If it's Friday, it must be a day for news from Cambodia on the International Adoption Blog. If you're looking for other adoption-related features and articles, please check out the Adoption News Blog.

A very interesting commentary with a firm and realistic footing in history is well worth a read for anyone interested in Cambodia then and now.

Making comparisons between Indochina... more

Continued from the previous post.

Some would insist that every person who produces a child biologically is immediately invested with love and caring for their offspring and dedicated to its welfare, no matter the facts and stats that prove this is far too often not at all the case.

Some suggest that because adoption is not completely free of the taint of corruption and greed, there should be no adoption at all, which makes about as much sense in today's world as saying that since aid to the less fortunate is fraught with fraud and bribery, no medical or agricultural assistance,... more

Hardly a day goes by now that I don't come across one version or another of the general 'adoption sucks' mentality spewed by someone with a personal grudge against the very foundations of this already limited option for children. Narrow views that take in nothing beyond a tiny picture formed by one experience act like iron filings near a magnet and glom together in random forms that can never be anything but a ragged mess of individual negatives drawn toward an opposite positive as though to overwhelm.

Stick enough sharp little bits of negatively charged remnants together and some considerable weight can be created even though a usable shape will never result, and this is where no... more

Continued from the previous post where we were looking at some faulty thinking ...

Can we point out how downright silly many of UNICEF's arguments against international adoption are? The hierarchal system insisted upon, for example, that can so quickly be checked and discounted: bio parents, then other nationals, then foreigners living in country, then as a last, last resort, parents in gasp! a whole other country.

Biological parents... more

Continued from the previous post where we were starting to look at a UNICEF contribution called "State of the World's Children 2007".

The "Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality" title does have a lovely ring to it, but it's hollow, folks.

UNICEF director Ann Veneman says in a press release, “If we care about the health and well-being of children today and into the... more

I am so not in a mood for this today. Cj has been sick since the weekend ... a high fever with no other symptoms, always a worrying combination ... and I have guests arriving next week, so a very long list of things that need doing in preparation.

I'm also becoming progressively more concerned that the upcoming conference on 'ethics and accountability' will end up serving as a respectability prop for some of the more vociferous anti-adoption voices, and therefore lose much of whatever positive impact it may... 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

It is hard to believe ... well, for me, at least, because I am passing-of-time-challenged in unpredictable and confusing ways ... that October has rolled around already. This year is going even faster than 2007, and that one had the rolling down to the equivalent of a sixteen-pound bowling ball flicked from the fingers of a fullback with torque ... zero to 365 in about as much time as it takes my electric kettle to boil.

Reality will out, though, and I have accepted the Octoberness of this morning, so with little fanfare and much consternation over how ridiculously... more

After the blog I just wrote on Brother Number Two, I need to cleanse my soul with something pleasant ... a good idea, perhaps.

Hey! Here's one!

We've all heard of the $100 laptop, right? The one that's supposed to connect kids in underdeveloped countries to the WWW, thereby giving them access to education... more

Like so many of us touched by Cambodia, I've spent way too much time being upset and angry over the tragic history of my children's country of birth. I've done the crying at sites of historical horrors and heard the first-hand accounts of more suffering than anyone should ever have to imagine, must less live through or die from. I've read the books, seen the photos, watched the films and absorbed as much as I could of the Cambodia that produced these kids I love with every fiber of my being.

I am almost beyond reacting from the gut, having spent almost five years... more