As images of a devastated Haiti flood into the U.S., telephone calls are flooding into adoption agencies. But homes and families weren't the only things ruined by the earthquake, as KATU.com writers Susan Harding and Meghan Kalkstein reported in a Jan. 26 article:

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was considered one of the most challenging countries for adoption because of red tape and an unstable and corrupt government. ...

Adoption agency officials say people who are now flooding local agencies with calls may not have any idea what obstacles they'll encounter.

No one right now is accepting applications for adoptions because of the collapse of the (Haitian) government," said Hollen Frazier of All God's Children International.

She said she believes it will be a year before Haiti will begin to allow adoptions again and then the wait may be up to three years.

"I would just encourage people to keep the orphan in their foresight with the understanding we have orphans throughout the entire world," she said.

Labels: international, haiti

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Dozens of Haitian children have arrived in Pittsburgh, on the heels of U.S. policy changes for visa requirements aimed at expediting adoption of Haitian orphanages. The new policy will affect about 900 children, all of whom had already been identified as orphans. But aid groups estimate that tens of thousands of children could have been orphaned in the recent earthquake.

"It normally takes three years to adopt a child from Haiti, because of a lengthy process required under Haitian law," the New York Times reported Jan. 20. "The Haitian government has had reason to be cautious; there are about 200 orphanages in Haiti, but United Nations officials say not all are legitimate. Some are fronts for traffickers who buy children from their parents and sell them to couples in other countries."

The change in U.S. policy will speed up the process for Haitian children whose adoptions have already begun but have yet to be finalized. A spokesman for U.S. Homeland Security told the Times that the department is walking a fine line -- trying to assist children who are truly orphans without separating children from relatives who are still alive.

Labels: haiti, adoption_laws

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An international organization known as the Adoptees of Color Roundtable has issued a statement calling for a stoppage on adoptions from Haiti and a refocused effort on connecting children with their families and providing all necessary aid to help Haitians rebuild after the recent earthquake that devastated their nation.

The following are excerpts from this statement:

We are a community of scholars, activists, professors, artists, lawyers, social workers and health care workers who speak with the knowledge that North Americans and Europeans are lining up to adopt the "orphaned children" of the Haitian earthquake, and who feel compelled to voice our opinion about what it means to be "saved" or "rescued" through adoption."

We understand that in a time of crisis there is a tendency to want to act quickly to support those considered the most vulnerable and directly affected, including children. However, we urge caution in determining how best to help. ...

For more than fifty years "orphaned children" have been shipped from areas of war, natural disasters, and poverty to supposedly better lives in Europe and North America. ... Like us, these "disaster orphans" will grow into adulthood and begin to grasp the magnitude of the abuse, fraud, negligence, suffering, and deprivation of human rights involved in their displacements. ...

As adoptees of color we bear a unique understanding of the trauma, and the sense of loss and abandonment that are part of the adoptee experience, and we demand that our voices be heard. All adoptions from Haiti must be stopped and all efforts to help children be refocused on giving aid to organizations working toward family reunification and caring for children in their own communities.

Labels: international, haiti

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From the moment Layla was born, doctors knew she wouldn't live long. Her brain was so underdeveloped that it was little more than a stem. She couldnt see, feed herself or eat, and she passed away when she was just 11 months old.

Days before her death, Layla was adopted by Joe and Melba Cotton, a New Mexico couple whose actions have earned them the Abigail Thomlinson award.

An article on the website of the Hobbs News-Sun provided the following details about the Cottons and the award they recently received:

The award is given to someone in the community each year that demonstrates the courage, willingness to mentor and strength Abigail exhibited during her short life.
Tom Thomlinson's voice broke as he described his daughter during Monday's ceremony. He said the Cottons embody the spirit of the award and that is why he chose them as this year's recipients.

"The award is given to people whose sole purpose is to help people," he said. "For all the children they have helped, this year's recipients stand for what I hope the awards stands for."

The Cottons have spent decades helping children. They have lost count of the number of children they have fostered in the past 25 years and as Joe said in his comments during the ceremony, the couple's journey began long ago when they lost their infant daughter.

Labels: adoptive parents, awards, special_needs

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Jill Lear and Kim Lewen both have rooms ready and waiting for children who may not occupy them for months. Both women have been in the process of adopting children from Haiti, which was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12.

"Though both know their children are safe ... what they don't know is when they'll be able to proceed with their dream of bringing the children to the United States. They fear for their children's safety in the days to come, and that their months-long effort to adopt the children could be stalled by the chaos." (Source: The Associated Press)

Dozens of families have been left in limbo, worried not only about the safety of their adopted children, but also about the paperwork which often takes months to sort out and may now be buried underneath the rubble. On Jan. 14, adoption advocates gathered on Capitol Hill to determine the best way forward.

Labels: international, haiti

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Margaret Fleming is a 73-year-old single mother of 12 children and a passionate adoption advocate. She is also the driving force behind an effort to ensure that HIV-positive children find loving homes.

