November 11, 2013
Adoption News Round-up
Take a look at what’s been going on in the adoption world recently!
In honor of National Adoption Month, the Huffington Post, which consistently runs incredible coverage about adoption and adoptive families of all shapes, sizes, races and genders, is sharing the story of Melissa Jun Rowley, the founder of Warrior Love Productions, who also happened to be adopted from Seoul. Written by Melissa herself, her story is very powerful.
We’ve written about re-homing before and the horrifying practice of adoptive parents trading children they’ve adopted underground through the internet, but now the Donaldson Adoption Institute is calling for “targeted laws, policies and practices” to stop adoptive parents from given their children away. “Titled ‘A Changing World,’ the report calls for changes in adoption practices “to prevent the kind of distress that leads desperate parents to seek radical solutions like ‘re-homing.'”
Time Magazine reports that the stricter criteria becomes for international adoptions, the longer children are waiting in institutions to be adopted. 23,000 children were brought into the US via adoption in 2004, by last year, this number had dropped to 9,000.
This student from DePaul University presents another side to the Russia adoption controversy, wondering if the tables were turned, would Americans have done the same?
Carrie Goldman’s third annual 30 Adoption Portraits in 30 Days is back! Every year during National Adoption Month, Carrie’s ChicagoNow blog, Portrait of an Adoption, shares the stories of 30 individuals involved with adoption. Such a beautiful series…we so look forward to it!
We are so thrilled to see that this couple, who has been imprisoned in a jail in a Qatar for many months has finally been released while they are awaiting trial. Surely, their horror is not over, as they have been charged with starving their child to death (although it’s very clear that they did nothing to their child, and this is, in fact, a racial issue) and still have to endure trial. But it must be an incredible relief to be able to be with their children and family after such a devastating time.
And to finish, another beautiful story from an adoptee featured on the Huffington Post. What “Korean Eyes” means to Lisa Cleary.