In a previous post, I was writing again about how dangerous fallout from unaddressed anti-adoption sentiment can be, and how easily it creeps into shouting headlines tainting the whole process as those uninvolved and easily misinformed absorb the message without processing the ramifications.

In black and white, shades of gray may just be too complicated to take into account.

Recently, Guatemalan adoptions have been taking... more

While I was away, there was some flack headed my way in reaction to a blog I posted about an anti-adoption nut a while back, suggesting that perhaps my criticism of some who vociferously oppose everything about adoption and would do just about anything to see an end to the option for all of the world's children has everything to do with keeping the bucks piling in and the attention focused on little old me. (Don't emphasize the old, please.)... more

Continued from here. I'm not saying Jo Rowling is intentionally bankrolling clapping with one hand and sacrificing children on the alter of 'Gee, the numbers look good', but the CHLG does make me very nervous, and she is a founder ... along with Emma Nicholson, and given her history she really breaks me out in hives of anxiety and has me worrying about the kids who just might end... more

Unless you've been living under a rock, you have to be hyper-aware that July is Harry Potter month. (I live on a rock and have heard all about it, so I'm assuming the information is very widely spread.) The latest film opened last week, the last book comes out at the end of this one, and the ensuing frenzy cannot be missed.

Here's a a bit of a connection that adds to my Potter-ific thinking ... yes, I am a fan: I share a birthday with Harry, and his creator, J.K. Rowling -- the 31st of July. Since... more

Continuing from the previous post, where we've been following adoption-related fallout in Holland.

Citing critics that say the 'scandal' of the the adopted Indian child alleged to have been kidnapped from his birth parents, then adopted by a Dutch family is, "just the tip of the iceberg and that it illustrates the serious flaws in the system. Some go as far as to say it's no more than 'legalised child trafficking' and call for inter-country adoption... more

A radio report out of the Netherlands that is to air tomorrow, (Transmission Date: Sunday 8 July 2007) has brought together a panel to discuss international adoption.

Before getting into this, let's take a minute to look back over recent history on what we've seen of the Dutch take on international adoption.

Back in May, a story hit the... more

Continued from the previous post, where we were talking about orphans in Kashmire, and how help sometimes doesn't look like that to everyone.

There's the Marriage of Poor and Orphan Girls Foundation:

Foundation provides financial help to orphan and poor girls for conducting their marriages and shares their financial woes and worries. These marriages are conducted with simplicity, grace and accordingly to Islamic... more

One needn't tread far into the world of the anti-adoption brigade ... often not-too-cleverly disguised as Planet Reform ... to come across attempts to smear the words adoption and trafficking together into a hoped-for interlocked combo that will forever regurgitate simultaneously. Not only the words, of course, but I gather some figure they're a good place to start the business of trying to make adoption leave a bad taste in the mouth.

Offered... more

Continued from the previous post.

As politically incorrect as it may sound, as insensitive as it may appear to birth mothers or adult adoptees, the reality I know spells out quite clearly that if the world was a bit more perfect than it is today, there would be more adoptions, not fewer.

When I hear people trashing adoption ... throwing it into the same pot as trafficking and making insinuations about adoptive parents... more

Continuing from the previous post where I was talking about care for disabled kids in Iraq.

Before anyone starts accusing me of any sort of bias here, let me expand my angst to include other areas that repulse me.

I'll start with the millions of young girls subjected to genital mutilation ... a practice that is still most often looked... more