Maine Gives the Right to Access Birth Certificates to Adult Adoptees

I just found out that Maine signed a bill that allows adult adoptees to have full access to their birth certificates. I’ll leave a link to the bill page, and paste the bill text below. Good steps coming from the state I grew up in. -G.S.

***One other interjection I’d like to make.  I just found out that this bill was a direct result of the advocacy work that the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute provided.  If you’ve never seen there work, check out their website located on my side bar links ‘Adoption Research’ section.***

 

 

An Act To Provide Adult Adoptees Access to Their Original Birth Certificates

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 18-A MRSA §9-310, first ¶, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. C, §7 and affected by Pt. E, §2, is amended to read:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law and except as provided in Title 22, section 2768, all Probate Court records relating to any adoption decreed on or after August 8, 1953 are confidential. The Probate Court shall keep records of those adoptions segregated from all other court records. If a judge of probate court determines that examination of records pertaining to a particular adoption is proper, the judge may authorize that examination by specified persons, authorize the register of probate to disclose to specified persons any information contained in the records by letter, certificate or copy of the record or authorize a combination of both examination and disclosure.

Sec. 2. 22 MRSA §2765, sub-§2-A, ¶C, as amended by PL 2001, c. 574, §24, is further amended to read:

C. When a new certificate of birth is established following adoption or legitimation, it must be substituted for the original certificate of birth. After that substitution, the original certificate of birth and the evidence of adoption are not subject to inspection except upon order of the Probate Court or the Superior Court or pursuant to section 2768. The application for legitimation may be released to persons listed on the original birth certificate upon completion of written application to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics or the registrar’s designee.

Sec. 3. 22 MRSA §2765, sub-§5, as amended by PL 1979, c. 168, §2, is further amended to read:

5. Copies of original certificate. When the new certificate of birth is established, the state registrar shall provide each municipal clerk who is required by law to have a copy of the certificate of birth on file with a copy of the new certificate of birth. In the case of a Maine certificate of birth established for a person born in a foreign country, a copy of the certificate shall must be provided to and shall must be maintained on file by the clerk of the municipality where the adoptive parents resided on the date of the adoption. All copies of the original certificate in the custody of any municipal clerk shall must be sealed from inspection , except as provided in section 2768, or surrendered to the state registrar as he shall direct the state registrar directs.

Sec. 4. 22 MRSA §2768 is enacted to read:

§ 2768. Access to original birth certificate by adopted person

An adopted person, the adopted person’s attorney or, if the adopted person is deceased, the adopted person’s descendants may obtain a copy of that person’s original certificate of birth from the State Registrar of Vital Statistics, referred to in this section as “the state registrar,” in accordance with this section.

1. Requirements. The adopted person must be at least 18 years of age and have been born in this State.

2. Application. The adopted person must file a written application with and provide appropriate proof of identification to the state registrar.

3. Issuance of birth certificate and forms. Upon receipt of the written application and proof of identification pursuant to subsection 2 and fulfillment of the requirements of subsection 4, the state registrar shall issue a noncertified copy of the unaltered original certificate of birth to the applicant. If a contact preference or medical history form has been completed and submitted to the state registrar pursuant to section 2769, the state registrar also must provide that information.

4. Fees; waiting period. The state registrar may require a waiting period and impose a fee for the noncertified copy provided pursuant to subsection 3. The fees and waiting period imposed under this subsection must be identical to the fees and waiting period generally imposed on persons seeking their own birth certificates.

5. Forms; rules. The state registrar shall develop by rule the application form as required by this section and may adopt other rules for the administration of this section. Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.

Sec. 5. 22 MRSA §2769 is enacted to read:

§ 2769. Contact preference and medical history forms

The State Registrar of Vital Statistics shall provide upon request each birth parent a contact preference form and a medical history form as described in this section.

1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.

A. “Adoptee” means the person who is the subject of a birth certificate.

B. “Birth parent” means the person who is the biological parent of an adoptee and who is named as the parent on the original birth certificate of the adoptee.

C. “Contact preference form” means the form developed by the state registrar pursuant to subsection 3.

D. “Medical history form” means the form developed by the state registrar pursuant to subsection 2.

E. “State registrar” means State Registrar of Vital Statistics.

2. Medical history form. The state registrar shall develop and distribute upon request to birth parents a medical history form. A birth parent may use this form to describe the medical history of the birth parent. A birth parent shall fill out a medical history form if that birth parent fills out a contact preference form.

3. Contact preference form. The state registrar shall develop a contact preference form on which a birth parent may state a preference regarding contact by an adoptee. The form must contain the following statements from which the birth parent may choose only one.

A. “I would like to be contacted. I have completed this contact preference form and a medical history form and am filing them with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.”

B. “I would prefer to be contacted only through an intermediary. I have completed this contact preference form and a medical history form and am filing them with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.”

C. “I would prefer not to be contacted. I may change this preference by filling out another contact preference form. I have completed this contact preference form and a medical history form and am filing them with the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.”

4. Attachment of forms to birth certificate; treatment. Upon receipt of a completed contact preference form or medical history form, the state registrar shall attach the completed form to the original birth certificate of the adoptee. A completed contact preference form and medical history form have the same level of confidentiality as the original birth certificate.

5. Forms; rules. The state registrar shall develop by rule the forms as required by this section and may adopt other rules for the administration of this section. Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.

