June 19, 2013
Adoption News Round-up
Here’s a roundup of interesting adoption news from this week, from the “giving up” vs. “placing” debate, to Russian’s ban of foreign gay adoptions and an adorable retrospective of the depiction of transracial adoption in TV and film.
“Giving up” vs. “Placing” for adoption – this debate is long-going, and the idea of speaking about adoption as “giving up” a baby is one that suffers great criticism from the adoption community, birth mothers especially. America Adopts! posted a great article titled “I Know Open Adoption Isn’t About Giving Up Your Baby But Google Doesn’t,” which breaks down reasoning why open adoption is not about giving up your child. The article is extremely well thought out, and provides a lot of information for people who don’t understand why this misstep in verbiage can be so deeply offensive to those in the adoption community. A good one to share, and pass around!
The First Mother Forum, an online forum “where first/birth/natural/real mothers share news and opinions. And vent.” posted an extremely informational article about a law passed in Oregon that will allow birth mothers easier access to birth information about their child, including their new name and adoptive parents. “This will be the first time in the country where the legal presumption favors a birth mother’s access to the information, rather than deny it.” It also states that once a child turns 18, a mother may motion to see her child’s file, which will likely be granted unless there’s good cause.
As reported by The Washington Post, the Russian adoption ban is stretching its reach even further, as Russia moves to prohibit adoptions from all foreign gay couples. Although Russia has lifted the criminalization of homosexuality, it has not stopped them from thwarting measures that promote the acceptance of homosexuality or gay marriage. It estimated that if this does become law, it will affect around 600,000 Russian children who are without parents. If there is one universal truth about adoption, it should be its unadulterated promotion of love and family, not the restriction thereof, and subsequent abandonment.
Did you experience anything that set back bonding with your child a bit? Adoptive Families posted a question from an adoptive mother who worries that the emotional effects of steroids she was put on to relieve an infection disrupted the bonding momentum she had going with her baby. Weigh in, or check out some of the answers – there’s lots of helpful information about bonding, which we know is a topic adoptive parents can never get enough of.
Babble created a neat little slideshow of various ways in which transracial adoption has been depicted in TV and film in recent decades, in honor of the new ABC show The Fosters (have you watched that?) Ranging from Easy A to Different Strokes, it’s nice to wide range of families and adoptions represented, from the funny to the sweet to the heartwarming.