Adoption Related Stories In the News
July 2009
CNN ARTICLE: Single black women choosing to adopt - July 1, 2009
May 2009 - National Foster Care Month
NOTE: Statistical source is Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System; Department of Health & Human Services (January 2008), unless otherwise stipulated.
AFM Members Speak Out Against Outdated Policy
Van Buren judge has his own mandate for adoptive parents
May 10, 2009
MATTAWAN -- Gabe and Allison Shockley began to arrange the adoption of their second child early in the birth mother's pregnancy. They attended every prenatal doctor's appointment. They were present at the baby's birth in Indiana.
The couple thought they had covered every detail.
But the Shockleys, of Mattawan, didn't know about Van Buren County Probate Judge Frank Willis' ``moral commitment.''
Willis requires parents who adopt infants in his county to agree that one of them will be home with the baby during the first year and won't work full time during the baby's preschool years. Willis is perhaps the only justice in Michigan to require such a pledge, which he acknowledges is not legally binding and may be offensive and outdated to some.
For the Shockleys, cutting in half their combined $70,000 income wasn't an option.
``It wouldn't have been possible to pay our mortgage and bills with one income,'' Allison Shockley said.
Allison works as a financial analyst at Welch Foods Inc. in Lawton, and her husband is a technology specialist at the Kalamazoo Educational Regional Service Agency. They both worked during the infancy of their older son, Jordan, 4, who was adopted as an infant in Kalamazoo County.
Without the Shockleys' signatures on the moral-commitment pledge, though, Willis would not put his signature on their petition to adopt.
And without the signature of the judge in the county where they live, the Shockleys' interstate adoption through a local agency was stalled.
Unwilling to agree to the judge's demand, the Shockleys moved in with Allison's parents in Kalamazoo County, where their employment status was not an issue in the adoption process. Even after the adoption petition was signed and they brought the baby home to Michigan, the family continued to live with her parents in Kalamazoo to allow for follow-up visits by social workers as required by state law.
The adoption of Lucas was finalized in January when he was 6 months old. It cost the Shockleys $19,000, and the family has since moved back to Mattawan.
Now the Shockleys are crying foul at the judge's practice on behalf of other two-income families seeking to adopt babies.
``I'd love to be with my boys all the time,'' Allison said. ``But with the economy, I just can't. And whether we can choose to or not choose to (work outside the home) shouldn't make a difference.
``I don't think he's a bad judge. I think he has an outdated policy that keeps good families who are approved to adopt from adopting a child,'' she said. ``Adoption is a wonderful option, and it shouldn't be stopped by something like that. It's just not right.''
Won't back off
Willis' wife has suggested he may be ``old fashioned,'' and the judge admits he's had lots of complaints about the moral-commitment pledge. But he has no plans to change his stance.
``I have this awesome burden to speak for children,'' Willis said. ``It came with the job, and I am going to fulfill it as I see best so I can look at myself in the mirror in the morning.''
Willis, who earns $148,000 a year, has served as Van Buren County's probate judge since 1976. He said he crafted the pledge in the 1980s, based on his own experience as a father.
He and his wife, a stay-at-home mother, adopted a 3-month-old girl from Korea, the family's fifth child. He'd go home for lunch to hold the baby, Willis said, and hold her again after work. It took three months for the child to meet his eyes with hers, he said.
``First, she was in her mother's womb ... then the baby is born and never hears that voice or feels that nurturing touch again,'' Willis said.
``The child goes into a foster home, as most adopted children coming out of agencies have done, and after hearing a new voice, receiving very nurturing, loving care -- three months later that is jerked from her.
``Then she comes to my house, and I tell her she'll be mine forever. She doesn't believe me. It was that personal experience that made me realize the heavy burden I have.''
Willis said he does not require the pledge from adoptive parents of foster children, children with special needs or children from other countries. He restricts the requirement to parents adopting babies born in this country because ``this is a babies' market; that's where the waiting list is.''
``If I thought this was an impediment to children being adopted, I would do away with it,'' Willis said.
