Adoption News

A life or death search for her family ties

2009-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

themonmouthjournal.com — Carol Barbieri uncovered the secrets of her adoption and lineage during a yearlong investigation, and a race against time, on a quest to find her medical heritage and save her son.

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Referenced in this article:

NJ-CARE
American Adoption Congress

The Underground Market of Sperm Donors

2009-10-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

lifestyle.msn.com — A growing online gray market of free sperm donors has sprung up to serve single women, lesbian couples, and married couples challenged by male infertility who can't afford the expense -- or in some countries, who don't have the "right" social status -- for traditional sperm banks.

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Submitted to digg by WordsnCollision

Germany's 'Brown Babies' - The Difficult Identities of Post-War Black Children of GIs

2009-10-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

spiegel.de — For many of the now-adult children of white German women and African-American GIs, adopted by families in the United States after World War II, the search for the truth has been difficult.

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Adoptee aims to change rules for birth certificates

2009-10-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

rapidcityjournal.com — Eric Roach is working to change a South Dakota law so other adoptees won't have to work as hard, or tell lies, to get their original birth certificates.

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Submitted to digg by beegirlny

Our Dirty Adoption Secret

2009-10-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

newmatilda.com - The Federal Government wants to give forced adoption victims an apology, but seems very keen to prevent the public finding out exactly what the apology is for, writes Emily Wolfinger

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Submitted to digg by sly50

Three decades after adoption, DNA test reveals painful truth

2009-10-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

More than three decades after Ron Ryba and Kathleen Butler gave up their baby son to Catholic Charities of Trenton, N.J., for adoption, and four years after the agency facilitated their "reunion" with Phil Bloete, genetic testing revealed last year that none of them are related.

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Submitted to digg by beegirlny

At Reunion for the New York Foundling, a Kinship of a Shared Past

2009-10-09T18:12:00.001-07:00

nytimes.com — A child-welfare agency with origins in the 19th century and a Dickensian name celebrated its 140th anniversary with a gathering of people whom it helped as infants.

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Quebec proposes changes to adoption laws

2009-10-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

theglobeandmail.com — Proposed changes to Quebec's adoption law will allow some adopted children to remain legally bonded to their biological parents in what is regarded as an unprecedented move by a provincial government.

This means that an adopted child will retain a "double family bond" if all parties in the process agree. While the adoptive family will have legal authority over the child's welfare, the adopted child will be allowed to continue to have ties to his or her biological family. The birth documents will contain the names of the child's original parents as well those of his or her adoptive parents.

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The Ethical Dilemma of Outsourcing Pregnancy to India

2009-10-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

fora.tv — Harvard Professor Michael Sandel deliveres a speech titled "Markets and Morals" as part of the Chautauqua Institution 2009 Summer Lecture Series.

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Film 'Resilience' looks at often-ignored mothers of adoption

2009-10-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

koreaherald.co.kr — Behind the glamour of adoption, new beginnings and happy reunions, there is another, darker side of loss and separation for birth mothers, birth families, and adoptees that is often left out of the discussion.

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Referenced in this article: http://www.resiliencefilm.com/

China's adoption system worries Canadian mom

2009-09-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

vancouversun.com — A Nova Scotia mother who adopted a baby from China says she is haunted by questions about whether her little girl — and other Chinese adoptees in Canada — might have been kidnapped from her birth parents, or sold for cash.

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Vietnam - New adoption regulations under debate

2009-09-28T05:42:00.000-07:00

thanhniennews.com — A proposal to end the illegal selling of adoption rights comes under fire as critics say it misappropriates government power.

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South Dakota - Lawmakers face balancing adoptees' rights

2009-09-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

argusleader.com — The desire to see what they call "the first legal paper that is mine" is why South Dakota residents seek to change state law. Rather than have to go before a judge to obtain their birth records, a bill they're pushing would allow adoptees 18 and older to obtain the documents from the state Department of Health.

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Long Island lawyer charged with setting up fake adoptions

2009-09-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

A Roslyn attorney stole thousands of dollars from prospective parents trying to adopt children by promising them nonexistent babies, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said Friday.

Kevin Cohen, 41, was arrested at his home Friday morning following a 16-month investigation into the alleged scam.

Cohen was charged last December for trying to steal the house he lived in, prosecutors said.

