I began a comment on Lisa's Guatemalan Blog for today that ended up growing out of that box and begging for its own, so I'm giving in and making a comment a post in its own right.

Lisa's post was a response to an article in Mother Jones by a woman who adopted from Guatemala and now wonders out loud and publicly, "Did I steal my daughter?".

Reaction... more

There is a great deal of criticism in some circles when it comes to the international adoption reality of removing a child from one country and raising him in another.

Terms as strong and emotive as "cultural genocide" and "racism" are tossed around like grenades, and the whole idea of international adoption is condemned as evil or tragic or both.

Children adopted from a country may be thought to have been robbed of their culture, and there is no shortage of adult adoptees who are happy to back up this idea with resentments over the fact that they don't speak the language of their birth country nor feel they truly fit when they return after a life lived elsewhere.

Dire... more

Mary started it, and Erin picked it up, now I'm posting on this meme.

Four things I thought about adoption when I was a child:

That my brothers and I must have been adopted because I was darned sure my parents had not done that sex thing I'd heard about.

That one of my brothers had birth parents from another planet.

That orphans could all sing and dance.

That children who lost their parents often had to live with mean people and work... more

Although adoption from Lebanon isn't big enough for a Yahoo group or its own category on the Adoption.com forums, it does happen, and it does make the news.

This story about a family from New Hampshire proves it ... but Boy Howdy!!! it ain't easy, or often.

According to the US... more

Any look at Africa adoptions can be complicated, as this story from Nigeria proves. With international Africa adoptions all being country-specific, a lack of understanding of just how things work can cause a world of problems. In all aspects of adoption, educating yourself is the first and most important step, and trying to do adopt without going through every single on of the steps can lead to heartache.

A Nigerian-born, Canadian citizen adopted a Nigerian child, and is now... more

I'm starting today off with numbers ... the number of children adopted in a year worldwide.

Any guesses?

Somewhere around a quarter of a million would be about right -- 250,000.

Sound like a lot?

It's 1.5% of the estimated 16 million orphans placed in care each year, and 85% take place within the country of the child's birth.

In the US?

125,000, or about half of the total number of adoptions... more

Or: Why it occasionally looks like Sandra goes out of her way to annoy some people.

If you're approaching the international adoption world from somewhere out there where it all seems reasonable, clear-cut and simple, sooner or later you are bound to come up against brick walls intentionally built to make the process sound either impossible, immoral, unethical, or otherwise a generally bad idea.

As an adoptive parent, an advocate for children and for adoption, and a blogger for Adoption.com, it is my responsibility... more

A story in today's news, although heartwarming and hopeful, has me feeling more than a bit sad.

The focus is on adults adopted from Viet Nam as children who are now returning to their birth country for their own children, noting that agencies dealing with adoptions from the country are reporting a growing number of parents are "making the same trip their adoptive parents took more than three decades ago."

There... more

Parents with kids from China will be interested to hear about "China Ghosts" a new book written by Jeff Gammage about the adoption of his daughter. It's the story of a girl, a father and a family that Lisa See, author of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" ... a lovely book of harsh realities ... calls, " ... the most informative and heartfelt book I’ve read about the adoption of girls from China.”

Parents in Pakistan have a strange ... more

With Jan Baker taking the time to laud adoptive parents and their contributions toward the betterment of adoption in the world on her recent blog, I'm inspired to expand on the topic a bit today in support of her tribute.

Coming across this story... more