Juan and Darrow have a blog called Meet The Fosters on Babble.com, an online parenting mag. Darrow's latest entry - "Two-Face" - really emphasized for me how emotionally difficult adoption and foster care can be. Darrow writes about the most recent encounter with the caseworker and how it hit him emotionally. I've been checking Juan and Darrow out at their personal blog as well - The Daddy Diaries (thedaddydiaries.wordpress.com). Good stuff! And the pictures on Meet The Fosters are great too.

Immigration always likes to say they have no choice... They live in a world of black and white rules because that is how Congress made it.

So they are planning on deporting a 26 year old women from the United States to India.

Rebecca Walsh was adopted from India at 3 months of age. It appears that her adoptive mother never completed the immigration paperwork required to gain American citizenship. And Rebecca doesn't qualify for citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

And Rebecca committed a crime (forgery)... She is a criminal alien. And under immigration law she must be deported.

This is so wrong... on so many levels. The only way that we could fix this is to lobby Congress to change the law.

This family has switched from Vietnam to Russia. And now they are switching from one Russian region to another. Hopefully 3rd dossier is a charm for them.

I knew the timelines for Australian adoption were longer. I have an email friend who has dual American/Australian citizenship. And this friend adopted via the American intercountry adoption system because it was faster.

I just didn't realize how much faster. I believe Americans are completing an Ethiopian adoption within 18 months. But 3 years... I would go crazy waiting 3 years.

A new study showed that giving children gummy bears sweetened with xylitol instead of sugar can help prevent cavities. The researchers fed some children gummy bears three times a day during school hours. The results, significant reductions after just six weeks, in the harmful bacteria located on children's teeth. I love gummy bears, don't you?

This story is being posted everywhere. There is proof that a child was kidnapped, had false birth certificate, false DNA tests and was in the Guatemalan adoption system.

According to an AP story (which I am not linking to... AP stories tend to disappear and I am still a little miffed at them) American's adopting from Guatemala is a "US$100 million-a-year adoption industry". Well it used to be.... adoptions are mostly closed.

Esther Sulamita (or Zulamita) was waiting to be adopted by an American family. She is about 1.5 years old. Esther was kidnapped from her mother, Ana Escobar, at 6 months of age.

Ana got lucky... She was searching for her daughter and visited the National Adoption Council office in May 2008. She saw her daughter being carried by an adult and wouldn't let it go. The child's paperwork (on the surface) looked good. But Ana got assertive and a new DNA test was done.

officials would investigate the lawyers who handled the adoption, the doctor who signed earlier, falsified DNA tests and anyone else associated with the process.

Interesting... A former foster child has sued and win in New Jersey. GH (not identified by his full name) was 15 years old and accused of touching a 13 year old. He denied the touching. But he was judged a "juvenile delinquent". This got him classified as a sex offender.

When GH started college 2 years old, he was told to move out of the dorms. Registered sex offenders couldn't live near schools.

Because of this law suit, 117 New Jersey municipalities' ordinances were found to be invalid. State law beats ordinances

A Canadian teenager (aboriginal according to the news article).... in 2001... accused 3 white men of raping her. She was tiny... about 5 feet tall and 90 pounds. She was 12 years old.

It has taken 7 years for all the trials and appeals to conclude. And this teenager is now 19 years old. She is/was a cutter, foster child and abused alcohol.

How in God's name did these 20 something MEN think she was old enough to engage in sexual relations? The girl may have lied to the men and said she was 14 years old. The reason why this is important? In Canada, a child can legally consent to sex at 14 years of age. OMG

Based on the story it sounds like the adults got the 12 year old drunk on beer, prior to engaging in sexual contact. Some of the men claimed to have no sexual contact with the teenager.

Here is the second OMG moment. About the semen found in her underwear....

it was a likely DNA match to her father

Here is the third OMG moment. While sentencing one of the rapists....

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Fred Kovach ruled the girl willingly got in the truck with the men and lied about being 14, the legal age of consent for sex. He also said her childhood abuse could have made her a willing participant

WILLING??????

Nice article about the Scott family. Ed Scott is military and posted in Germany. He and his wife were able to adopt from Oklahoma foster care because of a new program set up for military families.

In 2007, 19 military families posted abroad adopted from Oklahoma foster care.

Other states are starting to be interested in doing the same...

Dr Matthew McGue is a behavioral geneticist at the University of Minnesota. He and Dr Bill Iacono started an ongoing research project in 1999. The project is called Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS) and Research on Adoption. Dr Iacono is interested in:

investigating how genetic and environmental factors combine to influence the development of substance use and related disorders in families that contain twin and adoptive children.

Recently the Washington Post published some results from the study. (see link below) The main objective with the study is to see "the behavior and attitudes of an older sibling represent a major source of environmental influence on adolescent substance use and abuse".  It looks like older siblings have a stronger influence then parents. The secondary objective was to explore the "psychological adjustment of adopted youth".

And it turns out that adopted youth are doing OK in their teenage years. But parents of adopted girls seem to be "hypersensitive". About 27% of the girls in the study "had contact with a mental health professional". But only 18% got a diagnosis. This seems to suggest that maybe there was "parental predisposition to seek help".

I have seen this "parental predisposition" idea show up in different studies. Sometimes it makes the adoptive parents sound crazy. But seriously... If you adopted an abused or neglected child, wouldn't you do EVERYTHING in your power to make sure the child gets the help he/she needs? You just don't know, what you don't know.

