In January 2005, concerned about baby trafficking in Romania, the Romanian government passed a law permanently banning the adoption of Romanian children by foreigners. The law essentially says that Romanian families get priority in adoptions, and international adoptions will be considered only as a last resort and when those adoptions are done by close relatives of the child.

Over 200 pending requests to adopt Romanian children by Americans living in more than 40 states have been declared ineligible. Jeb Bradley, a New Hampshire congressman, says that there aren’t enough... more

The worst fear of every parent who adopts domestically is that a birth parent will decide he or she wants the child back. That’s exactly what happened in two custody battles that culminated in two very different outcomes.

The first case involved a Florida boy, now 4 ½, whose birth mother placed him for adoption in May 2001, when he was two days old. A month before the adoption was supposed to be finalized, the boy’s biological father filed a motion demanding custody. At that time, the judge informed the adoptive parents that the birth father would likely gain custody.

The birth mother supported the adoption until it appeared the court might grant the birth... more

I’ve just returned from a week at my favorite writers’ conference, Mt. Hermon’s Christian Writers Conference in California (near Santa Cruz and San Jose).

Mt. Hermon is considered the premier Christian writers’ conference on the West Coast, and the 400 registrants came from all over the U.S. and Canada. From novices eager to learn the craft of writing to well-known authors who’ve published hundreds of books, this conference offered something special for everyone.

What a difference a year makes My experience at Mt. Hermon this year was quite different from last year’s. A year ago, I attended with the goal... more

The latest issue of Response magazine (the alumni magazine of Seattle Pacific University) features Karen Springs, a 2004 graduate who moved to Ukraine to work with “The Gift of Adoption.” The organization is an arm of Operation Blessing, an international relief and missionary effort managed by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).

In Ukraine, where there are an estimated 100,000 orphaned children, Springs and her colleagues work with the local Ukrainian church to come alongside orphans as part of the biblical mandate to “defend the cause of the weak and fatherless.”

According... more

In today’s post, we continue reviewing helpful advice from the book, Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past, by Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler.

Say one thing, mean another. Every industry has its own set of politically correct language, and adoption is no exception. Here are the authors' interesting and entertaining suggestions for how to interpret the “adoptionese” that appears on informational listings about children available for adoption:

All boy, very active, impulsive,... more

In today’s post, we continue reviewing helpful advice from the book, Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past, by Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler.

Adopted children rarely raise the issue of adoption themselves. But they think about adoption and about their birth families often. In some families, where adoption is never addressed directly, adopted children become consumed by thoughts about their adoption.

“They believe they are being disloyal to their parents if they continue to... more

In today’s post, we continue looking at some helpful advice from Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler, authors of Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past.

What is the ideal age at which to tell a child he or she was adopted? The authors have a terrific answer for this question: Children who were adopted during infancy should grow up knowing that they are adopted in the same way they grow up knowing that they are male or female.

I’ve talked with several people recently... more

This week, I’ve posted a 5-part series that explores some commonly-asked questions about open and closed adoption. To follow up, I’d like to recommend a superb book that addresses the subject, called Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past, by Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler.

The authors explain how adoption “loomed under the cloak of secrecy for decades,” citing that those who... more

The latest celebrities to consider adopting children are Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez.

Simpson, 25, is helping create awareness of interracial adoption by establishing an organization for adopted children. She's been visiting orphanages in Mexico with her family since she was 11. Simpson credits Angelina Jolie with giving her the inspiration to consider adoption. She plans to adopt first and to have biological kids sometime in the future.

Jennifer Lopez, who has apparently been trying to get pregnant for two years and eats spinach three times a day to increase her chances of conceiving, says she may adopt a baby from Puerto Rico if she’s unable to conceive.

Sources:... more

Things are heating up in Arizona, where the state House approved Bill 2696, which, if passed into law, will require state and private adoption agencies to give married couples priority over singles in adopting children.

According to articles in The Arizona Daily Star by Howard Fischer and Jane Erikson, the bill states that Arizona’s Child Protective Services and the adoption agencies it contracts with can consider placing a child with a single adult “only if a qualified married couple has not submitted an application.”

There are several exceptions: if the single adult... more