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Submitted to digg by nanapat

Adopted Chinese daughters seek their roots

2009-09-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

ft.com — China has invited thousands of foundlings back to their birthplaces for government-sponsored “homeland tours” which, like last year’s Beijing Olympics or next year’s Shanghai World Expo, give the country a chance to show off to the world.

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Skin deep - "My India" - adoption search documentary

2009-09-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

livemint.com — Adopted by an American family 25 years ago, Goa-born Nisha Grayson is coming back ‘home’ in search of her birth mother and herself

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Link to film website: My India

My scattered grandchildren

2009-09-24T20:48:00.001-07:00

theglobeandmail.com — Their children may consider it a personal decision, but parents of egg and sperm donors rarely see it that way. Many struggle with longing for branches of the family tree they may never meet

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THE PRICE WE ALL PAY Human Trafficking in International Adoption

2009-09-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

conducivemag.com — Adoption is already steeped in the legacy of loss for the child and his family. Add to this the recent revelations of the selling of babies for adoption in countries like Vietnam and India, and one needs only to reconsider who exactly is benefiting from adoption. Kevin Minh Allen, a Vietnamese adoptee, explores ways to effectively address this...

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Submitted to digg by runforfreedom

A De Facto Penalty For Providing a Home

2009-09-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

washingtonpost.com — Many advocates say disparities in child welfare subsidies hurt children and hamper the city's efforts to move children out of foster care, especially older children, whose best hope might be a relative willing to become a guardian.

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Darryl McDaniels from DMC & Zara Phillips on Adoptee Rights

2009-09-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

ny1.com — NY1 Politics Online: Interview with Darryl McDaniels & Zara Phillips promoting adoptee rights and dispelling myths and misconceptions regarding restoring access legislation.

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16 stand trial in Vietnam baby selling

2009-09-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

google.com — A court in northern Vietnam has put 16 people on trial for allegedly selling more than 250 babies for foreign adoption, a court official said Tuesday. The defendants allegedly solicited infants from unwed mothers and those from poor families and falsified documents claiming the babies had been abandoned at village clinics

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Embryo Mix-Up: Woman Unwittingly Pregnant With Someones Baby

2009-09-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

cnn.com — The fertility clinic where Carolyn Savage underwent in vitro fertilization implanted another couple's embryos into Carolyn's uterus. In essence, she had become an unwitting surrogate for another family. Carolyn is now 35 weeks pregnant and expecting to deliver within the next couple of weeks.

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Submitted to digg by gamebittk

Long-lost brothers find another sister - TODAY People

2009-09-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

today.msnbc.msn.com — Two Maine co-workers who discovered they were long-lost brothers, and then found they had a half sister, are about to be reunited with yet another sibling. Kat Cooper saw the three siblings on TODAY Tuesday morning talking about how they were trying to find another sister with the birth name Claire Marie. "That's me!" she realized.

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78 year old woman meets family for first time

2009-09-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

thenewstribune.com — Gwen Howell has her mother's build, her mother's hands and her mother's earlobes. But she didn't know that until this summer, when she got to see photos of the woman who gave birth to her as a teenager and then made the painful decision to give her up for adoption.

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The Catholic church sold my child

2009-09-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

It began with a chance encounter at a New Year's party in 2004. I was trying to leave, but a woman said she had a message for me. She knew I had been a journalist and she had a friend who wanted my help to solve a family mystery. I agreed to a meeting, and found myself embarking on a five-year quest for a man I had never met.

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Submitted to digg by Fitzmartin

Pastor gets life term for abusing 5 adopted daughters

2009-09-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

mercurynews.com — The pastor of a church in a California strip mall was sentenced to life in state prison Friday for abusing her five adopted daughters, who were beaten daily, fed spoiled food and hidden in a garage.

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Chinese babies stolen by officials for foreign adoption

2009-09-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

latimes.com — The man from family planning liked to prowl around the mountaintop village, looking for diapers on clotheslines and listening for the cry of a hungry newborn. One day in the spring of 2004, he presented himself at Yang Shuiying's doorstep and commanded: "Bring out the baby."

Yang wept and argued, but, alone with her 4-month-old daughter, she was in no position to resist the man every parent in Tianxi feared.

