries to adoption from another angle. The closing of countries to international adoption is not good news if it means that embarrassment or outside pressure is leading countries to … Continue reading →

Mixed Feelings about Countries Closing

This month, Korea released figures showing that sixty percent of adoptions of Korean children were domestic adoptions by Korean families, rather than overseas adoptions. This is a large increase, and a big step toward a goal which the Korean government and Korean agencies have been working toward for a long time. Korea has for many years been gradually reducing the number of overseas adoptions, leading some adoptive parents to worry about Korea “closing” to adoption by parents from other countries. China also has changed policies to make it easier for Chinese residents to adopt children. Last winter China also announced … Continue reading →

An Update on the Adopted Child Sent Back to Russia

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The adoption agency World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), which handled the adoption of Artem Savaliev, also called Justin Hansen, has filed a petition Tuesday in Bedford County, Tennessee, asking the court to investigate whether his abandonment (in his case, being sent back to Russia alone on a plane) constitutes abuse or neglect. The agency said in its petition that the adoptive mother Torrey Hansen and her mother Nancy Hansen had inflicted “severe emotional injury upon this minor child who has now been abandoned twice, by his biological and adoptive parents”. (The boy’s biological mother’s rights were terminated in … Continue reading →

Considerations in Adopting When You Already Have Children: Travel, Part One

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One very practical concern when adopting an additional child may seem minor at first, but may become a deciding factor in the major decision of what type of adoption to pursue and from where. I refer to the necessity of, and arrangements for, travel. Even in a domestic adoption, you will travel to the child’s state of birth or residence. If the child is older than a few months, you will likely be urged to stay for a little while, allowing for pre-placement visits in which you gradually spend more time with and assume more care for the child before … Continue reading →

What Will Really Happen to Adoption in China, Post-Quake?

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The Chinese government says it is drafting plans for adoptions of quake orphans, and phones at local Civil Affairs Bureaus are ringing off the hook. One Western newspaper even estimated that there are more Chinese calling about adopting than there are orphans. It remains to be seen what will happen. Do Chinese parents calling about adoption today still see it as offering to foster children, or do they truly understand adoption as making a child a permanent part of your family tree? Perhaps they do. Perhaps the restrictions on bearing children have left more people wanting to love more children … 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 →

When Good Actors Go Bad

Actor Ben Chapman was the star of the 1954 cult classic Creature from the Black Lagoon. In fact, Chapman, who just passed away this February at the age of 79, didn’t star in many movies – five altogether. Nevertheless, his best acting may have been when talking to family and fans about his military career. For decades, Chapman claimed to have won the Silver Star (given for “gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States”), the Bronze Star (given for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service”), and two Purple Hearts (given for “Being wounded or killed in any … Continue reading →