In a March 29 opinion article in Iowa's Press-Citizen newspaper, adoptive mother Marlene Jessop wrote about the great need for more foster parents:

Close your eyes and imagine for a moment that you are 7 years old. Everything you own is stuffed in a black garbage bag beside you. You sit in the backseat of a car as a social worker drives you to a different part of town to new home, and a new family, where you will be expected to learn new rules, attend a new school and make new friends.

If you are one of the nearly 6,000 children currently in foster care in Iowa or a resource family (commonly called foster families) who opened your heart to them, imagination is not necessary. ...

Nearly every community is suffering from a shortage of resource families. Children in foster care feel more secure and are likely to do better in school when they are able to stay in their own community.

The simple truth is that the larger the pool of qualified resource families, the easier it will be to ensure that children will not only achieve permanence in a timely manner but also that they can remain in their own neighborhoods and schools and stay together with their siblings more often.

Labels: foster care, foster_families, foster parents

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The Romanian Office for Adoptions has submitted legislation to Parliament that would lift certain restrictions currently placed on inter-country adoptions. The law currently prohibits certain relatives from adopting children who have lost their parents.

"Currently, a child may be adopted by up to the third closest relative. We want to allow fourth closest relatives as well as Romanian citizens married to foreign citizens to adopt Romanian children," [Secretary of State Bogdan] Panait said. [Source: Nine OClock Daily (Romania)]

A petition that had been filed, claiming the proposed legislation violated the Hague Convention, was closed Tuesday by the European Parliament, allowing it to move closer towards becoming law.

Labels: international, adoption laws

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In 2001, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that increased the tax credit for adoption from $5,000 to $10,000. This credit has been adjusted several times for inflation and now stands at $12,170. But the original bill is set to expire at the end of this year, and the credit will return to 2001 levels.

With the average domestic adoption costing $20,000 to $25,000 and international adoption costing $25,000 to $45,000 this tax credit makes it possible for many couples to adopt. Without it some couples simply would not be able to afford adoption. ...

A bill called the Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act was introduced in 2009 to make the tax credit from the Reconciliation Act a permanent benefit. It is still in the first steps of the legislative process and has not yet reached the House or Senate. [Source: Christa Singleton, Associated Content, March 21]

Labels: adoption_costs, legislation

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An Illinois bill that would give adopted adults access to their birth certificates has overcome an important hurdle, passing a March 18 vote in the State House.

The bill represents more than 15 years of work for sponsoring Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, an adoptee herself. Feingenholtz said data from Illinois and other states show birth parents contacted by adopted children overwhelmingly consent to give medical or other personal information. [Source: St. Louis Dispatch]

If passed, birth mothers would have until January 1, 2011 to decide whether theyre willing to have their information released. The bill is now headed to the Senate for a vote.

Labels: adoption rights, adopted adults

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A successful mentoring program for foster children in Fairfax County, Va., is on the verge of being cut, according to a March 14 Washington Post article by Henri E. Cauvin:

Families4Kids was created five years ago by the county to build bonds between community volunteers and some the county's foster children. ... Mentors provide one-on-one support and participate in monthly group activities.

In the social-services budget of about $211 million, Families4Kids is a $133,000 blip, fueled largely by the work of the volunteers. But with the county executive requiring more than $6 million in cuts from the Department of Family Services for the coming fiscal year, the program is on the chopping block.

Officials say they concluded that cutting Families4Kids would not only save the county at least a small portion of that $6 million but would accelerate their efforts to apply the lessons of the program to many more of the county's 360 or so foster children.

Labels: foster care, mentors

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Members of the Florida House and Senate are working on legislation to prevent adoption agencies from asking prospective parents whether they own any guns. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee, who was asked about gun ownership when he and his wife were filling out adoption paperwork.

Horner said the couple were offended when asked about what weapons they had at home. &

Horner said that the Children's Home Society, which contracts with the Florida Department of Children and Families to provide adoption services, was the only licensed adoption agency that included a form asking prospective parents to provide details on their weapons, where they're kept and what kind of ammunition is in their house. [Source: The News Service of Florida]

The legislation is backed by the National Rifle Association, and is expected to receive final votes in both chambers March 18.

Labels: adoption laws, florida

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In a March 12 post on the MomLogic blog, adoptive mom Maggie Vink wrote about the "verbal land mines" that members of adoptive families often have to deal with:

[A man Vink once dated] told me about a coworker of his who had adopted internationally and was now pregnant. Knowing his tendency to say the wrong things, I casually mentioned that I hoped nobody would say things like, "You must be excited to have a baby of your own." ... After all, adopted children are our own, too. ...