A Jan. 6 Chicago Tribune article by Jennifer Grant provided the following insights into Fleming's work on behalf of HIV-positive children throughout the world:

Fleming is the founder of Adoption-Link Inc., an agency in Oak Park [Illinois] through which she has placed hundreds of children since 1992. During a 2002 visit to Vietnam to meet her now-9-year-old daughter, her eyes were opened to the crisis of children and HIV.

She returned to the U.S. and established Chances by Choice, a program that helps place children born with HIV.

To date, close to 60 such children have found adoptive families.

According to a UNICEF report, about 370,000 children younger than 15 around the world became infected with HIV in 2007. Most infections occur during birth or through breast-feeding. Many of these children are orphaned when their parents die of AIDS.

Labels: international, adoption_agencies, HIV

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The global economic downturn has affected families in myriad ways -- including, according to a Jan. 8 article on thevisitor.co.uk, making it more difficult for parents to adopt:

According to Adoption Matter Northwest, potential adopters, including some who have already signed up for preparation groups, are having second thoughts, with some withdrawing their interest altogether.

The agency reports that 10 percent of those enquiring about becoming adoptive parents over the last six months subsequently pulled out. ...

Agency chief executive Norman Goodwin said: "We completely understand people's concerns and reasons but it's still bad news for the 4,000 children across the UK who are waiting for the opportunity of a fresh start with a new family."

Labels: UK, economy, adoption costs

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The Haitian government has dramatically slowed its transportation of Haitian orphans to the U.S., amid fears that undocumented children may be victims of human trafficking.

"Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, told the Miami Herald his government has considerable fears that children may be scooped up in the streets of Port-au-Prince by nongovernmental organizations. The government also has concerns that children may be trafficked into prostitution or slavery." [Source: The Palm Beach Post]

Lawyers and adoption agencies have been working around the clock to finalize paperwork on as many children as possible, the Post reported. Most agencies are also re-processing paperwork for potential adoptive parents, including a background check, to ensure they are legitimate.

Labels: international, haiti

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Alabama celebrated a milestone in 2009, finalizing 676 adoptions, more than it has ever had before. To help make 2010 another record year, the state is calling upon residents to consider expanding their families through adoption:

"Department of Human Resources Commissioner Nancy Buckner said that creates not only a need for more families willing to adopt, but more families willing to provide foster care for children.

There are 650 children in foster care who are waiting for their adoptions to be finalized, and there are more than 250 children waiting for someone to step forward and say that they will adopt a child." [Source: Montgomery Advertiser]

Labels: alabama, encouragement

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A Wisconsin woman has pled guilty to six felonies and two misdemeanors in an illegal adoption case. Bobbi Jo Dolski entered guilty pleas for felonious second-degree reckless endangerment, bail jumping, unauthorized placement for adoption, burglary-party to the crime, and two counts of delivery of a controlled substance.

"Dolski and her husband, Jason Dolski, were arrested in June after police said the couple illegally obtained an acquaintances child. Police found the child at the couples Stevens Point [WI] home in May during an investigation into illegal drug activity there. [Source: Wausau (MI) Daily Herald]

The couple agreed to illegally adopt Amanda Zblewskis newborn, whom Zblewski had already planned to place for adoption, the Daily Herald reported. Instead, she had Jason Dolski sign the birth certificate as the babys father, a move Zblewski told police she thought was legal.

Labels: laws, adoption fraud

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Robin Whiteley spent another holiday season away from his family this year.

When Whiteley was just a day old, a midwife gave him to Lora and Royce Whiteley who formally adopted him six years later. Today, Robin is 35-years-old, has a family of his own, and neither the United States, nor Mexico, has a record of his birth.

The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram provided the following information about Whiteley's ordeal:

Lacking a birth certificate and naturalization papers, Whiteley, who doesnt speak Spanish, was deported to Mexico on the assumption that it was his country of origin. &

The laws on migration and foreign adoptions are complicated, said Heidi Cox, executive vice president and general counsel for the Gladney Center in Forth Worth... "Your Texas adoption will establish that you are the parent, but not that the child is a citizen, she said."

Because Whiteley doesnt have proper documentation in Mexico either, he cant work. His wife and children have moved to the Rio Grande Valley to be closer to him. the Star-Telegram reported.

Labels: international

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A 23-year-old Arizona woman is refusing to tell police what she did with her soon-to-be-adopted son. The woman had been in conversations with a couple who wanted to adopt the 8-month-old child, but fled the state after she changed her mind.

"Jack Smith [the adoptive father] admitted he thought the entire adoption process with Johnson [the biological mother] felt strange, but that they all lived nearby and they had bonded with the baby after keeping him for a couple of weeks in December." [Source: ABC News]

Johnson has since told police that she gave her baby to a married couple in San Antonio, Texas, after the childs biological father refused to go along with her original adoption plans, ABC has reported. Police are uncertain how much of Johnsons story is true, and she is not forthcoming with additional details.

Labels: legal issues, controversy

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