Sec. 6. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 1, 2009.

summary

This bill establishes a process by which an adult adopted person may obtain a copy of that person’s original, unaltered birth certificate. This bill also allows a birth parent to include with the child’s original birth certificate a form that indicates whether the parent wishes to be contacted by the child and a medical history form.

Immigration Bill Revived

I can’t say I completely comprehend the ever-changing immigration bill since amendments are being churned out faster than I’m able to keep up with the current provisions. For my own piece of mind and perhaps others I thought I’d share a few short paragraphs I found useful in an AP article.

Here’s a link to the full text: After test vote, immigration deal has pulse

“…The measure would give immediate legal status to an estimated 12 million immigrants now living in the United States illegally. The new “Z” visas would allow them to work legally, but not to stay in the United States indefinitely.

Those immigrants would have to pass background checks, pay thousands of dollars in fines, and travel back to their home countries at least once after applying for a green card granting them permanent legal status. But they would have to get in line behind other foreigners who did not break the law to enter the country.

Border security would be tightened, with another $4.4 billion set aside to keep more immigrants from entering the country illegally. A “guest worker” program would allow foreigners to work in the United States for two-year stints, provided they return home for a full year in between jobs. Employers would also face new penalties for hiring illegal immigrants…”

“…Several GOP senators have offered an amendment that would require applicants for the Z visa to return to their home countries before being allowed to work legally in the United States. The current version of the bill requires only seekers of a green card to make the trip, and some critics say that condition is too onerous for some immigrants, especially those from faraway countries.

Kennedy indicated yesterday that he would not fight that amendment. “I can live with it,” he said.

Lawmakers also expect a floor fight on the question of whether to give more weight to family ties or employment in awarding visas. The current bill would limit family-based visas while giving more consideration to people with certain skills or degrees.

Many Democrats don’t like that change, calling it antifamily, but accepted it to try to get a bipartisan deal.

“I’m optimistic” that the measure will survive the amendment process and win final approval at the end of the week, said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and a chief negotiator of the bill.”

What a mess this bill is so far.  Touch and go citizenship, merit-based citizenship, anti-family reunification, guest worker programs, $5,000 citizenship fees, and ultimately long waits…It’s such a mess for immigrants, and is still messy for the many adoptees who are green card holders or are with out documentation.  I thought I also read some provision about mandating English as the primary language at all businesses in the U.S.  I hoping I’ve misinterpreted that provision, or that has somehow been struck out of the current bill they’re negotiating.

Feel free to weigh in on this one.  I’m sort of sick of trying to navigate my way through this mess.  I think we all know the not just the ramifications for immigrants, but for adoptees.

Resiliance Film

I just wanted to make another shout out for this film “Resiliance.”  It’s not quite out yet, but they do have a myspace page and website.  Thanks to the K@W listserv again for reminding of this film.  I really hope I can see this soon.

***AND again just another note.  There seems to be even more confusion over the repost of that “Parenting is a Gift” essay from NPR.  I AM NOT AN ADOPTIVE FATHER.  I am a Korean Adoptee.  I just wanted to set the record straight because I have been noticing people linking my blog to other blogs saying that I’m a “soon to be adoptive father.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Please look at the posts and look at the links before jumping to conclusions.  sighs:: *** 

G.S.

*Resilience* is an independent documentary film that explores the issues of
inter-country adoption through the perspective of Korean birth mothers. *
Resilience* reveals a side of inter-country adoption that is rarely looked
at and often forgotten. For the very first time, Korean birth mothers break
long-silenced shame and isolation to share their personal stories behind why
they gave up their children and the impact the decision has had on their
lives ever since.

Although international adoption is largely a humanitarian effort, there are
misconceptions about international adoption that many people are not aware
of. Poverty and lack of welfare used to be the reasons why a country could
not keep its own children. What is interesting to realize now is that Korea
continues to send their children abroad despite a stable and well-developed
economy. South Korea is the 3rd largest economy in Asia, 10th largest in the
world. Why is it still sending its children overseas?
The questions explored in this film are:
(1) What are the reasons why families are torn a part?
(2) What are the effects of separation on birth families left behind?
(3) What are possible solutions to improve women & children’s rights in
Korea? worldwide?

For more information about this documentary…
http://www.myspace.com/resilience_doc
http://resiliencefilm.com/

U.S. Adoptive Father Aids Unwed Korean Mothers

I thought this was an interesting article to repost. I originally caught wind of it from K@W listserv, and I also want to credit Jane Jeong Trenka for co-authoring this piece. If you haven’t seen her website click this.

I find this interesting and perhaps a little refreshing. Very few adoptive parents are able to make this sort of connection, and even less are willing to take action on it. I do want to pull up the last paragraph as a point of conversation.

“Koreans have a golden opportunity to really evolve and do so well by these kids and their mothers. I think when you really come down to it, the economic price and the social price is relatively small. I think it’s much smaller than the price that everybody is paying now.”

