In an attempt to get my desktop tidy, all odds and ends sorted or tossed, and every bit bitten and each bob bobbed, today I'll share links to various stories of interest I've come across lately but have not yet written about.

First, here's something on international adoption from a US Congressman who is an adopted father of two Korean-born kids.

The congressman flatly rejected claims of and concerns about abuse by adoptive parents.

"I think a lot of it is simply not based in fact," he said. "I don't know why these rumors are promoted as they are. Maybe they are part of the general anti-American thing. I believe the misrepresentations are significant."

He also allayed concerns about social outcasts and discrimination.

... "One of the things you deal with in an international adoption context like mine is right from the beginning, you acknowledge the differences, you acknowledge the adoption basis for how the family came together," he said.

Here's some tragic truth about life for children in today's Afghanistan. These kids can not be adopted internationally, but that doesn't mean they stay where they are:

"These kids are being bought and sold," said Assifi. "If the family doesn't have much to eat, they sell the daughter as a bride at six or seven years old to men 30, 50, 70 years old. Some are being sold into prostitution into Arab countries. The little girls and boys are being used for pornography.

"And you hear all the time how a family borrows money from a drug lord in exchange for poppies, and when they cannot repay, they have to give their daughter."

The Committee on Social and Family Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council met recently at UNICEF headquarters in Florence, Italy, and guess what? They agree that there are twelve million children orphaned in Africa.

Someone said that all children should be able to dream. Others added, "and should be able to see their dreams realised." According to many parliamentarians in the Assembly of Strasbourg, laws and conventions won't work without the real will to fight the violence, at times not bloody but certainly very grave. For example, no one wants to adopt a sick child.

Gee ... I wonder how much these people are paid?

An opinion piece from Scotland addresses the issue of newly legalized adoption by gay couples, taking the stance that children will benefit. More can be found here and here.


Continued ...