He estimates about 150 parents have signed the pledge, and he said he has crafted compromise schedules for 10 or 15 of those couples. Aside from the Shockleys, he can recall one other adoption that did not go through because the parents would not agree to his moral-commitment requirement. That baby, he said, was adopted by another family.
Willis said he does not generally interfere in adoptions arranged between the birth mother and adoptive parents, but that the state adoption code forbids him from discussing the Shockley adoption without written permission.
Other judges, requirements
Confidentiality provisions make it hard to know whether other Michigan judges add requirements to adoptions, as the process is shrouded in secrecy. Adoption records are sealed and closed to public scrutiny, as are court appeals involving adoption matters.
In Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties, the only additional requirement made of adoptive families, outside of state law, appears to be that stepparents must be married a year before filing for adoption.
The Michigan Court Administrative Office declined to provide any information about the frequency of requirements such as Willis' moral-commitment pledge, to explain the scope of a judge's role in adoptive proceedings, or to comment on whether a judge's role in such matters has changed as birth mothers increasingly select the families to receive their children.
Michigan Supreme Court and Court Administrative Office spokeswoman Marcia McBrien declined to answer questions about the legality of Willis' pledge requirement, in the event the matter might someday come before the state's top court.
Pledge questioned
Monica Farris Linkner, a West Bloomfield adoption attorney and member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, said she has never had a judge impose a requirement on parents such as Willis' moral-commitment pledge.
``There's nothing in the Michigan Adoption Code that sets either of these requirements,'' said Farris Linkner, who estimates she has handled 500 adoptions.
``My opinion, with all due respect to the judge, is that this is a commitment the judge does not have the authority to request.''
Willis' pledge is ``archaic,'' said Linda Dove, a Western Michigan University instructor for consumer and family sciences and an expert in early childhood development.
``My guess is that was a standard put together before women were working frequently in full-time careers,'' she said.
Willis said there are mixed findings on the effect of child care on infants and young children. ``This is not a judgment on working mothers, it has nothing to do with that,'' he said.
``But if it was my own child and I had to give that baby up, what type of environment would I want? What I would want is a parent who takes it, loves it, nurtures it, cares for it full time.''
Yet in the Shockley adoption, Allison said the birth mother chose them in part because the couple has the stability of two incomes and planned to share equally in parenting.
In fact, three in five Michigan children under 5 years old live in families where the parents work, said Judy Putnam, communications director of the Michigan League for Human Services.
``Requiring that one parent stay at home ... ignores the economic reality that it takes two incomes today to pay the basic bills,'' Putnam said.
Babies only for the wealthy?
Linkner said Willis' moral-commitment pledge ``treats the two classes of adopted children differently,'' separating the infants in high demand from older children or those with special needs. The pledge, she said, in effect limits those who could adopt healthy newborns to two-parent families wealthy enough to live on one income.
For those less affluent, Dove said, ``It puts them in the position where they have to make a heart-wrenching decision: Do they maintain their family finances or have a child?''
Even in today's economy, Willis said there are many people willing to provide the level of commitment he demands.
``I will always keep my policy under consideration for change,'' he said. ``If I (come to) think it is not in the best interest of kids, I will change it.
``Right now, I don't see that.''
April 2009
INDIA - The U.S. embassy in New Delhi has announced that as of April 1, 2009 adoption procedures in India will be centralized through New Delhi. Cases will on longer process through individual consulates throughout the country. These new rules affect both Hague and Non-Hague cases. SOURCE: RainbowKids.com
Author Melissa Fay Greene poses with her family, which includes biological and adopted children.
Some international aid groups have praised the decision as best for the child, a 4-year-old girl named Chifundo James.
"I think it really highlights the bigger picture that there are so many children living in poverty in Malawi, and while Madonna has good intentions ... children would be better off staying in their own communities whenever possible," said Karen Hansen-Kuhn, policy director for ActionAid USA, a development group that also works in Malawi.