I understand that this is definitely an issue worth acknowledging, but I think pointing the finger at Korea/the Korean Government hides the rather complex and intricate relationship that intercountry adoption has between (in this case) Korea and the U.S. I think it’s fair to say that the Korean Government does need to ramp up efforts to increase domestic adoption, but I also think that this “evolving” is something that we can not shirk as solely “their” responsibility. The U.S. clearly has a ways to go on the front of domestic adoption as well. Take for instance the number of Black/African American children in foster care or in need of homes in the U.S. The growing numbers of children who are being adopted from outside the U.S. continues to shape and illuminate the ways in which we as Americans understand race. Far from declaring racial preferences in adoption, (which isn’t necessarily an unfounded precedent either), we also need to take responsibility in accounting for our own children in the U.S. who don’t necessarily have the sometimes misguided draw of the “third world” but who have been vastly neglected by a system of inequities-Inequities that continue to neglect these children and promote international adoption at the expense of the thousands of children (predominantly Black) in the U.S. who we know are not sought as fervently by other countries for adoption as the currently growing number of adoptees sought after from outside the U.S. It’s a strange duality looking at the highly neglected number of African American children in the U.S. in need of homes, and then looking at the recent New York Times article detailing how Ethiopian and African adoptions are on the rise in the U.S.

I do applaud his efforts and think it’s incredibly progressive as an adoptive parent to wage these sort of campaigns. There is no “but” here, however, I wanted to use this article as a springboard to expand these sort of conversations to encompass a more holistic approach to understanding adoption policy. Please feel free to comment!

G.S.

(Yonhap Interview) American adoptive father launches campaign to help unwed Korean moms

By Kim Young-gyo and Jane Jeong Trenka
SEOUL, June 14 (Yonhap) — Just one year ago, Dr. Richard Boas, the American father of an adopted Korean girl named Esther, was financially helping other Americans so they could adopt children from overseas.

혻 혻 However, Boas’ perspective radically changed after visiting South Korea late last year. Now, he is an activist for the rights of single and unwed mothers and their children. Moreover, he has become a staunch supporter of domestic adoption within Korea.

혻혻 “Isn’t it in the best interest of a developed society — any society that loves its children — to support them in whatever way possible?” Boas asked in an interview with Yonhap News Agency earlier this week.

혻혻 The ophthalmologist from Connecticut was in South Korea during the past week meeting lawmakers, academics and social workers to promote not international adoption, but family preservation.

혻혻 Almost 20 years go, Boas and his wife adopted Esther, believing that they would be able to give her a better life in the United States.

혻혻 “As grateful as I am that Esther came into my life — and that I had the great privilege of bringing her up, of being her father and seeing her grow into a fine young woman — it pains me to see any woman give up her child because people and the government won’t support her,” Boas said.

혻혻 The Korean international adoption program began in the aftermath of the Korean War, peaking in the mid-1980s when over 8,000 children a year were sent abroad for adoption, mostly to the United States. In the 1990s and beyond, the “problem” of single mothers in Korea has provided a new supply of Korean children for the West.

혻 혻 The number of South Korean children sent abroad for adoption abruptly dropped as a result of media coverage of the program during the 1988 Olympics, and has hovered around the 2,000 mark since 1991, according to Korean government data. However, along with China, Russia and Ethiopia, it is still one of major “sending” countries to the U.S., according to the annual U.S. State Department report on “orphan” visas.

혻 혻 Nearly all internationally adopted Koreans in the past few years have come from unmarried and single mothers. South Korea not yet ratified the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, while the U.S. has signed but not yet implemented it. North Korea has no international adoption program.

혻혻 South Korea, the world’s 11th-largest economy, has been criticized both at home and abroad for its low rate of domestic adoption. Government figures show that there have been about 87,500 domestic adoptions versus 158,000 international adoptions since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Even though the government is now promoting domestic adoption, Confucianism, which stresses patriarchal bloodlines, and social stigma against unmarried and single mothers and their children are commonly cited as the reasons for high relinquishment and low domestic adoption.

혻혻 South Korea ranks 53rd in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Gender Empowerment Ranking, between Chile and Botswana.

혻 혻 “I had the sense of almost rescuing a child from what seemed like a very dismal fate in Korea,” Boas said of Esther, whom he adopted when she was three and a half months old. She is his third child, in addition to two biological children.

혻혻 With his children grown, Boas closed his medical practice and started a program with other Connecticut adoptive parents to help people adopt internationally. The Adoption Foundation at Family and Children’s Agency financially aided about 15 families to adopt children, including special needs children and siblings.

혻혻 However, Boas’ view of international adoption changed radically when he visited South Korea for the first time in October 2006 and met a group of unwed mothers who had already made arrangements to give up their children, even before delivery.

혻혻 “When I met the moms, I started asking myself questions that the other Americans weren’t asking.” Boas said. “Why would these moms give up their babies? Isn’t it the right of any birth mom anywhere in the world to bring up her child if she’s capable and loving? Why are these kids not being absorbed into Korean society, either by their birthparents or by domestic adoption?”
The rate at which unwed mothers relinquish their children in South Korea, estimated at 70 percent, comes as a shock to Americans, where fewer than 2 percent of unwed mothers relinquish their children for adoption.

혻혻 After meeting healthy and seemingly capable Korean unmarried mothers, who were nonetheless sending their children overseas for adoption, Boas wondered, “Why am I favoring so much international adoption when it doesn’t need to be necessary? This is like the tail wagging the dog.”
Boas returned home to Connecticut, unsettled about what he had seen in Korea. He read about the South Korean social welfare system in comparison with Western European countries and the U.S. Then he encountered an article by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, the Korean-American author of “Somebody’s Daughter,” who had studied Korean birthmothers.

혻혻 “She became aware that the effect (of international adoption) on these mothers is devastating. They learn English just so they can get a phone call from their child 20 years later. They still long for their children,” Boas said, explaining why he turned his attention to helping Korean mothers keep their own children.

