The latest adoption scandal involves a practice called rehoming, which was exposed in a recent investigation by Reuters. People adopt, then pass the child along to families who bid for them over the Internet. Bidders can be parents with personal wealth who want to avoid the inconvenience of a…

Mari was reunited with her birth mother, who is now known as Josephine Bassett, through her campaign with Justice for Madeline Survivors. Josephine was one of the thousands of women who worked for years in the Magdalene laundries system before the last one closed in 1996. Her mother’s life, Steed…

I am a transracial adoptee and advocate for children and families, so the complexities of race and adoption resonate on a personal level. I see myself in that Romney family photo. I was adopted from foster care when I was about 8 months old. My white parents recall that during the adoption process,…

Alima and Masalay, two 5-year-old children from Congo, are legally part of the Stroud family in Fort Wayne, Ind. Their adoption occurred last July, and they have passports and visas to leave Congo. But a year after their adoptions were finalized, they remain 7,000 miles away from their adoptive…

Families affected by the former Labor government's closure of the Ethiopian Australian Inter-country adoption program are hoping the Coalition government will reverse the decision. They say documentary evidence confirms that at least ten Ethiopian children had been referred to the inter-country…

BY law, there is nothing to stop an Australian couple from adopting a child from overseas. There are no fewer than eight state and territory departments set up precisely to help Australian couples form families this way. In practice, adopting a child from overseas is pretty near impossible. The most…

Congressional leaders haven’t forgotten about hundreds of children halfway around the world, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who can’t go home. They have sent letters to Congolese officials, imploring them to let children who have been adopted by people in the U.S. and other countries…

Daniel and Lori Bonderson, Le Mars natives, started working toward adopting a Chinese girl before she was even born. Daniel's mother Marilyn Bonderson, who lives in Le Mars, said that a few years ago Daniel and Lori called her from their home in Sioux Falls and said, "We're going to have another…

More and more couples are coming forward to adopt children, and a majority of them are IT professionals. But alas, there are few babies up for adoption in Bangalore. The ratio is drastically disproportionate: at one agency, Shishu Griha, there are only three babies up for adoption, while there are…

THE GOVERNMENT HOPES to restart adoptions from Vietnam in the near future, following a visit to the country by children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald. The minister travelled to the country along with a delegation from the Adoption Authority of Ireland last week. It’s hoped the meetings could allow…

Although the volatile politics of Kyrgyzstan rarely garner headlines in the U.S., more than five dozen American families are keeping close tabs on developments here. Each wants to adopt a young orphan from this small republic in Central Asia. For three years now, they've watched from places like…

Generally, the birth certificate is the sole document proving the relationship between a parent and child. In the immigration petition, a parent submits proof of his citizenship or resident status and the birth certificate of the child. To prove the child’s legitimate status, the parents’ marriage…

ROSE TOWNSHIP, MI --Like many homes, Ben and Kim Green's house in Rose Township has a place for shoes near the front door. The only difference people might notice is the sheer volume of children's shoes that occupy that space. The Greens are the adoptive parents of 13 children and are awaiting word…

Peter Baneti, the uncle of three-year-old Mercy James, said the child's Malawian relations were deeply unhappy that the orphan would now miss out on a life of luxury and privilege as part of the 50-year-old singer's extended family. "We don't understand the judge's reasoning," Mr Baneti, 41, told…

Korea is still sending hundreds of babies for adoption to the U.S., highlighting the need to strengthen child protection in the country. According to the 2011 Annual Adoption Report to Congress released Friday, out of the total of 2,047 foreign-born children adopted by U.S. families from October…

LOOKING back, I think I knew the writing was on the wall, when I cast my eyes wildly round the sitting room and loudly sobbed: “Oh God, it’s the books. Is it the books? We’re journalists, we have to have books! But books don’t make us bad people!” The social workers perched on the sofa smiled and…

Regardless of how policymakers handle the early stages of a child rescue, social workers must continue to caution anyone hoping to adopt a Haitian “orphan.” Already, there are reports of scams, with families in the United States being offered the opportunity to “adopt,” and unscrupulous individuals…

It doesn’t matter who raises children as long as they have money and basic parenting skills. That’s the gist of Emily Badger’s article at the Washington Post, “Children with married parents are better off—but marriage isn’t the reason why.” Badger admits that children raised by “two parents tend to…

My husband and I are considering adopting a child from Europe, preferably Ireland. We are just beginning the process of research and figured that the Irish Voice would be one of the best places to start. Are there adoption agencies in Ireland that specialize in adoption, and would the child…

AUSTRALIA'S largest international adoption program has been re-opened but it is not enough to change our ''anti-adoption culture'', says actor Deborra-Lee Furness. The program with Ethiopia, bringing about 40 orphans a year to new families in Australia, will re-open in April with stricter controls…

So it is fitting that the orphan angel - she started the lobby group of the same name and it instigated National Adoption Week - will be one of the judges in InStyle's fourth annual Women of Style Awards, which seek to honour women from all fields. Advertisement Yet despite her clout - she…

Professor David Smolin wrote those words in 2005 referring to adoptive parents in the Western world. Eager to believe they are saving orphaned children from poverty, he wrote, they are easily fooled into accepting laundered children from the developing world. He knows first-hand how such a thing…

Then life took a turn. As he puts it, "the least likely guy on the planet to adopt three kids" did just that. Juntunen tagged along to Haiti with a business friend who was adopting. The visit changed his life profoundly, as he met three children that he and Kathi would adopt in 2006, when the kids…

That courage and unwavering faith will see Merri and partner Peter welcome not one but two little miracles into the world any day now - but not without a little bit of help. Merri and Peter began their journey to parenthood many years ago and after trying for years to conceive naturally were forced…

"France and Germany have had intense consultations on this issue over the last months, at all levels," a senior EU official in Brussels told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. "We need to move very cautiously, but the truth is that we need to…

Bob Ducharme said he thinks teaching is the best profession in the world, but parenting is the best job. That's why he'll be leaving his post teaching social studies at Portsmouth High School when the year ends. Ducharme, 52, of Eliot, Maine, will return to running his law firm that specializes in…

Dr Patricia Fronek is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Human Services and Social Work, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University and a member of the Population and Social Health Research Program (PSHRP). She has extensive social work experience that spans across several practice domains, including…

A Buffalo Grove-based adoption agency that specialized in international adoptions is shutting down in response to a new Russian law that prevents families in the United States from adopting Russian children. Adoption ARK, which opened in 2003, relied on Russian adoptions, the agency stated on its…

Dubai: Adoptions from India to the UAE have come to a standstill because the federal agency for adoptions in India has frozen all new overseas applications, XPRESS can reveal. Dubai-based Omana Menon, the authorised foreign adoption agent (AFAA) dealing with overseas Indian adoptions in the Gulf,…

No, no, no… he’s not my adopted child,” highly driven businesswoman Marilyn “Mallie” del Bianco was quick to say to correct her socialite friends who were obviously intrigued by the new 7-year-old olive-skinned boy with her. “This is Joshua, my foster child,” she announced. “Oh, but fostering is not…