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Submitted to digg via soultube

Co-workers at Waldoboro store discover they are brothers

2009-09-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

bangordailynews.com — Gary Nisbet and Randy Joubert work at the Dow Furniture store. Joubert searched the Maine database in January to find out about his birth parents and was told he had a brother, but was given only a first name for his sibling. He and Nisbet have been working together since July, riding in the same delivery truck, unaware they were brothers.

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Woman finds child she didn't know she lost 38 years ago

2009-09-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

A WOMAN has finally traced the long-lost daughter she says was taken from her at birth and adopted 38 years ago.

Maureen Mottram, aged 59, said it was "a miracle" to be in contact with the child she thought she would never find.

The Plymouth grandmother says she lost all memory of her traumatic pregnancy and its aftermath which saw her being sent to, and escaping from, Moorhaven asylum when she was just 20 years old. She started searching for the child after the shocking memories began to surface during alternative therapy for depression, she said.

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DCF adding GPS, case workers to track down children

2009-09-18T04:49:00.001-07:00

cbs12.com — DCF re-evaluated its entire system following the case of 2-year-old Courtney Clark, who was taken from a foster home in the Sarasota area in 2007. She was missing for months and eventually found unharmed, but living in horrible conditions in Wisconsin. That case prompted DCF to hire several regional coordinators, all former law enforcement offices

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Mother and Child - Film Review

2009-09-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

variety.com — Rodrigo Garcia's reputation as a writer for and director of women will increase exponentially with "Mother & Child," an insightfully observed & exceptionally acted ensemble piece precisely about what the title suggests. There is much talk among the characters about babies given up, kids adopted, mothers & daughters who have never met...

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Women ride emotional roller-coaster trying to find birthmothers

2009-09-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

king5.com — Givenright Research claims to have reunited thousands of adoptees with their birth families. But now customers from all over the country claim they have been given worthless leads by the company.

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Fly Away Children

2009-09-16T03:37:00.000-07:00

abc.net.au — Since Angelina Jolie adopted her daughter Zahara in 2005, the number of Americans adopting Ethiopian children has quadrupled.

A pop-media obsession with celebrities adopting children in Africa has resulted in a queue of adopting foreigners dealing with opportunistic adoption agents in operating in a regulatory vaccuum. In Ethiopia - and beyond - its creating a heartbreaking mess.

International adoptions may seem like an ideal solution to the dreadful deprivation among the young in Ethiopia and the often impossible circumstances confronting parents trying to feed and raise their children.

The reality though, is far from ideal.

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Submitted to digg by EriSycamore

Siblings Reunited

2009-09-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

williamsondailynews.com — Harriet Cisco and Helene Ferrell were reunited with their siblings after being given away as infants. The two women lived within minutes of each other their entire lives, never knowing who the other was and in Harriet’s case, that she had another sister at all.

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Cracks in citizenship process result in man's deportation

2009-09-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

themonitor.com — Adopted by an American family the day after his birth, Robin Whiteley has only been to Mexico on short trips to Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey. He doesn’t speak the language. He doesn’t know anyone there. But according to the U.S. government, he remains to this day a Mexican national with no legal right to be in the United States.

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Real Talk: Restoring Birth Certificate Access to Adoptees

2009-09-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

youtube.com — Interviews with: Anne Bauer, author of "The Sound of Hope" and Judy Foster of NJCare speaking on restoring access to birth certificates, conditional access legislation in New Jersey, search and reunion.

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Woman's fight with breast cancer leads her to her family

2009-09-12T00:18:00.001-07:00

oregonlive.com — Colette Krol pored through the adoption documents on a Saturday morning this spring and one glaring clerical error caught her eye.Though some details of her adoption were supposed to be kept secret by law, a social worker failed to black out her birth mother's first name on one page; on another, the last name.

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Guatemalan soldiers sold children in war

2009-09-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 10 (Reuters) - At least 333 children and probably thousands more were taken by Guatemalan security forces and sold abroad during the country's 36-year civil war, a government report said on Thursday.

Soldiers and police killed children's parents, lied about how they had been found and handed them to state-run homes for sale to adoptive parents in the United States and Europe, said the report, which was based on government archives

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Submitted to digg by beegirlny

Girl Rejects Gardasil, Loses Path to Citizenship

2009-09-11T23:18:00.000-07:00

Born in Britain in 1992, Simone Davis got off to a rough start in life. Her biological mother abandoned her as a baby, and her father couldn't care for her.

