Transracial adoption

What Does an Obama Presidency Mean for My Transracially Adopted Daughter?

JuliaFuller — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:15:16 -0600

I confess to being a staunch Republican but that does not mean that I do not see the positives of an Obama Presidency for my transracially adopted daughter. In order for my daughter to have high self-esteem, self-confidence in who she is, and who she can become, she needs to have positive black role models. This is not my personal observation but the conclusion of years of transracial adoption research. Those who choose to adopt transracially, at least through foster care, must take courses in transracial adoption. The main theme of training is embracing, and accepting your child’s color, race, and ethnicity and acknowledging the racism that exists in a world that is not colorblind and preparing your child for it.

My Favorite Travel Partner: My Three Year Old Adopted* Daughter

LisaS — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:33:22 -0600

*reminder that the bloggers on “Adoption Under One Roof” use the word adopted in our titles for search purposes only – we don’t refer to our children as our “adopted” children other than here.

As I sit here on the third plane and last leg of our journey home from British Columbia, I find myself reflecting on all the trips my adopted daughter Ella has made on airplanes since we brought her home from Guatemala.

Her first trip was to California to visit my parents - her grandparents. She had just learned to walk and I remember walking her up and down the aisles of the airplane during the long flight to keep her content. This trip was followed by a shorter jaunt to visit her two married brothers in Texas, where she was fawned upon and spoiled by her brothers and sisters-in-laws while I had the first real help since I had brought her home.

Now that she was fairly comfortable in airplanes we took her on a very long trip to Israel to visit her paternal grandparents and my niece (my sister’s daughter) and her children. The flight was a “red eye” and Ella slept most of the time, but unfortunately we did not have a seat for her and I had her on my lap the whole time. She would not sit on her father’s lap. I was fairly sore when we arrived, but she was rested and we had a marvelous three week vacation.

Reply to Harlow's Monkey: Adoption Numbers

AngelaW — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:49:58 -0600

Dear Harlow's Monkey (aka Jae),

I lost your email address. And it looks like you have suspended comments on your blog. So here is my reply to your Adoption Numbers blog.

You expressed curiosity about a Washington Post story on Adoption's Numbers Mystery.

August 2008, National Center for Health Statistics released a paper titled, Adoption Experiences of Women and Men and Demand for Children to Adopt by Women 18-44 Years of Age in the United States, 2002. The 45-page PDF is focused on the "thinking about adoption" or "currently seeking to adopt" crowd. But there is some information on adults who completed adoptions and the available children.

The Washington Post article said:

521,400 survey respondents said they would adopt a black child

Harlow's Monkey asked:

what is the racial breakdown of the respondents?

A View From Across the Border

LisaS — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:36:45 -0600

I've been out of country for the last week, (you can just call me the traveling blogger at Adoption Under One Roof) and it has certainly been an eye opener to view our country during election time through the eyes of citizens of the beautiful country to the north. Without a doubt, the Canadians in this vicinity are huge Obama supporters and believe that he will be a more likeable and admirable figure to lead our country. I missed being in the U.S. for the elections; it is hard to discuss the politics of your country with people who don’t actually have to “live” those politics.

But moving onto another subject, Ella and I have been walking around this charming and beautiful little town tucked in the mountains, and I don’t think I’ve been in such a racially homogeneous environment in years. I wonder how my daughter would fair growing up here with not one other person of Hispanic or Mayan origin? Would she feel special or painfully different? It can go both ways. I know of one family whose Guatemalan daughter was the only non-Caucasian child in their town and she felt very special and enjoyed her unique status. It is important to note that this young woman is a very confident young woman with terrific parents, probably an important factor in the big picture. Personally I like the fact that Ella can get together with other children born in Guatemala.

Transracial Adoptive Families and Incessant Questions

FaithA — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:15:04 -0600

In my blog entry Is Artificial Twinning through Adoption a Good Idea?, I shared that I went to a Halloween party where one of the guests was a Caucasian adoptive mother with her twin 18-month-old daughters who she adopted from Vietnam.