"We really need to stay focused on the needs of Malawi and of all the children there," she added.
To get another perspective on the situation, CNN also talked with Melissa Fay Greene, an author and mother of five adopted children.
Greene, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, is the mother of four biological children, four children adopted from Ethiopia and one adopted child from Bulgaria.
The following is an edited transcript of that conversation:
CNN: What's your initial reaction to the news that Madonna's adoption of a Malawian child has been rejected?
Greene: Surprise. ... It was awfully tricky with Madonna's first adoption, when the child turned out to have devoted family members nearby. [The singer's adoption of a Malawian boy was finalized last year.] And if that's true with this child also, it seems a similar sticky situation.
That's not the situation for the majority of orphanage children around the world, who don't have caring grandparents or aunts and uncles a short walk or bike ride away.
I think it gives people an odd perspective on what international adoption can mean for children who don't have any support network outside the walls of an orphanage.
You often hear attacks on international adoption as robbing a child of his or her culture, and that's both true and false. It's true that an internationally adopted child loses the rich background of history and religion and culture and language that the child was born into, but the cruel fact is that most children don't have access to the local, beautiful culture within an orphanage. ...
There's a culture in orphanages that children are eager to escape from, and it's a culture of being reared as a group and not being doted upon by parents. For any child, that's the bottom line. The fact is that a human child wants that mommy or daddy or both. We're just wired to want that and to need that. And there's no way an institutional setting can give a human baby what the child needs. It's impossible. So you have to balance priorities. ...
I think what some of the human rights group say is absolutely accurate: that international adoption does not begin to solve the problems of the world's orphaned children. It's truly not the answer. ...
At the same time, international adoption, even though it doesn't solve the whole problem, it solves a problem for a few. I think it can be a brilliant solution to the problem of adults wanting a child in their lives or wanting more children in their lives and the problem of children who want parents in their lives.
CNN: How is it different for a celebrity person seeking an [international] adoption than for yourself?
Greene: We don't jet in, take a child and fly out with a child. For an average citizen trying to adopt, it takes most of a year. First of all, you work with a country that already has international adoption regulations in place, so you have a bureaucracy dealing with international adoption. A big part of that is determining that the child is a true orphan, that there is no one who can care for the child. And in the case of our older kids' adoptions, people had to come to court to testify that there was no one to take the children. So you don't run the risk of 'Oh, whoops, there's a grandmother down the street.' ...
CNN: There's been some chatter today online questioning why a person wouldn't adopt an orphaned child from their own country.
Greene: Within the adoption world, it's a non-issue. There are children all over the world who need families, and some find their children in Philadelphia, and some find their children in Bulgaria, you know? ...
It's just outsiders who look on and judge disapprovingly, but then they don't go on to adopt the neighborhood children, right? ... There are many children who need help, and anyone who wants to reach out and adopt a child from foster care or from a Russian orphanage should reach out and do it.
CNN: What has the experience been like for your own foster children?
Greene: We're a white Jewish family in Atlanta, but Atlanta is a major city for eastern African immigrants. So our children are in touch with the Ethiopian diaspora, and they feel very much a part of that. Atlanta is full of Ethiopian restaurants, markets, festivals. For a while, my kids were playing on weekends with an Ethiopian soccer league. I have an Ethiopian baby sitter who speaks to them only in Amharic so they won't lose their language, and we always have Ethiopian food here.
Two years ago, we went back to Ethiopia with the kids and had a big reunion for one of my sons and his extended family ... We just consider ourselves sort of part of this amazing bicontinental family.
CNN: The first time you adopted internationally, can you tell me what your ethical considerations were and how you worked through that personally?
Greene: Our first adoption was of a boy in rural Bulgaria. An incredibly poor orphanage. The kids were hungry, thirsty, no education. I first met our son, Jesse, when he was 4. He was 4 years old, and he did not know what his own name was ...
When he first came, he was just so anxious about food. When he would wake up, he was just shaking, wondering if there was going to be enough food. So I started waking him up with food.