At 3, Simone was adopted by her paternal grandmother, Jean Davis, who married an American in 2000 and moved them to Port St. Joe, Fla. But because the adoption was not recognized in the United States, Davis embarked on a near-decade quest to get Simone U.S. citizenship.

Now 17 and an aspiring elementary school teacher and devout Christian, Simone has only one thing standing in the way of her goal -- the controversial vaccine Gardasil.

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Submitted to digg by philamaena

Man reunites with family after 60 years

2009-09-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

wafb.com — Bill Droog told the story of how he was placed in a foster home when he was six. Three years later, he was adopted and told his real parents died in a car accident. However, after finding his real family, Droog learned he actually lived two blocks from his birth mother at one point and never knew it.

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UCI settles a dozen fertility suits

2009-09-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Doctors at the school's Center for Reproductive Health were found to have stolen eggs or embryos for years and given them to other women. Two doctors involved fled the country to avoid prosecution.

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Submitted to digg by JC

Man wants adoptees to get access to medical history

2009-09-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

pressofatlanticcity.com — It took Dan Haines 37 years to find out who he was. Now, the 47-year-old New Jersey resident is fighting for the state Legislature to make it easier for other adoptees to get the same sense of wholeness that Haines said filled a lifelong void for him.

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Adoptee with Jewish dad denied citizenship petitions court

2009-09-09T13:04:00.001-07:00

jpost.com — A US-born adoptee who has been attempting to obtain Israeli citizenship for more than two years finally petitioned the High Court of Justice on Monday to force the Interior Ministry to accept his immigration petition. Timothy Nicholas Steger's birth father was Jewish but he was adopted as an infant by a devout Catholic family.

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Ethiopia-Selling citizens, selling children and selling land

2009-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

ethiopianreview.com — Well-informed sources have told the Schuster Institute that recent trends in Ethiopia’s international adoptions strongly suggest an increase in corruption. In the past, these have been signs that a country’s adoption system is shifting from “white” to “gray”—that is, from a well-regulated humanitarian effort dedicated to the children’s welfare, to a business that is taking children from living families in order to gain profits from Western adoption fees.

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Colorado woman finds birth mother through state records

2009-09-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

Craig — Rita Updike was lying on the floor of her apartment for more than 45 minutes, shaking and crying, clutching the phone in her hand.

At that moment, she was closer to finding her biological mother than at any other time in her 47 years.

She had just got off the phone with her grandmother, who at 93 years old never knew she existed until July 13.

She was waiting for her mother to call back. She didn’t know if she would.

Rita was raised by Gene and Illena Updike, of Craig, who adopted her as a baby in 1963 in Pueblo.

Until this summer, Rita never knew the first name of anyone in her biological family.

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Bay City woman reunited with long-lost brother via Facebook

2009-09-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

mlive.com — Mandi K. Salay was separated from her half-brother 25 years ago, leaving her with just a name, a few photos and memories of a baby brother. The Bay City woman used what little information she had to find him, using the popular social-networking Web site, Facebook.

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Referenced in this article: The International Soundex Reunion Registry

Money plays too big a role in adoption

2009-09-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

expatica.com — Ina Hut, director of Wereldkinderen (World Children) the largest adoption agency in the Netherlands, is calling it a day. She is handing in her notice in protest against the way things are run in the world of international child adoption. She says she is battle-weary and very disillusioned by all the wrongs she has come across over the past years.

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The False Prophet of Adoption

2009-09-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

independent.com — Using babies as bait, Orson Mozes’s led 17 families on global goose chases. According to the prosecutor, Mozes bilked more than $800,000 from families throughout the United States who were looking to adopt a child from overseas.

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"Cheetah Girls" creator talks about growing up in fostercare

2009-09-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

abclocal.go.com — Deborah Gregory is an inspiration to many. Homeless on the sidewalks of Brooklyn at the age of three, she was separated from her mother and became a ward of the state. Now, she's a best-selling author, famous for her creation of "The Cheetah Girls" phenomenon and her second book of the "Catwalk" series is out next week.

