If you are considering the adoption of a child through intercountry adoption, look no further than Haiti, a mere 600 miles east of Florida, where over 70% of the 8,000,000 population is children, many of them orphans living in the most horrible conditions imaginable. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and things are not getting any better. With no source of fuel and over 95% of the country deforested, 85% of the population are unemployed and trying to survive by growing enough food to feed their families.

Over 70% of the population live below poverty level, and 10% of the population will die before the age of 4. And if that isn’t bad enough, 300,000 – 400,000 of the children, often as young as 4 years old, are enslaved, many being sold to the Dominican Republic as prostitutes and cheap labor.

UNICEF has documented the plight of the children of Haiti, but is still staunchly anti-intercountry adoption.

It has been a while since I’ve mentioned UNICEF, an organization which supposedly has the well being of children in mind, but instead spreads ignorance and lies, and works diligently at halting intercountry adoption. Here is their latest load of crap:

The international adoption business in Nepal has created a culture of child abuse including the abduction, trafficking and sale of children.”

You read it – adoption is the culprit.

How many of you are 90210 fans? I was a fan of Beverly Hills 90210 before the show was even “cool.” I knew who Jason Priestly was (and had a crush on him) even before he became a household name.

Why am I bringing up this old show? Because a new version of the show called 90210 is premiering next week on Tuesday, 9/2, at 8:00 p.m. EST on the CW. And that version of the show has a transracial adoption storyline in it.

I just learned about the adoption storyline by reading my TV Guide, which has been my faithful companion for years now. (Yes, I am aware that I need a life!!) This week’s issue contains an article about the new show and introduces the 90210 characters, one of whom is described as “Dixon Wilson, Annie’s adopted brother.”

My Guatemalan born daughter and I were observing fish and other underwater creatures in an aquatic center a few days ago, when a man approached us. He smiled and said, “She must look like her father because she sure doesn’t look like you.” I smiled back and said, “she probably does.” I felt no need to divulge any more information to a total stranger.

This stranger’s remark didn’t bother me; he spoke in a friendly manner with no malicious intent,and it was certainly preferable to being asked if she was my granddaughter, not an unusual occurrence when you are fifty-four years old. But later I began to think of how Ella would respond to remarks like this. After all, she is not part of the white majority that does not suffer from racial discrimination in this country.

It was such a pleasure to log into my email account and see a whole bunch of new comments from Snafu Suz. She shared on our poll about which blog you read first that she reads straight through every single one. It was so much fun reading through her comments. Welcome back, Snafu Suz!!

On my post Choosing Race During the Adoption Home Study Process, Snafu Suz left the following comment:

So what I'm saying is, as white parents adopting transracially we need to educate ourselves on the racial identity issues that are typical for transracially adopted kids. We need to be sensitive and in tune to these potential issues with our children. We need to do more than just tell our kids, "Oh don't worry about that, race doesn't matter. All that matters is that we're a family." After having been to two adult adoptee panels and reading about it, I've learned that we really do a disservice to our children of color by not validating our children's feelings about race and dismissing it as not important. We need to support and nurture a healthy racial identity in our children. – Snafu Suz

Overall, I agree with Snafu Suz’s comments. (Her comment was much longer. You can read the entire comment here.)

Once upon a time he was a world famous, middle weight, boxing champion. Now he is a bankrupt ex boxer who travels the world, staying with wealthy friends, and occasionally keeping in contact with his two teenage sons, and the woman that he left them with.

After a brief encounter in the wee hours of the morning in a hotel lobby in Paris, Chris Eubanks swapped phone numbers with Irene Hutton, and the two began speaking regularly on the phone. They became such good friends in fact, that Eubanks arranged for his boys to fly out to Las Vegas for a summer holiday with Irene.