With the World Bank big in the news now, I could be writing today about corruption, but since I just did that I'll be focusing instead on the more up-beat and... more

A big part of what I see as my job as International Adoption Blogger and advocate of adoption involves addressing items that appear in the media that cast aspersions on adoption and on adoptive parents, including those who might have an element of fame attached to themselves and therefore to their adopting, and that frame content in a way designed to leave a nasty taste in the mouths of readers.

My response doesn't come as a knee-jerk reaction to any comment with a negative tone, as illuminating dark corners is the only way to rid the institution... more

There are no few people in and around the international adoption world who feel that corruption in birth countries is so pervasive that adoptions originating in those countries can be nothing but tainted. Many would prefer that adoptions from such places stop until transparent systems can be put in place that would assure total transparency.

There... more

Corruption in the international adoption realm put the brakes on Cambodian adoptions more than six years ago. One person was sent to prison over this, an American woman named Lauren Galindo, and I think I'd be fair in saying this most likely didn't upset corrupt Cambodian officials one little bit.

Banning adoptions hasn't bothered them much either, or at least not enough to pass the anti-corruption legislation other countries... more

How much money and how many lives are lost each year to corruption in governments can only be guessed, but it has to be assumed to massive ... and pervasive. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, it's here, it's there, it's everywhere, and doing some level of damage to everything it touches.

Corruption put a halt to adoption in Cambodia in 2001 and is widely implicated as an integral aspect of almost all ... more

There's a lot going on in the international adoption world at the moment, as always, so I thought I'd take today's post to take a look at some of things the National Council for Adoption has been keeping track of. The NCFA is not without its critics, but I can agree with many of the positions the organization takes on the issues that concern me, and their site is a good resource.

The Federal Government is at the root of all that is international adoption in the US,... more

Here's a sobering thought: Saddam Hussein was raised as an Iraqi orphan ... that's how Iraqis see it, anyway. His father disappeared before he was born and his mother sent him to live with an uncle until he was three. Her second husband came with a family and didn't take to little Saddam. He left the family home in Tikrit at the age of ten and returned to his uncle ... who eventually became his father-in-law ... but in the eyes of normal Iraqi people, growing up without a father is pretty bad news.

Growing up laqeet, ... more

Any idea what the number three birth country was for Canadians adopting internationally in 2005? China was number one. Haiti followed at number two. Korea, Russian, Ukraine, Ethiopia, India,... more

For some background on the subject of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia and organizations that can be supported that address vital aspects of the problem, DATA is a good place to start. With statistics and solid information with realizable goals, the group lays out the basics and points in several directions that lead to helping. One of these is the... more

Today's blog is in response to a comment on yesterday's post on World AIDS Orphans Day left by a reader:

Sandra, I have been wanting to find a program that provides antiretrovirals to mothers in Ethiopia (our son's birthcountry). I have posted this comment elsewhere, but never have gotten a response. Do you know of anything like this?

We would like to support such a program, much as we provide sponsorship support for orphans in... more