Whenever I see an adoptive family, a part of me wants to say, “Hi, we are an adoptive family, too!” because adoptive families are definitely in the minority. However, I generally hesitate to do this unless the other person raises the topic because I don’t want to make the person constantly have to talk about the adoption.

I noticed this with this woman and her adorable twins. Multiple guests came up to her and asked about her daughters –

What Influences Adoption Rate for African American Children From Foster Care?

AngelaW — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:16:31 -0500

I wrote Race and Foster Care a while back as a reaction to the Evan B Donaldson Adoption Institute report. This 58 page report was released in May 2008. The report was an attempt to answer five questions that were asked during a September 2007 U.S. Civil Rights Commission meeting.

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission wanted to know if the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) was working. This is a federal law that was suppose to help minority children leave the foster care system in a timely manner. African American children are in foster care for nine months longer then white foster children.

I have been thinking about this study some more and decided to take a different direction. Via data mining I tried to answer the question, "What Influences Adoption Rate for African American Children From Foster Care?"

“90210” Kicks Off an Adoption Search and Reunion Storyline

FaithA — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:45:13 -0500

When I decided to watch the new 90210, my only motivation was nostalgia. Who knew that this show would provide me with a seemingly endless supply of adoption topics to blog about?

As I have shared before, 90210 has a transracial adoption storyline, with Dixon (played by Tristan Wilds having been adopted into a Caucasian family. I also shared that 90210 introduced a storyline in which Dixon’s adoptive father, Harry Wilson (played by Rob Estes) found out that he was a birth father.

In this episode, Harry’s high school sweetheart, Tracy Clark (played by Christina Moore), who is the mother of his birth son, asked Harry if he would like to search for their now 22-year-old birth son.

Transracial Adoption Issues: “That’s Your Child??”

FaithA — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:45:03 -0500

As I have mentioned before, watching the new 90210 is one of my guilty pleasures. I was pleased to learn that 90210 has a transracial adoption storyline. While the transracial adoption storyline has not been the central focus of the show, it does factor in from time to time.

This week, the transracial adoption storyline arose again in a climactic scene toward the end of the episode. That scene highlighted a dynamic that I would imagine every transracial adoptive family winds up facing at least once. It was the “That’s your child??” moment.

Dixon (played by Tristan Wilds) is an African-American boy who was adopted by a Caucasian family.

Ethiopia Adoption Resources and Statistics

AngelaW — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:41:33 -0500

I am continuing my tour of African countries where intercountry adoption is possible. I started with Nigerian adoption (Western Africa) then moved to Zambian adoption (Southern Africa). Just to be confusing (grin) I went back to Western Africa and visited Ghanan adoption.

FosterMommy pitched in and asked, Can Your U.S. Family Adopt a Baby From Cameroon? (borders Nigeria)

Now I want to visit Ethopia. It is an amazing country. I had to read Wikipedia's Ethiopian history several times. It is one of the world's oldest countries and converted to Christianity in the 400s. There was a Muslim migration to the area in the 900s. And then there is this:

Human settlement in Ethiopia dates back to prehistoric times. Fossilized remains of the earliest ancestors to the human species, discovered in Ethiopia, have been assigned dates as long ago as 5.9 million years.

Dear Adoption Maharishi: Which US Presidents Touched by Adoption?

Adoption_Maharishi — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 09:07:52 -0500

Mea cupla. I was supposed to get this posted last Wednesday. Life and a staff infection got in my way. The infection is responding to these Sulfameth huge pills, so life is much better now. - AngelaW

Dear Adoption Maharishi, Adoption has been briefly part of this US Presidental campaign. John McCain's status as an adoptive father is clear. And Barack Obama may have been adopted by his stepfather Lolo Soetoro. There seems to be some uncertainty there.

?But all of this made me curious. How many US Presidents have been touched by adoption?

- Presidential Curious