He had issues with water. He wasn't sure if there was going to be enough water to drink, so I bought him a little canteen so he could wear his water all of the time.
Do I have ethical issues about taking him out of that orphanage? I don't.
CNN: Is there anything else you wanted to add?
Greene: I admire Madonna. And I don't understand why everyone attacks Madonna. I think that she is in part trying to raise the world's consciousness about the African orphan crisis.
You know, 95 percent of the children orphaned by AIDS [globally] are in sub-Saharan Africa. You don't hear world leaders talking about it. Where is the global outrage? ...
So, into the breach steps a celebrity. But don't attack her for it, you know. Maybe her methods are not what ours would be, but how many of us are Madonna? But at least she is out there; she's creating a school.
Obviously, she's fallen in love with the Malawian children to such an extent she wants to make some of them her own. And I think that it's great. I just don't understand why the world's attacking her. Let other people step forth and do something. At least she's trying. That's my feeling.
March 2009
Study finds stronger ethnic identity
predicts greater well-being
An abstract from the January newsletter of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute:
A study of 83 Korean-born adopted adults found that higher cultural
socialization to Korean culture predicted stronger ethnic identity and
personal growth, and that both higher levels of ethnic identity and more positive adjustment to adoption were associated with greater
psychological well-being. "Identity Development and Psychological
Well-Being in Korean-Born Adoptees in the U.S.," by Susan Basow,
Elizabeth Lilley, Jamila Bookwala and Ann McGillicuddy-DeLisi, was
published in the most recent issue of the /American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry/ (Volume 78, Issue 4). The authors conclude that
adoptive parents' provision of cultural socialization experiences to
their children adopted across race and culture facilitates their
identity exploration and ultimately their psychological well-being. To
access an abstract, go to: http://m1e.net/c?49312979-cZiwCBRTPPvfo ... u6yEQBFXRY
Mother & daughters work for
the abandon babies left behind
Ashtabula County native setting up home for orphans in Guatemala
By CARL E. FEATHER - Star Beacon Newspaper - (StarBeacon.com)
MON, MARCH 2, 2009 - WILLIAMSFIELD TOWNSHIP — If it were not for the bright patches of fabric imprinted with dynamic patterns, the hum of the sewing machine, the thought of shivering babies in Guatemala, winter would pass slowly on the Charles and Lucile Cole farm.
However, for Lucile, who turns 85 this week, January and February have gone by in a blur of color and furious activity. In that time, she has cut and sewn more than six dozen quilts destined for New Dawn Children’s Home, an orphanage in Guatemala.
The orphanage is the work of her daughter, Margaret Cole of Strongsville, who 18 years ago founded European Adoption Consultants (EAC), also located in Strongsville. Margaret, a 1965 Pymatuning Valley High School graduate, founded the agency after losing her 6-week-old daughter, Alicia, to sudden infant death syndrome and having the heartbreaking experience of being scammed while trying to adopt a child from Romania. Lucile says she still recalls Margaret walking into their farmhouse and announcing that she was going to start her own adoption agency and do it the right way.
The agency she founded has matched more than 7,000 youngsters from around the world with U.S. families. However the volume of adoptions has dropped 50 percent as a result of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, or simply "The Hague."
The complex agreement was developed to protect all parties involved in the adoption process. Participating countries must create or designate a central authority that will implement the regulations in that nation. In the United States, the U.S. Department of State is the U.S. central authority.
Margaret says the Hague has transformed adoption from being a mostly private transaction to one that is scrutinized and funneled through governments. Adoption times have been stretched out, more visits are required, and the cost has increased by 15 to 30 percent as a result of the additional travel and stays required. An intercountry adoption can cost as much as a sport utility vehicle, says Lucile.
The convention has made intercountry adoptions so complex, many agency directors shuttered their operations.
“They are telling me it’s not fun anymore,” she says. “The Hague made everything so complicated and expensive, only big agencies can do this now,” Margaret says.
