Adoption Under One Roof

It seems more people are looking at intercountry adoption from Africa. The upward trend seems to have started with Angelina Jolie's Ethiopian adoption in 2005. There was a 65% increase in Ethiopian adoptions from 2005 to 2006.

Madona's Malawi adoption on the other hand doesn't seem to have driven families to consider transracial adoption. The last time an American adopted from Malawi via the American intercountry adoption system, it was 2003. Three children were adopted that year.

I've just posted on when international adoption happens, and am now girding myself to deal with the flip-side of that coin.

StarfishMama and her husband have adopted children from the United States, Eastern Europe and Africa. She takes great pleasure is working with various charities that help the weaker and more vulnerable members of society.

There is just always so much information coming out of Africa, especially relating to children. Some good, some bad, some downright ugly.

From Nigeria, we have this: The "National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Person (NAPTIP) has raised an alarm on the increasing incidences of sale of babies by Nigerian medical personnel, parents and operators of illegal children homes." Alarmingly, the next to last paragraph reads that this group: "discovered camps where pregnant teenagers are kept until delivery with their babies illegally adopted or sold for rituals". Really?