혻혻 Through his foundation affiliation, Boas now provides funds to the San Francisco-based foundation Give 2 Asia, which also maintains an office in Seoul. In turn, Give 2 Asia supports such organizations as the Single Mothers Network, the single and unwed mothers’ group home Aeranwon and the Korean Women Workers Association.

혻 혻 “I think the problem, in retrospect, was that so much of this has been adoption-driven … I understand some years ago the agencies in Korea even competed with one another to try to find all the adoptable kids they could. It may be in the best interests of the adoptive family, but children are by definition helpless. They can’t make requests. They’re not asking to go overseas.”
Boas said that domestic adoption can also help boost South Korea’s declining population; with a 1.13 percent birthrate in 2006, the country has the lowest birthrate in the OECD.

혻혻 The practice of international adoption has become “business as usual,” Boas said, but now “Koreans have a golden opportunity to really evolve and do so well by these kids and their mothers. I think when you really come down to it, the economic price and the social price is relatively small. I think it’s much smaller than the price that everybody is paying now.”

Some Clarification

Hi all,

This will be a quick and short post just because I wanted to clarify one thing.  Sometimes I decide to repost articles or stories I find that in some way relate to adoption.  I usually link the article to the original source, and provide a quick little explanation of where it came from and why I may have chosen to link it.  I really do this for conversation fodder.  That’s the whole aim of my blog, is to get dialogues going that hinge on issues related to Adoption.

I chose to post this piece of clarification because I think there has been some confusion in the past when I repost articles and don’t necessarily write why I may have chosen to repost such pieces.  Many are incredibly problematic, which is the reason I repost them-because I think it’s really important to question and critique the ways in which adoption is understood through media channels.

In the future I’ll make it more of a point to include some brief analysis, and cite the reasons I have decided to repost particular articles.

Happy Blogging,

G.S.

Becoming a Parent Is a Gift

“Becoming a Parent Is a Gift” 

by Chris Huntington

Chris Huntington has worked in France and Taiwan, and taught English in the Sahara and Gabon for the Peace Corps. He now lives in Indianapolis and teaches at a local prison. Huntington and his wife, Shasta, are still awaiting word on their adoption.

NPR.org, June 14, 2007 · I no longer believe my wife and I are going to have a baby the old-fashioned way, but I no longer think this really matters. I believe in adoption now. Four months ago, the Chinese government accepted our dossier. In the next year or two, a little girl will be born and her parents will not want her. My wife and I will fly to China to meet this girl and bring her home with us.

When I was a teenager, everyone said becoming a parent was easy — so easy, I had to be careful not to do it accidentally. I guess it’s easy for a lot of other people, but not for me and my wife.

I’m 39. My wife is 31. For the last two years, I’ve watched this woman I love inject herself with needles full of hormone syrup. She got huge bruises on each side of her waist.

Our friends would bring their kids over to visit and we’d hang up their tiny coats, hoping some magic would rub off on our hands. When it didn’t, we started avoiding any place we’d see the one thing we wanted so desperately. Our own neighborhood became awkward. The woman across the street emerged in the spring with a giant belly. My wife and I stopped going to parks and matinees. Taking our clothes off became a medical procedure; we obeyed the calendar instead of each other’s eyes. I’d see young couples pushing strollers in the grocery store and I’d taste jealousy like pennies in my mouth. I used to believe that becoming a parent was part of our biology. It was something everyone could do. When I couldn’t make a baby, I felt a little less human.

I teach in a prison, a medium-security facility full of men. I help guys write letters when they ask. Most of the letters are to girlfriends and ex-wives. I don’t see long letters to children. I feel lost opportunity all around me. I can see that becoming a parent is much more than our biology.

I now believe that becoming a parent is a gift you make to the universe and that the universe makes to you. Now, I want my family to include a little girl who looks nothing like me or my wife. Someday I’ll lean across a table and cut this little girl’s green beans. I’ll meet her teachers. I’ll see her bicycle standing in the garage. I love the idea that this girl will grow up to be a woman and still look nothing like me, but whenever she hears the word “dad,” she’ll think of me.

People think we’re good or generous because we’re giving a home to an orphan, and giving her a family but the truth is she’ll be giving us a family. I believe in adoption because it will make me the man I want to be: a father.

Independently produced for npr.org by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with Viki Merrick.

—

I just found this “This I Believe” segment while cruising the NPR website. Just thought you’d all like to take a look at it, or listen to it.

New Book Documents the Sometimes Forgotten Voice of the Adoptive Father

China Ghosts: My Daughter’s Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood

By Jeff Gammage

- – - “After eighteen years together, Christine and I are down to our last hour as a couple. By dinner we will be a threesome. It seems strange to stand so firmly atop a generational fault line, to know that in an hour you’ll be a parent, to understand that your old life is disappearing before your eyes, that a new one is about to begin. . . .”

Aching to expand from a couple to a family, Jeff Gammage and his wife, Christine, embarked upon a journey that would carry them across a shifting landscape of emotion—excitement, exhilaration, fear, apprehension—and through miles of red tape and bureaucratic protocol, to a breathtaking land on the other side of the world where a little girl waited. When they met Jin Yu, a silent, stoic two-year-old, in the smog-choked city of Changsha in Hunan Province, they realized that every frustrating moment of their two-year struggle was worth it. But they also realized that another journey had only begun. Now there was much to experience and learn. How do you comfort a crying toddler when you and she speak different languages? How do you fully embrace a life altered beyond recognition by new concerns, responsibilities—and a love unlike any you’ve felt before?