In her own agency, she has had to reduce staff to bring EAC’s operation in line with the decreased number of adoptions. The agency also is branching into new ventures to deal with the implications of the Hague. For example, if a nation is in the process of implementing the Hague regulations, children cannot be adopted from that nation by citizens of a Hague-compliant country.
Margaret says the last day for initiating adoptions out of Guatemala, which has yet to implement the Hague, was Dec. 31, 2007. Without the option of intercountry adoption, babies and young children are piling up in the Central American nation with nowhere to go. Crunched by the recession, many of the orphanages have been forced to close.
“There are very few institutions there, and the ones that were there are closing,” Margaret says.
She says babies are being abandoned because mothers simply don’t earn enough to feed and clothe them. Newspapers carry stories of babies being abandoned at churches and in the streets. Some abandoned babies fall victim to dogs that roam the cities. Families live in the city dump and make money recycling plastic and metals out of the trash.
Aware of the tragedy unfolding in Guatemala, Margaret’s clients are reaching out financially to help those children left behind. A donation of $30,000 got the ball rolling on an orphanage that will be licensed for 50 babies and toddlers. Margaret has been making monthly trips to Guatemala to lease a building, hire staff, purchase and set up furniture, and obtain the licenses. The orphanage is near Guatemala City but in the mountains, where nights can be cold. There is no heat in the building, so Margaret has been purchasing portable heaters and soliciting donations of warm sleepwear, coats, mittens, hats and blankets.
That’s where Lucile’s passion comes into play. A quilt rescuer, Lucile has at least 100 quilts that started out as abandoned tops and blocks that needed the finishing touch. In the process of finishing these quilts, she has accumulated a large stack of fabric...
For the complete article go to Star Beacon.com
*We used this agency to bring our daughter home from Guatemala. http://eaci.com/*
February 2009
NEW Video Available Now - Every Child is Adoptable
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption knows that every child waiting in foster care is adoptable and that every child deserves a permanent and loving family. To help all those involved in the foster care adoption experience, the Foundation has created an important new video. "Every Child is Adoptable" presents three distinct and critical voices of foster care adoption: adopted teens, adoptive parents and the frontline adoption professionals. Order your free DVD to listen to these voices of experience and their impact on foster care adoption.
http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/Adoption-Resources/Free-Materials/Educational-Videos
Lifetime Television to Air Powerful New Movie Tune in to Lifetime Television on Saturday, February 28th, at 9pm ET/PT, for the premiere of the powerful new Lifetime Original Movie, America, starring and executive produced by Emmy Award-winner Rosie O'Donnell. Lifetime's web site will share the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption's toll-free phone number and web site for viewers who want to help or are considering foster care adoption.
http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/america
January 2009
A drop in international adoption
The number of intercountry adoptions to the U.S. fell 12 percent in the past year from 19,613 to 17, 438 - to reach the lowest level since 1999. THe top senders for 2008 were: 1. Guatemala - 4,123 and 2. China 3,909.
Orphanage donation fee increase
The China orphanage donation, which is a mandatory expense when adopting from China, increased from $3,000 to approximately $5,100 as of January 1.
SOURCE: Adoptive Families, February 2009
China milk scare in U.S.: Adopted kids tested
Parents worry kidney stones, other problems are due to tainted formula
By DEANNA MARTIN
The Associated Press
Jan. 2, 2009
Beth Flanders was on her way to China to adopt her 17-month-old daughter in September when she received a warning from her adoption agency: An industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones had been found in Chinese baby formula, and parents should not feed it to their new children.
Flanders' daughter had no symptoms. But in November, an ultrasound revealed two kidney stones, which are unusual in children. Now the Los Angeles-area nurse wonders if melamine is to blame.
China's worst product-safety scandal in years has hit home for thousands of adoptive parents, who are seeking answers about potential effects of melamine in tainted formula and other foods. Many are requesting medical tests for children even if they were adopted long before the contamination became known.
