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

I have no idea what is going on, if the cosmos is trying to tell me something or get me to tell someone else, but almost every time I've gone online the past couple of days, stories about Moldova have presented themselves before me; not just Moldova as a country, but Moldova as a country with orphans and people who adopt them.

Even yesterday's... 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.

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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

With the virtual shut-down of Russian adoptions coming as the last US agencies lost their licenses to conduct adoptions in that country yesterday, the danger of backlash to news hype shows its ugly face. As the feeding frenzy that followed the Masha Allen case of sexual abuse and degradation flew into high gear, many people in the international adoption community were quick... more

Some people may wonder why I expend so much of my precious and rather limited energy endlessly beating this drum of mine that says 'media manipulation of adoption-related news is extremely dangerous', or a rhythm to that effect. Today's news out of Russia makes my point perfectly, I'm very sad to say.

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Continued from here, where we were looking at possible changes in adoption from India.

It is beginning to appear that serious efforts to improve the likelihood of international adoption for some Indian children may be in the works. Cara's website (India's Central Adoption Resource Agency) was redesigned for ease of use, and work was beginning on efforts... more

Waves of often contradictory and confusing adoption-related news have been emanating from India over the past couple of months, making getting a handle on the situation there very difficult. For as long as I've been part of the international adoption world, adoption from India has been presented as problematic for non-Indians. Some in the country have even gone on record as being completely against foreigners ever raising Indian children.

Yes, there are those who've adopted from India on the ... more

Continued from here ...

This story on a large study ... almost 70,000 children of families with depressive parents ... will, I'm sure, be mentioned in connection with adoption in future. This could be a major concern, so I'm hoping the study will be looked at closely from many angles, and that the research gets a thorough... more