Alive with insight and feeling, China Ghosts is a journalist’s eye-opening depiction of the foreign adoption process and a remarkable glimpse into a different culture. Most important, it is a poignant, heartfelt, and intensely intimate chronicle of the making of a family. – - -
—

Here’s what seems to be a new book about adoption, but more interestingly, a Father’s perspective of parenting transracially. There aren’t a whole lot of memoirs chronicling the parenting experiences of Adoptive Fathers, so I find this book particularly intriguing. According to Amazon, it’s available starting tomorrow.

What’s also interesting is the fact that the author works for the Philadelphia Inquirer, which I recall documented a number of stories on adoptees and adoptive families. Does anyone have any idea how large the adoptee community is in Philadelphia?

I find myself returning to this lack of Adoptive Father’s in adoption literature. It’s quite true that a majority of the literature comes from Adoptive Mothers rather than fathers. I guess I don’t really have any particularly stunning insight, or analysis short of making some sort of argument that men tend to be socialized to disregard their feelings, expressivity, or emotions. So perhaps any lurking adoptive fathers would be willing to share their experiences at the conclusion of this post.

While the term “Adoption Triad” has been used rather loosely to essentialize the relationships involved, perhaps the question that is more problematic is, “Where are men/fathers located within this dialogue?” I’ve been told that my birth father was abusive to my birth mother, so I tend to gravitate toward visualizing my birth mother as my birth family (although she may very well have formed a new family since my birth). So I wonder why the Birth Mother as a conceptual entity represents The Bastion of the birth family to many adoptees. I have extenuating circumstances, but regardless of these details I’m sure I would channel my analysis and emotions into the conceptual idea of my birth mother.

Granted, many birth mothers ARE the ones who are burdened with the responsibility of making the decision for us if our birth fathers run after they find we will be birthed into this world. But that doesn’t mean that birth fathers should be eliminated from consideration. Furthermore, in the U.S. most families who are ABLE to adopt are united by heterosexual marriages, where the fathers are also present in making the decision to adopt. Where are their voices? So you can see how this adoption triad concept can be rather tricky when envisioning who the stakeholders are.

In closing, I can’t say I’m completely floored by the title of his book. Yet I am still optimistic that the book might actually be a productive narrative and representation of the many adoptive fathers who have been relatively quiet since the “literary awakening” that we have all seen in adoption literature over the past decade or so. So if someone wants to order it, read it and review it I’d love to post it at some point.

“Surge in Adoptions Raises Concern in Ethiopia”

I just found this article in the New York Times while skimming through it today. Apparently Ethiopa is the 5th top sending country currently. And I know you must be thinking…”Angelina Dunnit!…” But the article assures that this sudden wave of Ethiopian adoptees started prior to the Brangelina international family smorghasborg (sp?).

I’m also somewhat encouraged and impressed by this particular excerpt:

“Alessandro Conticini, the head of child protection at Unicef Ethiopia, is one of many who believe that international adoption is a good thing but must be “part of a larger strategy” that focuses on keeping children in their families or communities, with the help of humanitarian organizations.”

Ok enough said take a look…

Surge in Adoptions Raises Concern in Ethiopia

ST. PAUL — Ethiopia was not on Mark and Vera Westrum-Ostrom’s list when they first visited Children’s Home Society & Family Services here to explore an international adoption.

Ukraine was first, because of their family heritage, until the couple discovered that the adoption system there was chaotic, with inaccurate information about orphans’ health and availability.

Vietnam was second, after they saw videos of well-run orphanages. But the wait would be at least a year and a half.

Then they learned about Ethiopia’s model centers for orphans, run by American agencies, with an efficient adoption system that made it possible for them to file paperwork on Labor Day and claim 2-year-old Tariku, a boy with almond eyes and a halo of ringlets, at Christmas.

From Addis Ababa, the capital city, they traveled to the countryside to meet the boy’s birth mother, an opportunity rare in international adoption. And at roughly $20,000, the process was affordable compared with other foreign adoptions, and free of the bribes that are common in some countries.

It is no wonder, given these advantages, that Ethiopia, a country more often associated by Americans with drought, famine and conflict, has become a hot spot for international adoption. Even before the actress Angelina Jolie put adoption in Ethiopia on the cover of People magazine in 2005, the number of adoptions there by Americans was growing. The total is still small — 732 children in 2006, out of a total of 20,632 foreign adoptions, but it is a steep increase, up from 82 children adopted in 1997.

Ethiopia now ranks 5th among countries for adoption by Americans, up from 16th in 2000. In the same period, the number of American agencies licensed to operate there has skyrocketed from one to 22.

The increasing interest in Ethiopia comes at a time when the leading countries for international adoption, China, Guatemala and Russia, are, respectively, tightening eligibility requirements, under scrutiny for adoption corruption and closing borders to American agencies.

Ethiopia’s sudden popularity also comes with risks, say government officials there and in America.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to handle it,” said Haddush Halefom, an official at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which oversees adoption. “We don’t have the capacity to handle all these new agencies, and we have to monitor the quality, not just the quantity.”

Capping the number of agencies is one solution. And that is what some international adoption officials in the United States are now urging the Ethiopian government to do.