The American Society of Pediatric Nephrology recommends ultrasounds and other tests for infants exposed to tainted formula in late 2007 and 2008 if they have blood in their urine, kidney pain, unexplained crying or other symptoms.
With no studies of melamine's effect on humans, some doctors say they aren't sure if other children should be tested as well.
"Nobody's really going to know what the best thing to do is at this point, which is the scary part," said Flanders, whose daughter is from China's Jiangxi province, where tainted formula was found, and was not eating solid foods when she was adopted. "We're all in the dark together."
Flanders adopted her daughter just days after the China Health Ministry ordered a nationwide probe of milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants. China says six babies likely died and nearly 300,000 suffered urinary problems from drinking melamine-tainted milk powder.
Chemical was also found in eggs, candy
The nitrogen-rich chemical used in the production of plastics was dumped into watered-down milk so that higher protein levels would register during food-quality tests. It has since surfaced in eggs, milk, candy and other food products, triggering product recalls worldwide.
Melamine also was found in exported pet food blamed for killing dogs and cats in North America in 2007.
The Chinese government has reported that at least one dairy, Sanlu Group Co., knew as early as 2007 that its products were tainted with melamine and that company and local officials tried to cover it up. The general manager of Sanlu pleaded guilty to charges in the scandal, and trials have begun for seventeen others blamed for the contamination. At least four could face the death penalty, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
The attention on the melamine crisis has focused primarily on children still in China, where thousands of parents have sought tests and treatment. In the U.S., parents of children adopted from China waited weeks for medical guidance specific to adoptees, and many pursued testing after consulting their pediatricians or adoption agencies.
No way to know if exposed
Keith Wallace, executive director of Families Thru International Adoption in Evansville, Ind., says there's no way to know for sure if a child was exposed to melamine in baby formula or other foods while living in China.
Even orphanages using a "safe" brand of formula may have supplemented their supplies with donated formula that could have been tainted, the agency says. Wallace said his staff has urged parents to consult their doctors if they are concerned, regardless of how long their child has been home.
The American Society of Pediatric Nephrology says adoptees are unlikely to be affected unless they were drinking tainted formula in late 2007 or 2008. It does not recommend testing for children who aren't exhibiting symptoms of kidney stones or urinary problems.
Dr. Michael Somers, a pediatric nephrologist at Children's Hospital Boston and member of the nephrology group, said even children exposed to melamine may be fine once it is removed from their diet.
"They've been away from the contaminant for so long that they were likely to probably have resolved all of this on their own," Somers said.
Dr. Debbi Borchers, a Cincinnati pediatrician, said not every child adopted from China needs to be tested, but that doesn't mean the melamine issue should be ignored.
"It doesn't hurt to be cautious," said Borchers, the mother of three daughters adopted from China between 1994 and 2000. "At the same time, you don't want overkill."
Flanders doesn't plan to have her 6-year-old daughter, adopted from China at 10 months, tested at this point.
But her younger daughter's kidney stones are large, and she is awaiting more medical tests to determine if surgery to remove them is necessary. In the meantime, Flanders is seeking more information about the issue.
Parents find support online
She joined an online group for melamine concerns started by Kathy Demetrius, an adoptive parent from Warren, Mass. The group registered 1,000 members in just over a month and consists of parents and doctors who share test results and other information.
"We want to be there for each other in case things start to arise later on in life," said Demetrius, who adopted her 10-year-old daughter from China a year ago.
An unscientific survey compiled by one group member reported that 84 percent of 132 children who underwent ultrasounds had normal findings. Eight children had kidney stones, including some adopted as far back as 2004, and another 13 had enlarged kidneys or other abnormalities.
It's difficult to know, however, whether melamine was responsible. Kidney stones are relatively uncommon in children, but the number of cases in the United States is growing. Heredity and other dietary issues can be factors in their formation.
Flanders said not knowing whether melamine could cause problems is difficult for many parents, who already lack medical histories on their children because they were abandoned and their birth families aren't known.
"To have something that a human being did to our children incites people," she said. "We want to protect them and do the best thing for them."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.