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Adoptee’s grandmother was ‘An American Spy'

2009-09-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

democratherald.com — Three years ago, Wendy Johnson of Albany learned her biological grandmother spied for the Allies in the Philippines during World War II. Over the last two years, Johnson has spent much of her time researching the history of that grandmother, hoping to learn more about her and her biological family.

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MS Sufferer Searching for Daughter on Ebay

2009-09-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

pr.com — Ray Sabbatini, a man stricken with Multiple Sclerosis and President/Founder of MS Extreme, is searching for his biological daughter with the help of E-bay. The reason Ray Sabbatini is doing this, is that he is also adopted and is using this online auction site to help find his biological daughter.

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Link to eBay Auction - Help Find Our Biological Daughter Given Up For Adoption

Sporting goods store 'screw-up' united long-lost brothers

2009-09-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

thespec.com — When Manny Makris called a sporting goods store the other day, he was merely trying to find out why the new umpire's mask he'd ordered two weeks before hadn't arrived. He wasn't looking to completely change his life.

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Googling Oneself Pays Off for Adoptee

2009-09-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

tonic.com — You know you've done it. Google yourself, that is. But I bet you probably haven't come across anything as dramatic as what Ebony Keck found when she popped her name into the search engine. She found... her family.

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Referenced in this article: Adoption.com Registry

Crisis pregnancy centers = adoption racket

2009-09-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

salon.com — Taxpayer-funded "crisis pregnancy centers" often have an agenda even more corrupt than using false pretenses and scare tactics to pressure women to continue challenging pregnancies. They don't just coerce women to have children. They coerce women to give their children up...

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Submitted to digg by joeparanoid

Mom meets son she gave up 64 years ago

2009-09-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

sahuaritasun.com — Mike Sommer still isn’t quite sure why he decided four years ago to try to find his birth mother. He read newspaper articles about finding a birth parent, but hit a dead end when information from Kansas City had most details about his birth mother blacked out. Then Sommer was directed to an investigator, who runs a “no find/no fee" service...

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TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION Some Visions I Have Seen...

2009-09-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

conducivemag.com — What would the world look like if every parent – regardless of class, race, culture, or gender – had the opportunity to raise her own child?

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North Carolina native wrongly deported to Mexico

2009-08-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

charlotteobserver.com — The U.S. government admitted that it had wrongly deported an North Carolina native, but newly released documents show that federal investigators ignored FBI records and other evidence showing that the man was a United States citizen. At the time of Mark Lyttle's deportation, officials had ample evidence that he was born in Rowan County...

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Submitted to digg by ForumDriv

Facebook brings siblings together

2009-08-31T07:27:00.000-07:00

nydailynews.com — A man had a joyful reunion on Sunday with the brother and sister he never knew - and says he owes it all to the social networking Web site. Jonathan Frank learned his siblings' names just last week. After some savvy clicking on the Internet and a couple of phone calls, the three met for the first time

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Uruguay nears same-sex adoption law

2009-08-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

cnn.com — Uruguay drew one step closer to becoming the first country in Latin America to allow same-sex couples to adopt children with the passage of a bill by the lower house of Congress.

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Submitted to digg by atomicpoet

Australia - 'Forgotten' children to get formal apology

2009-08-29T17:02:00.000-07:00

theage.com.au — The Federal Government will formally say sorry to the hundreds of thousands of people who were abused and neglected as children after being placed in institutions or foster care. Families Minister Jenny Macklin said the level of abuse and neglect had been unacceptable and it was now time to issue a formal apology.

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Duplessis Orphan denied compensation

2009-08-28T11:14:00.001-07:00

cbc.ca — An 80-year old man who was refused compensation for abuse he suffered as a Duplessis Orphan says he's considering suing the Quebec government. Gilbert is one of thousands of orphans who were physically and mentally abused in orphanages run by the Catholic Church. The orphans suffered physical and sexual abuse, including electroshock and lobotomies.

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Kijiji.com reunites adopted woman with birth mom

2009-08-28T10:45:00.001-07:00

cbc.ca — An online classifieds website usually used for selling and buying second-hand goods has reunited a Calgary woman with the Saskatchewan birth mother she never knew.

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Shotgun Adoption

2009-08-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

thenation.com — Christian agencies lavish support services on pregnant women--if they give up their babies.