Of concern is the ability of agencies to handle the rising demand, which may have contributed to a recent mix-up involving two families sent home with the wrong children by Christian World Adoption, an established agency, although relatively new to Ethiopia. That case prompted inquiries by the State Department and the nonprofit Joint Council on International Children’s Services in Virginia, a child welfare and advocacy organization, and the adoption agency itself, said Thomas DiFilipo, president of the joint council.

Officials at Christian World Adoption did not reply to e-mail messages or telephone calls. But Mr. DiFilipo said the agency was reviewing its procedures and has hired immigration lawyers to resolve the mix-up.

The consensus, Mr. DiFilipo said, is that the mix-up was “an honest mistake.” But, he added, “This could be the byproduct of a staff handling 35 placements when they’re used to handling 20.”

Children’s Home Society & Family Services, founded in 1889, began working in Ethiopia in 2004. The agency completed about 300 adoptions in its first three years in Ethiopia, and expects to complete that many in 2007 alone. Along with Wide Horizons For Children in Waltham, Mass., the society is credited with helping Ethiopia create a model for international adoption.

Ethiopia, with a population of 76 million, has an estimated 5 million children who have lost one or both parents, according to aid organizations. Many African nations have outlawed or impeded the adoption of their children by foreigners. Ethiopia has welcomed American and European families who are willing to provide homes for children who have lost both parents to AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis or starvation, or who come from families too destitute to feed and clothe them. (The adoption process includes routine screening for HIV infection.)

Two elements distinguish Ethiopia’s adoption system, according to dozens of experts. One is the existence of transitional homes for orphans, in the countryside and in the capital, with services and staffing that are rare in the developing world — paid for by American agencies.

Not long ago, Sandra Iverson, a nurse practitioner from the University of Minnesota’s international adoption health clinic, the first of its kind in the United States, was invited to visit the Children’s Home Society’s Ethiopian centers.

She arrived with a neonatal otoscope, to diagnose ear infections; the Red Book, the bible of pediatrics; and scarce antibiotics. She left confident that Ethiopia’s orphans enjoyed unusual care.

“You don’t hear crying babies,” Ms. Iverson said. “They are picked up immediately.”

The other signature of the Ethiopian system is that adopting families are encouraged to meet birth families and visit the villages where the children were raised, a cutting-edge practice in adoptions. Some agencies provide DVDs or photographs that document the children’s past.

Russ and Ann Couwenhoven, in Ham Lake, Minn., recently showed one such video to 6-year-old Tariku, one of three children they have adopted from Ethiopia. The boy seemed proud of the beautifully painted house he had lived in, they said, and the uncle who had sheltered him for as long as he could.

Linda Zwicky brought 2-year-old Amale home five days before the Memorial Day weekend, with a letter from the child’s grandmother that described holding the motherless infant at her breast even though she had no milk.

Sometimes such vividness is too much. Melanie Danke and her husband, Kirk Frauenheim, of Minneapolis, adopted 6-year-old twins and a 3-year-old, all siblings. One of the twins “would work herself up until she was inconsolable” looking at photos of the aunt and grandmother who raised her, Ms. Danke said. So she has tucked the photos away for now.

David Pilgrim, vice president of adoption services at the Children’s Home Society, said the agency spends $2 million a year on its Ethiopian facilities.

At the main transitional home, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, a staff of 170 care for about 120 children, ensuring that the children have consistent contact with adults, which experts say mitigates the most damaging psychological effects of institutionalization.

During a reporter’s recent visit, the two terra-cotta buildings where the children live, usually for no more than a few months, were spotless, with staff members scurrying to pick up toys and food spills as they hit the floor.

The transitional home has a primary school, open also to local students, where the children begin learning English. There is a medical clinic with two full-time doctors and 10 nurses. Down the road is a guest house for adoptive parents, who also can stay in a sleek hotel.

The children also enjoy the services of a “laugh therapist,” Belachu Girma. “These kids come here and are very depressed at first, all with their heads down and not talking,” Mr. Girma said. “I come in and try to help them relax.”

There was laughter also at the nearby guest house, more of the nervous kind, as American parents waited to take their children back to St. Paul from the Horn of Africa.

Araminta Montague, from Atlanta, who picked up 17-month-old Natan last week, compared her experience in Ethiopia to an earlier adoption of a girl from China (where Americans adopted 6,493 children in 2006).

“Our daughter was in an orphanage with about 300 children and she was very dehydrated,” Ms. Montague said. “We were never told her origins. Her sheet just said ‘Status: Abandoned.’ ”

Some parents anguished, as did Karla Suomala of Decorah, Iowa, when she arrived in Addis Ababa to adopt 5-year-old Dawit and his 21-month-old sister Meheret.

“It’s hard to know what the right thing is to do,” Ms. Suomala said. “Should we just give all the money we’re spending on this to the children’s mother?” Ms. Suomala and her husband, David Vasquez, had already spent time with her.

“It was obvious the birth mother loved her children,” Mr. Vasquez said. “She said to us, ‘Thank you for sharing my burden.’ ”

Alessandro Conticini, the head of child protection at Unicef Ethiopia, is one of many who believe that international adoption is a good thing but must be “part of a larger strategy” that focuses on keeping children in their families or communities, with the help of humanitarian organizations.

Indeed, the Ethiopian government has taken the unusual step of requiring foreign agencies to provide social services and document the results. As a result, agencies like Children’s Home Society and Wide Horizons have built schools and medical facilities — including one for HIV-infected children.

But Mr. Conticini, of Unicef, worries about the mushrooming number of private adoption companies that “are not properly regulated by the government” because two different ministries are involved and working at cross purposes.