I love the British TV Show, Torchwood. I have watched it on BBC America and SciFi Channel. So when I came across this article, I knew who John Barrowman is. He plays Captain Jack Harkness. The Captain strikes me as having many similarities to Captain Jack Sparrow. But Harkness does have a much stronger set of morals then Sparrow.

Anyway.. back to the adoption part. Barrowman is gay and in a settled relationship. He and his SO are building a house and talking about building a family via surrogacy or adoption. And if they adopt, they will do so in England. And Barrowman is interested in adopting teenagers. Good for him.

South African single woman is thinking about adopting a white child.

Here is an update to Adoptive Mother Pleads Guilty to Fraud. I don't use the word evil lightly. But Judith Leekin's actions were evil. She used starvation, zip ties, dark closets and handcuffs to keep the 11 children and mentally disabled adults under control. They never went to school or a doctor.

Leekin, 63, pleaded guilty to duping city and state agencies out of $1.2 million in adoption subsidies while keeping 11 children locked up

Leekin adopted the children from New York and then moved to Florida. And it turns out she lied on some of the adoption paperwork which is why she was charged with fraud. She got 11 years on the adoption fraud from the state of New York.

Leekin still faces 120 years in Florida for child and adult abuse. She is going to die in prison.

"Adoption is a privilege, not a right," Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman said.

"I'm sorry," Leekin said, wiping away tears. "I'm willing to surrender all my assets.

I love my children and I miss them."

Four people are charged with mail fraud conspiracy, embezzlement conspiracy, and money laundering. They may have taken $500,000 from New York's Administration for Children's Services.

Wow..... They may have faked documentation to get adoption subsidy payments. And they might have faked computer service needs.

I had to look up Katie Price and Peter André. I didn't have a clue why there were celebrities. Katie is a "glamour model" and "television personality". Peter is a song writer and "television personality". They are both "reality TV" stars.

Anywho... They saw a documentary, Bulgaria's Abandoned Children, and were emotionally impacted by the need for for special needs parents. They are already special needs parents. Their son has septo-optic dysplasia.

I love this blog. Kathy is talking about raising and living within a multicultural, transracial family. And she talks about:

A humanitarian worker said he didn’t believe in international adoption because he didn’t believe in taking a person out of her or his culture (of course he meant his or her culture of birth).

I am willing to bet the "humanitarian worker" isn't an American. Americans have a very unique point of view and high social mobility. We move around the country a lot. In my life, I have moved 7 times so far. I have lived poor and middle class.

We might change our religion, cultural and ethical identity. I have lived with no religion and didn't believe in God for a while... then I drifted into agnosticism. Now I attend a Unitarian Universalist church.

And we greatly value individualism. This is a double edged sword. Bill Gates? He was building computers in his garage not too long ago. Now? He is worth somewhere between 50 and 100 billion.

The other side of the coin is that people are held responsible for things they don't control. One of the reasons a woman in a crisis pregnancy is "blamed" is because of this individualist mind set. She had control and should have known better goes the unsaid thought. Or try this one on for size. When you die, you are at fault. You didn't exercise enough. You didn't go to the doctor regularly. I am not the only person to have noticed the postives and negatives of individualism.

Alexis de Tocqueville greatly admired us for these traits. He also found it very interesting that we had tons of NGOs (non-governmental organization). People volunteered and created organizations to solve issues. They don't wait on the government.

Until you have lived in Europe, Asia or Africa, it is difficult to understand just how intrenched some people are in "their place". What your father is... that is what you will be. Born of a wh#re, then you must be a wh#re. In Eastern Europe children will sometimes be diagnosed with hepatitis because of the doctor's personal belief about the mother. The doctor didn't bother with testing the blood.

In other words... Many, many folks still believe in the doctrine of bad blood. The sins of the father are the sins of the son.

I am not going to rehash too much of the Dawn DeLorenzo interview.

But just as a background... I personally believe that Dawn is the reason why Orson Mozes is one of America's Most Wanted.

Orson is on the run and charged with 62 felony counts of Theft by False Pretense. He ripped off and screwed with many adoptive families.

We have another update on the Russian Adopted Child Died In Car situation. As many folks adopting from Russia know... Cradle of Hope and Family and Children's Agency were suspended by Russia on 6/27/08.

This article states they were banned for failing to communicate on the children adopted via their agency.

European Adoption Consultants, who did help the Harrison family adopt, isn't banned. The Russian government is investigating the agency.

Miles Harrison accidently left his son in a hot car last week... and the son died. The almost 2 year old child was adopted from Russia about 3 months ago.

I know... this is an animal story. But I have fallen in love with Red Panda after watching Kung Fu Panda movie.

A red panda gave birth to 2 cubs in a Netherlands zoo. The mom rejected the cubs. A zoo keeper's pet cat had given birth recently. And the keeper had the genius idea of seeing if his cat would accept the red panda cubs.

One of the cubs was weak and died. But the second one seems to be doing fine.

I have read news stories like this about the United States foster care system. You will read about foster children sleeping in their social worker's office or a hotel. There just isn't enough room in the emergency shelters or enough foster homes.

But I didn't realize Australia has the same problem. Victoria state has about 5,000,000 people and has the highest population density of all Australian states. Melbourne is the state capital.

ON ANY night in Victoria, about 100 children and teenagers sleep in emergency accommodation while waiting for foster care or other long-term care.

The news article explains that their system is overflowing on children because..... They struggle to retain foster families and the foster children have more complex needs then they used to. This is so like the United States. I wonder if their system is as screwed up and hurtful as ours.