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Parents' adoption of "home" culture can have its costs

2009-08-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

boston.com — A trans-racial adoptee explores the way adoptive parents try to integrate their child's native culture into their own, "hoping to help their children adjust to the sometimes tricky duality of their existence." Are parents pushing too hard? Not enough? Mei-Ling Hopgood offers an interesting perspective.

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Submitted to digg by editorsusan

Terminating an Adoption

2009-08-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

parenting.blogs.nytimes.com — Anita Tedaldi writes about her adopted son, whom she raised for 18 months before she terminated his adoption

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Adult adoptee finds father after 43 years

2009-08-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

ludingtondailynews.com — It was a 17-year journey,” said Margaret Laski, who was able to meet her biological father for the first time. The 43-year-old spent many years poking around for information about her parents until May 2008, when the search became a full-time endeavor with lots of dead-ends.

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Cited in article: G's Adoption Reunion Registry

Righting the wrongs: Hundreds honor CSKT attorney for work on behalf of Indian children

2009-08-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

missoulian.com — In between 8 weeks of hospital stays this year for respiratory and infection problems, 70-year-old Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal attorney Evelyn Stevenson headed for Staten Island, N.Y., to do what she does best: Enforce the Indian Child Welfare Act she helped to write and get through Congress.

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Florida's ban on gay adoptions headed to appeals court

2009-08-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

miamiherald.com — Martin Gill's long journey to become the legal father to two foster children will take him Wednesday to Florida International University's law school -- where his attorneys are asking a Miami appeals court to toss out Florida's 31-year-old ban on adoption by gay people.

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Give a thought to the adoptees

2009-08-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a view on adoption, especially those people who know nothing whatsoever about it.

So perhaps it was inevitable that Acting Family Court Chief Judge Paul von Dadelszen's suggestion that we consider reviewing the 1955 Adoption Act was immediately reduced to an argument about whether gay people should be allowed to raise children.

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A new mission to China

2009-08-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

baltimoresun.com — An Easton woman helps her adopted son trace his birth parents — and the contradictions of his mysterious youth

EASTON — - The boy was near age 6 when he was abandoned in 1998. Police found him under a bridge in Luoyang, a city in eastern China. Unable to learn how he got there or where he came from, officers deposited him at a busy orphanage in town.

That was the story Julia Norris heard two years later, in June 2000, when she visited the orphanage. That was still the story in April 2001, when she returned to adopt the boy and bring him to America. And it remained the story this spring as Christian Norris finished 10th grade at Easton High School, where he plays lacrosse and has a crew of buddies.

Then, in late May came the e-mail that suddenly recast the narrative of his young life. Christian had not been abandoned. No, he'd simply gotten lost, the result of a tragic mistake. So said the boy's birth parents. And now they very much wanted to meet the young man.

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Related:

A search for family 3:15
A twisted story of one teenager's search for family and truth from the U.S. to China. CNN's John Vause reports.

No papers -- and little hope of advancement

2009-08-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

latimes.com — People in their late teens or early 20s are seeking help establishing their identities from a nonprofit law firm. Without birth certificates, they cannot open a bank account, obtain a job or enroll in college.

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Family ties retied - reunited via Ancestry.com

2009-08-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

suncoastpasco.tbo.com — Brothers and sisters build a collection of common childhood memories growing up together. Nan Bishop, 54, and her brother, Doug Maurer, 51, missed out on all that. They spent their childhoods not even knowing the other existed. Thanks to persistence, luck and modern technology, the two can now make up for lost time.

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Abuser sentenced to only 18 months in jail

2009-08-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

dglobe.com — A 77-year-old Luverne man who admitted to having a sexual relationship with his adopted daughter and fathering her two children was sentenced Thursday in Rock County District Court. Leo Swenson, who was first arrested in October 2008 and charged with one count each of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, was sentenced to 18 months..

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Call to give birth parents contact rights under law

2009-08-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

nzherald.co.nz — Adoptive parents are welcoming a call to rewrite New Zealand's 54-year-old adoption law - but say the most urgent need is to legislate for "open" adoptions where birth parents can keep in touch with their children.

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Crossing borders: A family quest

2009-08-21T04:50:00.000-07:00

expatica.com — When international adoptee Marcia Engel set out to find her biological parents, she found that the system wasn’t geared to helping her—and that intermediary bodies were even exploiting her quest. Her response was to create a network to give families the opportunity to reunite without having to resort to paying for help.