At the State Department, visa applications for children adopted from Ethiopia are getting extra attention, said Catherine M. Barry, deputy assistant secretary for overseas citizens services. “We will very quickly see if patterns are emerging,” she said, “and we will intervene in a timely fashion with anyone doing less than quality work.”

While the governments collaborate to protect a delicate adoption system from the perils of growth, adoptive families arrive each week in Addis Ababa to ease their children into new lives.

Last week, these included Mr. Vasquez and Ms. Suomala. While she had no trouble escorting Meheret from the orphanage, Dawit refused to budge, so Mr. Vasquez carried him toward the gate.

There, the child grabbed the bars and would not let go. Mr. Vasquez considered prying his hands loose and thought better of it. Instead he told Dawit that it was O.K. to cry.

Jane Gross reported from St. Paul, and Will Connors from Addis Ababa.

Taiwanese Adoptee Birth Family Search Agency

I just wanted to let you all know about a great new birth family search agency I was alerted of on the K@W listserv.

http://www.adoptinfo.org.tw/EN/Service.aspx

This agency provides birth family searches for Taiwanese adoptees.  I think it’s a great service to offer and I encourage you to check it out if this is something you’re looking to do.

My Sister’s Adoption Essay

Ok, so I’m sorry I know this is really long. However, I hope that you do read this article. I guess I’m just beaming all over because this is a paper written by my little sister who is in 8th grade. When I read this I couldn’t believe the amount of research, insight, and honesty she has poured into this piece. I’m really proud of her, so if you have the time to read some please do. G.S.

Transracial adoption \ tran(t)s-′rā-shəl \ ə-′däp-shə n \ :

to adopt a child from a different race or ethnic background

 

I could never have my mother’s eyes or my father’s laugh. The Scottish, French-Canadian, Lithuanian blood of generations has not a trace in my veins. My skin is three shades darker than that of my parents, without the use of self-tanners. I am an Asian American—a Vietnamese girl raised in a Caucasian family. I am a transracial adoptee.

Although transracial adoption originally referred to the adoption of African American children into white families, these placements have declined since 1972 when the National Association of Black Social Workers publicly criticized this practice. Today, the majority of transracial adoptions are international.

It is documented that more than 250,000 international adoptions took place between 1971 and 2001, and there are currently over 1.5 million adopted children living in the U.S. today. However, there are no firm statistics kept on how many of those adoptions are transracial.

For abandoned children in many parts of the world, transracial adoption is a solution to many complex social and political factors: hopeless poverty, malnutrition, abuse, violence, war, and in China, population control, which led to the abandonment of thousands of baby girls. In-country adoption occurs infrequently in countries that participate in foreign adoption due to the cultural tradition of keeping bloodlines pure. As Joyce Carol Oates says, “Because we are linked by blood and blood is memory without language” (1).¹ Though this tradition is slowly changing, transracial adoption remains the best alternative for homeless children from birth countries that do not accept them.

Through transracial adoption, children are placed in permanent, loving families and have access to economic well-being, healthcare and continuing education. Transracial adoptees (TRAs) live in stable homes rather than in orphanages and they leave behind cultures that ostracize them simply for being fatherless or biracial as a result of being children of white soldiers.

The United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia started a humanitarian effort to rescue these children through transracial adoption beginning after World War II. Social workers, adoption agencies, and adoptive parents, who have long been the positive voice of adoption, have pronounced this effort a success: children in need received loving care, and families received the child they always dreamed of having.

Now, the biggest wave of transracial adoptees has reached adulthood. Through memoirs, documentaries, poems, and many other forms of expression, their voices, too, are beginning to be heard, and they represent a side of adoption that everyone before had ignored. Though these TRAs were withdrawn from the chaos of their birth countries, they were also borne into new complications: struggles with cultural loss, racial isolation, racism, and coming to terms with a dual identity that rules the core of their existence.

An adoptee’s dual identity is one of nature and nurture, the genetic traits and temperament given by the biological parents and the values, views, and privileges bestowed by the adoptive parents. A transracial adoptee has a dual national identity as well: the birth and adoptive nations. For adoptees, there is no one identity, even though at times they may be pressured towards one side of their dual natures. TRAs refer to this dynamic as living in a third space,² which describes their sense of belonging nowhere.

My experience as a transracial adoptee can be best described in a metaphor of gardening terms. I imagine myself as a pear sprout. I started to grow near the spout of a rain gutter on the shady side of the farmhouse. Seeing the difficult conditions I would be growing in, a gardener decided to clip me from my roots and transplant me onto an apple tree in an orchard. Despite being a pear, I grew up as an apple. Today, everything about me is apple except my looks, for which I am constantly reminded by the stares of passersby that inaudibly but obviously ask, “Why is there a pear in the apple tree?”

For every anthropomorphized pear in an apple tree, there will inevitably be questions. “What were my roots like that made me look this way?” “How would it feel if I were an apple?” “What would it have been like to grow up with all pears, even if there was no sun and the ground was soggy?”

Many issues complicate the lives of TRAs, and each adoptee copes with them differently. There is an entire spectrum of TRAs’ perspectives, as they relate to multiple personal experiences and reactions. There are three main categories: the content TRAs, the concerned TRAs, and the angry, bitter TRAs who prefer to be identified as transracial abductees.³

What differentiates the content TRAs from the next two groups is that they feel a lesser degree of cultural loss. They feel happy within their adoptive families, lucky that they escaped whatever conditions of their birth, and they are not as interested in seeking their roots.

