A long and detailed report out of Boston is grabbing the Madonna adoption story by the scruff of its neck and giving it the shake it's been needing. With real-word sensibility, it follows a study paid for my the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, no lightweight in the world of research and development,... more

This research project by the Adoption Institute has come to my attention, and is important enough for an entire post.

I urge all who fit the profile to participate, as it would be a shame if the only adoptees putting forth thoughts and opinions are the same ones who would, if they had their way, close down adoption for everyone and forever.

“Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption”

A Project by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

We need to hear your voice, your experience, your thoughts, and your knowledge. The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute – the pre-eminent... more

Jupe's recent post on voting day has me thinking this morning about elections in general ... how they work or don't work, what's right and what's wrong. Make me Empress of the World, a position that could be an elected one ... after I get it started ... and would involve term limits, and a few things would change.

First, I'd want more people voting on more issues. In this day and age, there's no reason for elected officials to make all the... more

Continued from the previous post where I started on the topic of the need for adoptive parents to make themselves aware of the fact that not everyone in the world views adoption as an intrinsically good thing. Some, in fact, hate everything about it and are working to put an end to all adoptions everywhere. A disclaimer, though ... I am not suggesting that all adult adoptees or birth parents would ban adoptions if they could. Many who have... more

Was Luke Skywalker adopted by his Aunt and Uncle? Was Leia, his twin, adopted by that king who was blown up with his whole planet? I don't know, and seeing as how they're not real people and they have never been a real family ... and that adoption laws on Tatooine have nothing to do with what happens on Earth anyway ... I don't really care, even though I'm a fan. If, however, he was real and he had been adopted, and if his birth father decided to use his position as major big shot in the Dark Side of the Force to rally support against adoption,... more

Continued from the previous post. Pioneers they were, the Dosses, but still victims of their times. This bit of conversation between two of the Doss kids is typical of 50's thinking.

“I’m going to be a minister and have babies,” Laurie chanted, as she pushed by with her doll buggy.

“Girls aren’t ministers,” Donny decreed. “Would you like to marry a minister and have little... more

With international adoption being the headline-grabbing topic it is today, and half the known world assuming that it's a new-fangled idea that's taken a gaggle of celebs to bring to the fore, it seems a good time for a history lesson. Do the name "Doss" ring a bell?

Fifty plus years ago, Carl and Helen Doss were Mom and Dad to "The Family Nobody Wanted" ... although just about everybody did. The Dosses were the hottest thing since Buckey Beaver started touting Ipanna. (If you don't get the reference, you're too young to read my ... more

A reader posted the following comment on a blog from the other day:

I am kind of an adoption newby, but getting educated everyday. My husband and I just started the process for a China adoption, not because of Meg Ryan, or Madonna, or Angelina. We just want to have a child. Here our process seems to be mired in headlines and questions about our opinions about these famous adoptions.

It... more

From Zimbabwe via RadioAfrica come the thoughts of Professor Stanford Mukasa, and a take on the scavenging press ... bottom feeder that it far too often is ... I like a lot:

For a number of weeks now the main news coming from Malawi has been the so-called controversy surrounding the adoption of David, barely one month into his second year of existence in this world.

Hundreds of journalists and photographers have descended like news... more

Happy Halloween.

There's no celebration here ... no costumes or pillowcases-full of candy or jack-o-lanterns, no tricks or treats. I'm not going to let a little thing like the culture of the country I live in stop me from getting into the spirit of Halloween, though. No way. As I type, I'm wriggling into my costume. By the time the next sentence oozes from my fingertips I will have transformed myself into ...

Ta Da!!!

Adoption Advocate Blogger Chick!

Festooned with Baby Bjorns and Huggies and sporting... more