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'Homeland Tours' Bring Chinese Adoptees Back to Visit

2009-08-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

voanews.com — In the early 1990s China made it easier for families from abroad to adopt Chinese orphans, most of whom were girls. Today about 60,000 adopted Chinese children live in North America, and about 15,000 live in Europe. Many families take special tours to give their adopted daughters a chance to experience Chinese culture and visit their orphanages.

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Girl reunited with mother - Petersfield Today

2009-08-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

petersfieldpost.co.uk — Girl reunited with mother - An 11-year-old Bordon girl who was born in Chernobyl with only one arm and separated from her family a few hours after her birth, has had an emotional reunion with her birth mother this week.

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Liberia: What happens to the Child When Adoption Fails?

2009-08-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

theliberianjournal.com — Adopted children are being rejected because of violent behavioral problems - typically labeled as "Reactive Attachment Disorder" - from often untreated emotional traumas. These abandoned children are placed into the already overburdened U.S. foster care system; or as for intercountry adoption returned to their home country ...

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Disinherited daughter fought back

2009-08-17T03:52:00.000-07:00

vancouversun.com — Many who feel they have been unfairly treated in their parent's wills are starting to take a stand. Margaret Austin was ‘given away’ by her birth mother due to shame about her birth (religious issues, and her mother was not married to her father), and left only $100 in her mother’s will. The bulk of the estate was left to two adopted sisters. She successfully sued for a third of the estate.

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Trading in Babies

2009-08-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

conducivemag.com — Transnational adoption is a thriving global business. Its success and lack of regulation created a profit motive for child trafficking. Writer, activist, and adoptee filmmaker, So Yung Kim recommends reorganizing the transnational adoption industry in order to protect the rights of children. Domestic and international adoptees are already coming together to discuss options and partner on policy issues. Kim also proposes more coalition building between adoptee groups and other collectives fighting for the basic rights of all people.

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Florida: Child-welfare panel: Drugs misused on foster kids

2009-08-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

miamiherald.com — Admitting for the first time what critics have claimed for years, state child-welfare authorities say caregivers for children in state custody frequently use powerful mind-altering drugs to manage unruly kids, rather than treat their anger and sadness.

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International Adoption and the Fight for Human Rights

2009-08-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

conducivemag.com — International adoption has quietly become a large, lucrative business. While international adoption agencies would no doubt like to keep it this way, adult international adoptees are now asking questions. They are participating in a debate over whose best interests the practice actually serves, or should serve: the adopter or the adoptee? Taking a critical look at the practice of international adoption, chairman of United Adoptees International Hilbrand Westra explores its disturbing overlaps with free market practices and religious justifications, and lays out solutions for practical legal reform. Westra shows the power of an emerging collective adoptee voice shaping what was once seen as an inevitable inequality.

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Birth mother and son form new relationship on and off stage

2009-08-11T04:32:00.000-07:00

journalstar.com — 29-year-old Ryan Kathman, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate theater student, discovered that Omaha actress Moira Mangiameli, 50, is his birth mother. And here they were, rehearsing for the first time a scene from Shepard's drama "True West," with Mangiameli playing Kathman's mother...

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Australia - Bid to help the other stolen generation

2009-08-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

thedaily.com.au — They are the forgotten generation. Children systematically taken from their young, single or widowed mothers between the 50s - 70s and became state wards. After years spent working in child welfare, Kerry now has a new goal; to start a support group to help abused adoptees and lobby the state government to recognize the other stolen generation

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Landmark adoption ruling- bittersweet victory for Falcon man

2009-08-09T04:37:00.000-07:00

On the day Jeffrey Hannasch’s daughter was born, a nurse came to him with a long questionnaire on his family’s medical history.

“I won’t waste any time or any trees,” he said, handing her back the paperwork. “I’m an adoptee.”

“Oh, you’re one of those,” the nurse said.

One of those.

Submitted to digg by AdopteeRightsNY

Cancer fight reunites woman with son after 38 years apart

2009-08-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

postcrescent.com — Jan Ulrich, 57, and her son, Dave Hora, 38, were inseparable during a family gathering at Kiwanis Park that gave him a chance to meet his extended family for the first time. Ulrich gave up her son in a closed adoption and the two reunited earlier this year when Ulrich discovered she had colon cancer.