The concerned TRAs have a strong sense of cultural loss. They feel the push and pull of their twofold, split-screen ⁴ identities, in that they have much love for their adoptive families but an extreme longing for their birth families and cultures. They are able to deal with their struggles through educating others and themselves about adoptee issues.

The last group of TRAs feels that they have been abducted from their birth families and robbed of their culture. They are enraged at their adoptive parents, at being so acutely isolated in a white community, and at the identity that they are unable to deal with. Although statistics have not been compiled regarding this relatively new adoptee group, documentation is now becoming available about the overwhelming strife these TRAs face. Many cannot escape their suffering and are lost to drugs, alcohol, and suicide. Others end up in mental hospitals and jails.

Though the editors from Outsiders Within say, “There is no homogenous transracial adoptee story,” (3)⁵ it is true that there are commonalities that link all adoptees in all categories, though they may experience these commonalities to a different scale. Many adoptees grow up in predominantly white communities, like the Korean adoptee (KAD) population in parts of rural Minnesota, and like I have in Scarborough, a town in the whitest state of America. Since most TRAs’ adoptive parents are typically white, most adoptees are forced to face racism alone. Children usually go to parents about their problems, but TRAs are often unable to approach their adoptive parents because they do not want to hurt their feelings or appear ungrateful, and also the parents would have no experience with the issue of racism. Caucasian adoptive parents cannot fathom what it feels like to know prejudice, let alone being a child of color. Lastly, all adoptees experience feelings of abandonment or displacement, whether it is a passing thought or a powerful daily emotion.

Adoptive parents want to do what is right for their children, but how can they know how to guide and provide for TRAs, since children in this situation are all so different? There has been little information about parenting TRAs, but listening to now adult TRAs has brought a wealth of new guidelines. Below are pitfalls, things adoptive parents with good intentions easily slip into which can hurt TRAs.

Parents should not deny an adopted child’s past. This does not protect the child. Even if the child was only, say, two weeks old before adoption, those two weeks of history are vital to a TRA’s existence today. A child’s history begins at birth, and adoptive parents need to honor and respect their child’s birth country, culture, and especially their birth family.

Many professionals involved in adoption say, “Love is colorblind,” (Wright 28)⁶ but adoptive parents should know this is inaccurate information. When “colorblind” parents overlook their child’s race, they imply that it is unimportant to them, intentionally or not. However, to a child, his or her race matters very much, and the parents’ dismissive attitude is upsetting and confusing.

It is important for TRAs to be exposed to people who look similar to them. When TRAs do not blend in with their own families or into the community, their sense of being different has been universally described by TRAs as feeling like an “alien.” Parents should not raise their kids in isolation. Optimistic TRAs can say it makes them unique, but truthfully, it is very lonely. If parents are unable to move to a more diverse area, they are advised to adopt another child from the same ethnic group.

Though adoptive parents should make sure they have the assets to take trips back to TRAs’ birth countries and that the children have access to a legitimate view of their birth cultures, parents should not force the cultures on the children. For instance, every vacation TRAs take, parents shouldn’t insist on finding every Chinatown or every Latino market. However, if TRAs are uninterested in their cultures, parents should take a personal interest in the subject, letting TRAs know that their cultures are important and their adoptive parents will support their curiosity whenever they are ready (Register 159).⁷

Parents should recognize and not tolerate behavior that makes TRAs uncomfortable. TRAs feel insulted when people say how lucky they are to be adopted into the U.S. It could be said with the best intentions, but suggesting a TRA’s birth country is inferior suggests that the TRA is inferior. Questions like, “Where are you from?” or “What race are you?” are heard by a TRA as, “you don’t belong.”

As the voices of the young adult TRAs become louder, new concerns question today’s adoption process. This once humanitarian effort of providing children with homes has changed. While the focus of adoption should be first and foremost on the best interests of the children, transracial adoption has become a prosperous industry, with children as the commodity. Unfortunately, huge profits benefiting adoption intermediaries and third-world countries often lead to corruption and abuse. Children should not be harmed by the affairs of business, nor should they be labeled with price stickers.

Adoption does two things: provides children with families and provides families with children. Qualified parents have every right to a child and adoption is a perfectly fine way to create a family, but in this case, the needs of the children should overrule the desire of the parents. Reversed as it is right now, the scarcity of healthy adoptable infants has lead to illegal black market adoptions. Illegal adoptions can involve children who are labeled as orphans to adoptive parents, when in fact, money has exchanged hands to persuade poor birth parents to relinquish their children. The fault of these practices lies not with the children and usually not with the adoptive parents. The intermediary, the gardener in the pear and apple metaphor, is the one who profits and who deserves the blame.

Cheri Register may have the right idea on how to rectify the system: “Rather than serving would-be parents’ needs as supply-and-demand dictates, international adoption should be governed by a concern that puts greater emphasis on keeping families intact and daily life sustainable in countries where [transracial adoptees] are born” (11).⁸

Transracial adoption may not be the ideal solution, but it is a valuable alternative. When faced with the choice of having children growing up in orphanages all over the world, or forming families through transracial adoption, the choice is clear. There is a crisis at hand and transracial adoption is the best option for abandoned children. However, there are many flaws with this practice, as TRAs have told us, and these problems must be dealt with to ensure an even better life for the next generation of transracial adoptees.