Mr. Foot-in-Mouth assured me that nobody he worked with would say anything like that. However, he said that they were all concerned for their pregnant coworker -- concerned because families usually like their natural children more than their adopted children.

Even now, weeks after I first heard it, that sentence still gives me a little bit of a gag reflex. ...

When I was in the process of adopting, my adoption agency talked to me about the offensive things people were likely to say after I adopted. They were right: I've heard it all, from "How much did your son cost?" to "Is it hard to love a child that isn't yours?" I've tried to respond to every one of those verbal land mines with education, not anger. But education isn't foolproof.

Labels: communication

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A Canadian couple has been living apart for several months as they try to clear up an unexpected snag in their adoption of two boys from Ghana. According to a March 9 article by Steve Mertl of the Canadian Press, Andrea Bastin and Michael Segal have been working since August 2009 to unravel what Mertl termed "a bureaucratic nightmare."

Ghana's Social Welfare Department had approved an interim adoption and the couple began the paperwork to bring the children to Canada. The requirement included a copy of the mother's death certificate.

That's where things went wrong.

Bastin said the twins' 24-year-old "senior brother'' went to the family's village to get the document but was told he had to go to Accra. There, he paid an official to get the death certificate, which turned out to be invalid. Bastin and Segal said they later learned the bureaucrat had no authority to issue the document, which should have come from local officials in the first place.

The invalid death certificate raised alarms at Canada's high commission in Ghana, which handles visa and immigration files from a dozen African countries. Ghana is a hub for human trafficking, including children taken out of the country.

The couple said Canadian officials refused to provide documents allowing Bastin to take the twins back to Canada until the 44-year-old mother's death was confirmed.

Both Bastin and the boys' older brother obtained copies of the genuine death certificate from officials of the village, along with hospital records confirming how she died and affidavits from relatives saying she was indeed dead.

The boys' father, who Bastin said is in his 70s, also formally gave up his parental rights.

Labels: international, ghana, Canada, paperwork

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When Adreinne and Johan Mellisen traveled from their home in Canada to Sierra Leone, they were simply planning to help out at the local school and the medical clinic. But a month after their arrival, they met Mariama.

In a March 4 article on BCLocalNews.com, Justine Drummond described what happened next:

[Mariama] was 16 weeks old when her aunts brought her to their doorstep.

"They handed me a note which said, "This girls mother is dead,'" Adrienne says. ... "When she came to live with us, she was 11 months and 11 pounds," Johan says.

As they nursed her back to health, the Melissens knew Mariama's chance for survival in Sierra Leone was bleak.

"She didnt have any future," Johan says. It was then the Melissens considered adoption. ...

Mariama was ultimately granted Canadian citizenship, and on Nov. 5, her new parents brought her home for the first time.

Labels: international, orphans, Canada, sierra leone

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In the last two years, the number of children awaiting adoption in Colorado has dropped from 800 to 365 thanks in large part to a unique initiative called Wait No More. Spearheaded by Focus on the Family, in partnership with state and local government authorities, the events do more than just raise awareness about the needs of foster kids  they invite action.

"Prospective parents can hear about the challenges and rewards of adoption and then  if they choose  begin the long adoption process at 'Wait No More' events. Focus held such an event in Colorado Springs in November 2008. At one in October in Loveland, 50 families took the first steps to adopt children." [Source: The Denver Post]

The next event is scheduled for September and will be held in Denver, which currently has over 100 kids waiting to be adopted. Focus has begun taking "Wait No More" outside of Colorado, scheduling events in St. Louis, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale.

Labels: adopted children, families, awareness

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In radical attempt to fix its child-care system, the Bulgarian government has announced plans to shut down all of its orphanages and homes for disabled children.

Citing past failed attempts to create real change in the current system, the government has set a 15-year deadline for scrapping the old and starting anew.

"According to a new strategy paper approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, the country's 137 communist-era welfare homes for orphans and disabled children will be closed down," the Independent News & Media has reported. "The more than 7 500 children living in such homes will be placed in foster families or adopted to help better integrate them into society."

The government says lack of funding, and lack of "political will" has kept all but the most cosmetic changes from being made at orphanages and group homes. The new plan would give top priority to placing the more than 1,300 disabled children who are currently wards of the state.

Labels: international, orphanages

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