Search Results for: blog types of adoption part one domestic infant adoption

Sheryl Crow Welcomes her Second Baby through Adoption

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Sheryl Crow announced this morning that she is adopting a second child, Levi James, who was born April 30. Crow made the announcement via her website, and her publicist confirmed the information. Crow, age 48, adopted her son Wyatt three years ago, when he was two weeks old. (Click here to see Michelle’s blog on Sheryl’s first adoption.) The sibling connection seems to be important to Crow—she made her announcement by writing, “Wyatt has a baby brother!” Crow reportedly is not deterred by the idea of being a single mother. “For my whole life, I had a pretty clear picture … Continue reading →

Another Type of Adoption: Embryo Adoption

Soon after I became an adoption blogger for Families.com over two years ago, I wrote blogs introducing three kinds of adoption—domestic infant adoption, adoption from the child welfare system, and international adoption. But now there is another kind of adoption: embryo adoption. “Embryo adoption” or “Embryo donation” is when a couple donates unused embryos that were created and frozen during infertility treatment to another couple. These embryos are transferred to the womb of the recipient mother. Technically this is not “adoption” at all in most states, since most states agree that the legal mother of a child is the mother … 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 →

Prospective Parents’ Health Status: What Effect on Chances of Adoption?

A reader recently asked two excellent questions about persons with serious health conditions adopting. I am paraphrasing the essence of her questions here, as I understand them. 1) Are agencies really allowed to ask about all this? What about health privacy laws? Most, if not all, of the forms I’ve seen will ask this question. (As well as questions about your debts, your marital communication, amount in your bank account, how you get along with your parents and many other things that wouldn’t be legal in a job interview, at least not in the U.S.) 2)Does having a serious medical … Continue reading →

Foible in Law Reveals Domestic Tragedies Nationwide

My last two blogs dealt with the Nebraska Safe Haven law which allowed parents to abandon children without fear of persecution, and with its amendment last weekend which makes the law apply to infants under 30 days only. While researching these blogs, I came across some interesting stories. Families.com readers shared my horror at the idea of what being abandoned by a parent–at an age of full awareness of what is happening–must do to a child’s psyche. However, at some other sites I found people commenting in favor of the Nebraska law, which was formerly the only one that did … Continue reading →

The 2008 Adoption Guide

Initially I thought $14.95 was a steep price for what looked like a magazine issue. But the 2008 Adoption Guide is in fact more informative than many books. It is a combination news digest, workbook, telephone and website directory, statistics almanac, and collection of personal essays. The annual guide, from the publisher of Adoptive Families Magazine, is a concise introduction to adoption topics, but it also provides the insight from personal experiences that people exploring adoption crave (and that experienced adoptive parents can’t seem to resist reading either). The guide covers the four major types of adoption: domestic infant adoption … Continue reading →

More Fiction for Summer Reading

In a recent blog, And Now for Something Completely Frivolous, I named some Danielle Steel novels that had adoption-related themes. Steel also has an entire novel devoted to infertility and adoption. Mixed Blessings begins with three weddings on the same day, and follows these couples through the early years of their marriages. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but here are some characters you will meet. — A woman in her forties who has adult stepchildren and never thought she wanted babies of her own, suddenly finds herself rethinking that decision. Her new husband, a … Continue reading →

Considerations in Adopting When You Already Have Children: Emotional Risk

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I believe some types of adoption that would have been fine for us if we’d been adopting our first child are not fine for us now that we have other children. My last blogs have talked about birth order and spacing and safety issues. Here I will speak about emotional issues. Adoption can be a roller coaster of emotions, for your children as well as for you. The issues I will address here are: permanence issues and fears, and medical issues. I personally would not accept a legal-risk foster-adopt placement now that I have children. In a domestic infant adoption … Continue reading →

Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Adoption, Third Edition

The Encyclopedia of Adoption by Christine Adamec and Laurie Miller, MD contains brief entries on a large number of terms and subjects relevant to adoption. Adamec is a medical writer and Miller is a director of an international adoption medicine clinic. The book covers terms and issues found in domestic infant adoptions (both agency and independent), child welfare system adoptions, international adoptions, and kinship adoptions. The book’s focus is breadth, not depth. My first reaction was that, after nearly a decade of reading adoption magazines, I was not learning anything from the book. I thought it might be appropriate only … Continue reading →

Media Review: Adoptive Families Magazine

Adoptive Families is a comprehensive bimonthly adoption magazine which covers all types of adoption—domestic and international, infant and older child, open, semi-open and confidential, and adopting from foster care. I have found the coverage to be very well-balanced among the different types. In the past two years I have canceled several magazine subscriptions because I don’t have time to read them. Adoptive Families, by contrast, is read cover to cover before I go to bed the day it is delivered. The magazine is written almost entirely by adoptive families. There are sections of advice from experts such as counselors, social … Continue reading →