This story comes along with the announcement of Mass. Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray's family's completed adoption from Guatemala, but ranges far wider with quotes from Adam Pertman

“The aim is to protect everyone, not just to guard against the trafficking,” Mr. Pertman said of the Hague Convention.... more

Word has it that Guatemala ratified the Hague yesterday. Here's a link to the story that's circulating.

And, just in case anyone missed the announcement from USCIS last week (5.17.07) with the update on processing times for Guatemalan adoptions, here's the link.

The Council on Contemporary Families has released a report on "Unconventional Wisdom" that is taking some by surprise.

Founded to, " ... increase communication among family researchers and practitioners from many different fields, and to help the press and public get access to accurate information and best-practice findings about how today's families... more

We're looking at recent international adoption-related news today ....

Very frightening, this report from CNN highlights a study out of the Asian-American studies program at Cal State Fullerton that has found that Asian-American women between the ages of 15 and 24 have the highest rate of suicide of any women in any race or ethnic group between those ages, and that suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Asian-American women in that age range.

... more

Time to clean up the desk again, so today' s post will be bits and pieces of news I've been collecting to pass along, starting with an announcement from Ethica about an up-coming conference, co-sponsored by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, to be held in Washington DC in October. The topic is "Adoption Ethics and Accountability". For more info, see Ethica's... more

An article I came across today prompted a look at international adoption from the Pacific island nation of Tonga. The story of a California woman who decided to adopt as she blew out the fifty candles on her birthday cake, like all adoption stories, is inspiring and has that usual tinge of something meant to be that so often figures into the follow-up that can be happy ever after.

It also, however, poses some questions and brings up, in me at least,... more

Kailee Wells, an international adoptee born in China, fell victim to Severe Aplastic Anemia at the age of five. Five years of perpetual transfusions, immuno-suppressant drugs and heart-stoppingly close calls followed. The only long-term hope was finding a perfectly matched bone marrow donor who would agree to provide tissue for a transplant.

In hopes of finding a possible donor among the Asian and Pacific Islander population... more

Contrary to what some may think, Jan Baker and I very often think alike. Not assumed to be a common phenomenon between birth moms and adoptive parents, the more we learn, the more we alike we find ourselves to be.

Case in point ... today's blog posts.

As I was sitting down to write about an international adoptee's recent bone marrow transplant, I scrolled to see what else people have been writing about... more

"Bones That Float: A Story of Adopting Cambodia" is more than a book; it's a movement!" says Kari Grady Grossman, the book's author. Determined to make a difference for the positive, Kari turned down a publishing deal with Beacon Press and opened her own company ... fixing the date of publication to coincide with the anniversary of the day the Khmer Rouge began the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh ... to assure that every penny possible made... more

" ['Bones that Float'] ... is truly a gift for every adoptive family out there." This quote came from an adoptive mom after reading Kari Grady Grossman's wonderful new book about the Cambodia she came to know and love through her family's adoption journey.

Much more than a story of one child and one family, "Bones that Float: A Story of Adopting Cambodia" is a tapestry of Cambodian lives, past, present and future, that conveys context and encourages... more