What is Humanitarian Parole?

My last blog spoke of hundreds of orphans whose adoptions were in progress at the time of the earthquake being granted “humanitarian parole”. Humanitarian parole is a temporary admittance to the U.S. granted on an individual basis when immediate travel to the U.S. is believed to be necessary to “ensure the care the individual requires”. Perhaps we are most familiar with the term applying to children who need medical treatment unavailable in their home countries, whether they are in the process of being adopted or only seeking to be in the U.S. while under medical care. As I mentioned in … Continue reading →

Updated Contact Info for Haitian Adoptions in Progress

Those of you with an adoption in process in Haiti are hopefully more informed than I am. Nonetheless I want to update general readers on developments and pass along the contact information the State Department has set up for U.S. citizens with an adoption currently in process from Haiti. Last month, the United States issued immigration visas for dozens of children who had been in the adoption process before the January 12 earthquake, and approved “humanitarian parole” for nearly 1000 more. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has set up a special e-mail box to receive scanned documentation on pending Haitian … Continue reading →

For Families Adopting from Haiti, Quake Brings Devastating Uncertainty

Only now is information about the 254 Haitian children who are being adopted by U.S. citizens beginning to trickle out of Haiti. Some of these children have already been legally adopted by U.S. citizens and are just waiting for their passports and travel visas. Some of them have been known by their adoptive families for months or years. Almost all have been visited by their adoptive parents at least once. A Washington State couple appeared on Thursday morning’s Today Show and spoke with Meredith Viera about the eight-year-old girl and six-year-old boy they are adopting. The adoption has been completed … Continue reading →

On the Blind Side

Some people say the recently released movie “The Blind Side” has inspired them and will inspire others to reach out to youth, through adoption, foster parenting or another mentoring relationship. Others question whether it is a good picture of adoption. Perhaps it is not realistic enough, some say. Perhaps it plays into the “rescue” stereotypes—black boy from “broken home” taken into a “good Christian home” by wealthy white couple. “The Blind Side” is the story of pro football player Michael Oher, who was a first-round draft pick for the Baltimore Ravens, and of the Tuohys, a Memphis couple who invited … Continue reading →

“Home for the Holidays” Musical Adoption Special at 8 Tonight

Take a break from Christmas craziness and watch CBS’ 11th annual Home for the Holidays special tonight at 8 pm, 7 Central. As Reba McIntyre (who will perform tonight) says, love is the true meaning of Christmas. Take a few minutes and get inspired. Other music performers include Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, and Shakira. Songs will include both those that relate to themes of love and family as well as traditional holiday carols. The show will again be hosted by adoptee Faith Hill. CBS says that stories of adopted children and their parents will be the main part of … Continue reading →

National Adoption Day this Saturday

Each November is National Adoption Month. Many adoption organizations and adoptive parent groups have activities. But in recent years the centerpiece of National Adoption Month has been National Adoption Day, when adoptions are celebrated in a festive manner. This year National Adoption Day is this coming Saturday, November 21st. It will be the tenth annual National Adoption Day. Courts in every state and in Puerto Rico will process and celebrate the adoption finalizations of children from the U.S. foster care system who now have a permanent family through adoption. Many of these events will have a celebration following—sometimes for the … Continue reading →

Star’s Death Occasions a Reminder of When and How to Mention Adoption

Other bloggers in this blog have written about Positive Adoption Language and the impact of adoption words. I’m hardly a “word usage Nazi” on the warpath for political correctness, but two things this week have left me wishing our culture would be just a little bit more sensitive to my children. One usage of adoption language not mentioned much in the above blogs is the use of the term “adopted” when there is no purpose for it. There may be a reason to mention adoption in a story involving a family with genetic illness, or when adoption explains a condition … Continue reading →

Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley’s Bundle of Joy

With apologies to our fearless Popular Culture bloggers, I must admit that I am usually woefully ignorant of TV and music personalities. Nor am I usually a reader of People magazine. I just had to purchase the October 5 issue, however, when I saw the cover featuring actress Katherine Heigl and her musician husband, Josh Kelley, with their ten-month-old daughter Naleigh, newly arrived from Korea. I’m so out of the TV scene that it took me several paragraphs to realize that Katherine Heigl wasn’t Kate Hudson, but her story sounded very familiar to me. Although the cover teaser talks about … Continue reading →

Mercy for Madonna

Madonna will be allowed to adopt four-year-old Chifundo (in English the name means “Mercy”) James after all, Malawian judges have decided. The three judges of Malawi’s highest court, in a June 12 session, overruled a lower court’s denial of Madonna’s adoption petition. Malawian law says that an adopting parent must have been a resident of Malawi for eighteen months. This requirement was waived when Madonna adopted her son David. She was allowed to take David home in 2006, and a Malawian court gave her and her then-husband Guy Ritchie permanent custody in May 2008 following an evaluation by social welfare … Continue reading →

Court is Adjourned–for Now–in Madonna’s Adoption Appeal

Madonna’s efforts to adopt Malawian child Chifundo (Mercy) James are at a pause. The court heard arguments in her appeal this past Monday but did not immediately set a date for the second hearing, at which a decision is expected to be made. The situation keeps generating more information, some of it conflicting. (I wonder whether some of the information is being supplied to the media by Madonna’s PR people or by the various human rights groups who have filed court documents in the case.) There are reports of threats from the child’s maternal grandparents to the birthfather, the preschooler … Continue reading →