Search Results for: blog types of adoption part two adoption from the child welfare system

Book Review: Maybe Days: A Book for Kids in Foster Care

My last blog mentioned some books written to help foster care kids understand and come to terms with their experiences. I wanted to write a full review of another book, Maybe Days: a Book for Children in Foster Care. This book, labeled for ages 4-10 years, seems to me to be for somewhat older kids than The Star or Zachary’s New Home (books discussed in the last blog). It is written by Jennifer Wilgocki, M.S., a child and family therapist who presents training on attachment and bonding issues to professionals and foster parents. Dr. Marcia Wright is a clinical psychologist. … 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 →

International Adoption Options for Single Men

Just as there are women out there who’ve never found their partner but have always wanted a child, there are men in that position also. However, different countries have different criteria for adoptive parents, and most countries either do not allow singles to adopt or allow only single women to do so. Single men can usually adopt from the U.S. child welfare system, probably the most common option for single men. International adoption opportunity are fewer: China, one of the two countries having the largest numbers of children adopted by U.S. parents, used to permit single parents to adopt (including … 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 →

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 →

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 →

October: Adoption Blog Month in Review

In the adoption blogs for October you’ll find several series: one series on research on “how adopted children turn out” and the genes-vs.-environment question, one on giving back and how adoption makes the world seem a bit smaller, and one on single parent adoption. Media reviews included a workbook helping parents imagine what an inter-country move might be like for their child and think through related decisions. I also reviewed a wonderful resource for parents who think their child may have been exposed to alcohol prenatally. Another review was of an incredible story of an Ethiopian woman who runs two … Continue reading →

International Adoption Programs Open to Single Parents

As I mentioned in my last blogs, U.S. adoptions are open to single men and single women. In international adoption, two of the more well-known countries with adoption programs welcoming single parents have had big changes in their adoption programs recently. China has announced that it will no longer be open to single parents. Guatemalan adoptions are in flux as we wait to see whether Guatemala will comply with the Hague Convention on International Adoption. If it does not, adoptions to the U.S. (a signee of the Hague document) will cease. Although there is hope that adoptions currently in progress … Continue reading →

Adoption Options for Single Parents: Adopting from the Child Welfare System

Unmarried individuals may wonder about their options for parenting. Certainly parenting a child who needs you is an admirable goal. Some individuals may not feel they can parent without the support of a partner. Certainly the support for you and the role modeling for your child are advantages to having a partner, but many single parents do adopt successfully. As one children’s worker stated, “All children really need to thrive is someone who’s crazy about them.” Perhaps you can be that person for a child. The U.S. foster care system is very open to adoptions from single parents. Older child … Continue reading →

The Story of the Orphan Trains

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My last blog introduced my review of the Orphan Train Children series of children’s books. Twenty pages of historical notes in the back of each book tell the story of the real “orphan trains”, which took more than 150,000 children in the care of the New York Children’s Aid Society to rural communities between 1856 and 1929. Another hundred thousand were sent to the West by the New York Foundling Home. The notes explain the conditions in the Lower East Side of New York, the diseases which took many lives, and the fact that many children were from immigrant families … Continue reading →