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Adoption News is on hiatus

2009-07-09T09:48:00.001-07:00

The news will be back in August after the Adoptee Rights Demonstration is done.

Reconnecting with birth mom opens new chapter

2009-06-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

hattiesburgamerican.com — Margaret Harless has always known this story. It involves a single German woman, an American couple and a heart-wrenching decision made on an Air Force base in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in 1954. The reunion took place via Facebook and adoption.com

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Speaking English a Requirement for Motherhood?

2009-06-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

racewire.org — In Pascagoula, Mississippi, in November 2008, Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to a baby girl. Soon after, her daughter was taken away from her because she could not communicate with the hospital attendants.

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After More Than 40 Years, Siblings Reunite Online - ABC News

2009-05-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

abcnews.go.com — Classmates.com advertises that it can help users "find high school friends, plan reunions," but for one Mobile, Ala. pastor, the Web site led to an incredible family reunion 40 years in the making with a sister he never knew.

Link

Just before CSUF graduation, a family reunites

2009-05-26T04:53:00.001-07:00

Adopted at birth, Elizabeth Cox had only a handful of records with her parents' names and birth dates. For years, she debated whether she should try to find them. But what would she say? "Hi, I'm your daughter" -- it seemed too strange.

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After 40 years, a father can tug on the ties that bind

2009-05-25T05:54:00.001-07:00

As I watch my daughter grow, I am haunted by my son. For 40 years, he has been lost to me. Days after he was born, he was gone, hustled off to the waiting embrace of the Children's Aid Society. At four months old, he would move on to his adoptive home - as his mother and I had agonizingly agreed should happen - and out of our lives forever.

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Pregnant women being trafficked for their babies

2009-05-25T05:52:00.001-07:00

First world demand to adopt very young babies is driving a new twist in people smuggling, particularly in Asia. One of Australia's senior law officers says more and more, smugglers are trading in pregnant women - the perfect incubators - for access to their newborns.

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Phoenix woman solves 20-year adoption puzzle

2009-05-23T08:33:00.001-07:00

Kathy Suszczewicz will no longer have to look into every new face she meets for clues to her own identity. After years of dogged and resourceful searching - she even used Scrabble tiles to decipher misspelled names - the 43-year-old Phoenix woman has found her two brothers.The three met for the first time in March...

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Long Lost Brother Found! ...Living Across the Street

2009-05-23T08:31:00.001-07:00

What are the Odds? For years, Candace Eloph searched for her half-brother, who was given up for adoption in 1977. She found him -- living across the street. Fast forward three decades.Eloph moved into a house in Shreveport. Across the street lived a 32-year-old man named Jamie Wheat.

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Submitted to digg by pookydirt

Birthmother's Day observed by women who had to give children

2009-05-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

More than a million mothers coerced to surrender to adoption in the U.S. have searched for the child they had to give up and every day more are searching. Mother's day is a good day to bring awareness to the reality they did not want to give up children--but were forced.

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Submitted to digg by AdopteeRightsNY

Reunion of man, birth mother who both worked at Lowe's

2009-05-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Imagine working in the same job with your mother and not even knowing it. For this mother and son they were able to discover they were related. Human nature has it's way of bringing relatives back together again. The saying blood will call blood rings true.

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Submitted to digg by AdopteeRightsNY

Family Secrets: An Adopted Man's 26-Year Quest for His Father

2009-05-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

It took Richard Hill 26 years to crack the identity of his birth father. In the end, he solved the mystery with the help of DNA-based genealogy tests.

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Submitted to digg by AdopteeRightsNY

Reunion featured on national TV - Salt Lake Tribune

2009-04-30T10:14:00.001-07:00

Dan Sallis had long thought of finding his birth mother, but instead, she found him. Now the Taylorsville man and the recent reunion with his mother will be featured in the season finale of "The Locator" this Saturday on WE TV. Sallis was adopted when he was only days old, and had no contact with his birth mother in the 22 years since.

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Fulbright Scholarship trip brings man closer to birth mother

2009-04-30T04:18:00.001-07:00

Derek Hommel never imagined he'd someday speak to his birth mother face to face. During a trip to South Korea in 2008, he decided to search for her. Within two months, he reunited with his mother and met the brother he didn't know he had. But the language barrier made it hard to communicate.

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