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Anyone in the Green Bay area of Wisconsin with an interest in possible adoption from Russian might be interested in hosting a child for 10 days. The Russian Orphan Lighthouse Project is looking for host families for 10- to 15-year-old kids in January. Check out their website for details.
I have recently come across an interesting summation of the Romanian adoption mess as it played out over the years. Check it out for a quick review up until July of last year … the last action … when the US Senate resolved to urge Romania to “modify its ban on international adoptions to allow intercountry adoption by people other than biological grandparents.”
By the way, there were 1,100 adoptions in the pipeline when the door slammed shut in 2001.
This article in USA Today on domestic adoption in China provides some food for thought.
With the idea that it is “better for a child to be raised in its mother tongue and motherland”, an official of the China Juvenile Research Center in Beijing says that the focus is “what will most benefit the child, and how can we reduce further misfortune,” but with lax standards, no homestudy process, and no follow-up, it’s hard to determine how much of the practice is a good thing and how much is a recipe for disaster.
Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, after a two-day visit to Guatemala, is voicing optimism that in-process adoptions in the country will be allowed to complete.
Celebrity adoption gossip has now slopped over onto Bob Geldof, Boomtown Rat, anti-poverty campaigner and first husband to Paula Yates and father to three of her children.
According to the gossip spewers he now wants to adopted Tiger Lily, the daughter she had by Michael Hutchence.
Yes, it’s a train wreck before even leaving the station, but apparently these peoples’ lives and deaths are of great interest.
Anyway … Tiger Lily, the youngest of the four daughters — Fifi Trixiebelle, Peachy and Pixie being the older three — has been with Geldof since her mother died in 2000 and now he’s considering making her a Geldof, too, against the rumored wishes of the remaining Hutchence clan members.
Read about it if you like.
I’m not even giving a link to the stories going around about how Britney Spears is getting close to completing her process to adopt two children from China.
No way.
Tiger Lily? Did they read Kabuki?
At least the USA Today article did not have ignorant annoying comments, but still. It’s not as if America is devoid of Chinese people. There’s whole pockets of places were folks speak Mandarin, Cantonese and other dialogues.
For some reason in NY they seem to speak Mandarin more and here in Boston, I hear mostly Cantonese or some other dialogue.
What I think is best is regardless of what country a child goes to or province it’s best to have a parent that wants a child for the right reasons, who will be honest about the child’s adoption.
But it makes me uneasy that there is no oversight when it comes to domestic adoptions in China.
I’ve read conflicting information about them. Same state it’s easier than the American process and cheaper, some say it’s just as expensive by Chinese standards?
Which is true?
I don’t totally trust the Chinese government anymore than I trust the American government.
Good point on the Chinese families in America. I grew up in one, actually. They spoke Cantonese … in addition to English, of course … but could speak some Mandarin, as most in San Francisco.
(My dad’s wife is first-generation SF Chinese, plus I have three step-sisters.)
That is cool. Can you speak Chinese? I need to learn Japanese first, but one day I want to learn Mandarin and then Cantonese. And also martial arts.
Also, I just read the blog entry again-The Romania situation WORRIES ME. I read that thousands of babies are abandoned in Romanian hospitals per year. It really makes me fret for those kids. I also read that a lot of them were on the streets!
Also, those girls have really, really funny names.
I used to understand a bit of Cantonese and could speak a few words, but don’t remember much of anything 40 years later.
Romania is a disaster.
Yes, Paula Yates was rather known for the names she gave her daughters. I don’t suppose too many Americans are familiar with these people, but every Brit of a certain age knows far more about them than would be healthy for anyone. I used to watch her every morning on a show called “The Big Breakfast”. The show at the time also had a regular feature of a drag queen doing movie reviews and a viewer-participant game called “Get your nobbly nuts out” that involved a swimming pool, a giant spoon and some really cold, wet people.
The Brits are tough to figure …
nobbly nuts *giggle*
I don’t even know who those folks are, the names are just soooooo funny. Though Tiger Lily makes me think of Kabuki the comic book which is cool.
I’ve still got to do more research about orphanages, it’s not that easy to find, but Romania deeply depresses me. I’d probably never be allowed to adopt there if they reopened it by some fluke, but all of those babies!
Now I know who Bob Geldoph is! He was in one of my favourite movies, Pink Floyd the Wall.
How could I have not known that?
He looks way different. He also did Band Aid and stuff. There’s a documentary about him on History International.