Check out the in-depth article in The New York Times, "A Taste of U.S. Family Life, but Adoption in Limbo," By Jane Gross (Jan. 13, 2007).

The article details the ever-changing face of adoption and chronicles a family who hosted a Ukrainian child this Christmas in hopes of adopting her.

Gross writes:

Conditions in [Russia and Ukraine] have grown so unsettled, some [adoption] agencies have suspended hosting programs, and the debate is growing about the ratio of risk to reward. Do the many success tories for older orphans... more

For the first time in 15 years, the number of intercountry adoptions to the United States has decreased, according to an Associated Press article by David Crary.

International adoptions by Americans dropped 9 percent, from 22,728 in 2005 to 20,679 in 2006, according to new figures released by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The State Department’s Web site notes that adoptions from mainland China decreased from 7,906 in Fiscal Year 2005 to 6,493 in 2006 (an 18 percent drop).

Adoptions from Russia decreased from 4,639 to 3,706,... more

Here are some sites that sell adoption-related gifts (thanks to my readers and to Adoptive Families magazine for passing along the information):

Scrolls from China

Owned by adoptive dad Robert Tadjiki, Scrolls From China sells unique, handmade Asian wall scrolls designed and painted by Chinese orphans. Proceeds from sales support the artists as well as orphanages in China.

You can read an extensive... more

The December 2006 issue of Adoptive Families magazine includes some news tidbits of interest to parents adopting internationally:

USCIS Provides Contact Info for Adopting Parents

Each field office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), formerly known as INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) now has an e-mail address devoted solely to international adoptions.

The URL in Adoptive Families is outdated... more

If you'd like to learn more about the life and writing of best-selling Christian author, Karen Kingsbury, check out the link to an article I wrote about her for the Sept/Oct. 2006 issue of Today's Christian magazine.

The article is titled, "Boomerang Blessings" and it discusses the adoption of her three sons from Haiti as well as adoption themes that recur in Karen's books.

For an in-depth, three-part profile of Karen Kingsbury, visit my website,... more

In the previous post, I reviewed Cheri Register’s book, Beyond Good Intentions: A Mother Reflects on Raising Internationally Adopted Children.

One of her chapters is titled, “Believing Adoption Saves Souls.” In this chapter, Register examines the following notions:

Part 3 of 3, Continued from the previous posts about adopting special needs children from Haiti

Location and Population Haiti is located 500+ miles south of Miami, Florida. It shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. With more than 7 million people living within its 10,000 square miles, Haiti is the most densely-populated and most poverty-stricken nation in the Western Hemisphere.

History About 95 percent of Haitians are of African origin. The remaining 5 percent are mulatto... more

Part 2 of 3, continued from the previous post

During my short-term mission trips to Haiti, I visited several orphanages, most of which were for abandoned, malnourished and special needs children. Some of the orphanages I visited were crowded with physically and mentally challenged children, most of whom will never leave the orphanage due to their age or the severity of their disability. Some of the orphanages were spotless and full of cheerful children and staff;... more

Part 1 of 3

Haitian special needs adoption is the topic of the day in the nation’s newspapers. In an article for Knight Ridder Newspapers, April Saul detailed the story of a Pennsylvania family who traveled to Haiti to adopt a 4-year-old boy who had been burned and abandoned, and a 3-year-old boy who is HIV-positive.

The U.S. is one of the few countries that allows families to adopt a foreign child with HIV, writes Saul. According to the boy’s mother, Heather Maeding, a Haitian official who didn’t believe that she and her husband would want to adopt... more