Ban on Gay Adoption Lifted

Last month I wrote about gay and lesbian families not being allowed to adopt. I find this notion to be absolutely absurd. A person’s sexuality does not define his or her parental ability. With so many children in the foster system awaiting a forever home why would anyone deny available homes prior to all the checks that need to be made? We should be encouraging more people to explore domestic adoption as an option. We should be training more loving foster homes. What adults choose to do with their significant others behind closed doors doesn’t seem like it should even … Continue reading →

Adopt a Pet

When I was six years old I saw my across-the-street neighbor take the cutest kitten out of the back of his car. I asked about the kitten and discovered that he found the cat in the street and rescued it. I wanted this kitten and my parents let me keep him. I named him George and enjoyed him his whole life. He was mean, ornery, expensive, and mine. Not long after I got an apartment I looked into getting a cat. I wanted a young adult cat so I wouldn’t have to deal with the destructive kitten period. I adopted … Continue reading →

Adoption Mockumentary

The choice to adopt is a very personal one. There are no unplanned adoptions. There are many reasons for choosing to adopt a child. Children are a blessing regardless of how they come to be a part of the family. When we first looked into and then started the adoption process, we were going to adopt a girl from China. We went to numerous informational meetings and understood the climate of Chinese adoption. We truly felt led in that direction. Then the Chinese government made a few regulatory changes and we were no longer considered desirable parents for a Chinese … Continue reading →

Sheryl Crow Welcomes her Second Baby through Adoption

Sheryl Crow announced this morning that she is adopting a second child, Levi James, who was born April 30. Crow made the announcement via her website, and her publicist confirmed the information. Crow, age 48, adopted her son Wyatt three years ago, when he was two weeks old. (Click here to see Michelle’s blog on Sheryl’s first adoption.) The sibling connection seems to be important to Crow—she made her announcement by writing, “Wyatt has a baby brother!” Crow reportedly is not deterred by the idea of being a single mother. “For my whole life, I had a pretty clear picture … Continue reading →

An Update on the Adopted Child Sent Back to Russia

The adoption agency World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), which handled the adoption of Artem Savaliev, also called Justin Hansen, has filed a petition Tuesday in Bedford County, Tennessee, asking the court to investigate whether his abandonment (in his case, being sent back to Russia alone on a plane) constitutes abuse or neglect. The agency said in its petition that the adoptive mother Torrey Hansen and her mother Nancy Hansen had inflicted “severe emotional injury upon this minor child who has now been abandoned twice, by his biological and adoptive parents”. (The boy’s biological mother’s rights were terminated in … Continue reading →

Who Has Jurisdiction in the Abandonment of the Russian Boy?

My last blog concerned last month’s news about the adopted boy flown back to Russia alone. Some commentators have speculated whether abandonment charges would be brought in the U.S., which does allow unaccompanied minors to fly, or in Russia, where he landed. Also, the jurisdiction where the child was abandoned may be Tennessee, where the adoptive mother and grandmother reside, or possibly Washington D.C., since the child’s grandmother flew with him there and then put him on the nonstop flight to Russia alone. Children adopted from Russia to the U.S. are citizens of both Russia and the United States of … Continue reading →

On the Child Sent Back to Russia

It’s been nearly a month since two nations were stunned by the actions of an adoptive mother and grandmother, who put a seven-year-old adopted from Russia on a plane to Moscow as an unaccompanied minor. He bore a note addressed to the Russian Ministry of Education from his adoptive mother. Apparently his grandmother, who lived next door to his adoptive mother in Tennessee, had spoken with a driver in Russia and hired him to meet the party at the airport and drive to the Russian Ministry of Education. The driver was under the impression, from phone calls the week before, … Continue reading →

Bullock Says She Now Can Celebrate Becoming a Mom Through Adoption

Many adoptive parents try to keep quiet about their adoption plans to avoid endless questions during an uncertain and possibly lengthy waiting period. Sandra Bullock may have set a record by keeping all but the closest friends and family unaware that her new son has been living with her for over three months! Bullock spoke with People magazine last week after keeping silent for weeks following revelations of her husband’s infidelity. She told the magazine that she and her husband Jesse James had been in the process of adopting for several years, and she had always thought that “her” child … Continue reading →

Helping the Children of Haiti

As happened after the 2008 earthquake in China, adoption agencies have had numerous phone calls from people offering to adopt earthquake orphans. As I mentioned in my earlier blogs, children orphaned in a natural disaster or war are usually not free for adoption for a period of anywhere from six months to a year. The infrastructure must be repaired enough to ensure that family members have had the opportunity to locate children. So what can be done to help the children? First of all, remember that there are many children, in our own country and abroad, who are eligible for … Continue reading →

Reassuring Kids in Times of Disaster

Even if you don’t let your kids watch the news, they likely know about the earthquake in Haiti through all the fund-raising projects going on (for more information about children’s fundraising projects, click here) and from hearing people talk about it. Maybe your child was afraid that they would be in an earthquake. Maybe you could get out of it by saying you don’t live in an earthquake zone. I couldn’t say that, so I’d have to go into detail about houses being built better, our earthquake kit having all the necessities in it, and having police and fire personnel … Continue reading →