Whatever Things Are True: the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful in the World of International Adoption

Honduras Bars Two US Adoption Agencies

The US Embassy in Honduras has announced that the Central American Republic has withdrawn accreditation for Living Hope Adoption Agency and adoption powerhouse Gladney. No reasons are listed for the move. Families who are in the process of a Honduran adoption are asked to contact the Embassy directly to be sure their case in on track.

Both Ends Burning Launches Membership Campaign with March on Washington This Friday

Both Ends Burning (BEB), the international adoption advocacy organization founded by businessman Craig Juntunen, is sponsoring a march on Washington, DC, this Friday, August 26. The goal of the "Step Forward for Orphans March" is to "bring global awareness to the current dysfunctional adoption system." Juntunen, the adoptive father of three children from Haiti, has said that he wants to:

grow a social movement that will move the cultural needle that forces policy change, which will lead to more children finding their way into families.  Both Ends Burning was founded, in part, to start and build this social movement, and this march in Washington DC on August 26^th represents a launching point.

 

Other organizations sponsoring the event include:

Guatemala900 

Futuro de los Ninos

Children of All Nations

Great Wall China Adoption

National Council for Adoption

Buckner International

Gladney Center for Adoption

 

Rally participants will assemble at the children's carousel on the National Mall and begin the march to the US Capitol at 2 pm Friday, ending at the Upper Senate Park.

Russia and US Sign New Adoption Agreement

 

Russia and the United States signed a new adoption agreement this week after months of diplomatic discussion in the wake of the shocking Artyon Savelyev case, and other instances of abuse of Russian children at the hands of their American parents. According to Russia's RiaNovosti, the new regulations specify that:

• prospective adoptive parents must undergo psychological testing
• parents may only work with accredited adoption agencies vs. independent facilitators
• Russian children will mainain dual US/Russian citizenship until age 18, at which  time they may declare permanent citizenship in either country

In an interview with NPR, Associated Press reporter David Crary highlights changes coming from the Russian side as well:

They're undertaking to be more forthcoming with details about these children's medical and psychological problems these kids have. That has not happened in the past. There's been some cover ups, and deception and kind of over-rosy pictures of these kids. So we'll see how it plays out. There still could be trouble. But on paper, at least, there's going to be a more diligent effort to be forthcoming.

Crary also points out that the new agreement demands more oversight of Russian children in their adoptive homes. Adoption agencies will be charged with carrying out the regulations, with the US government "making sure that the adoption agencies live up to their commitments to be proactive." Exactly how these new mandates will be carried out remains to be seen.

 

 

Couples sue adoption agency for bait, switch scheme in Guatemala

According to Reuters, five couples claim Main Street Adoptions of Pennsylvania:

promised each a baby from Guatemala  [then] scammed them in a "bait and switch" scheme and are suing under a federal law more often used against mobsters and drug dealers...

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of five couples from Illinois, Minnesota and Louisiana, accuses the agency and three individuals of conspiring with one another "for the illegal purpose of committing fraudulent adoptions through a bait and switch scheme, an adoption scheme that offered illusory promises."

Couples sue adoption agency for bait, switch scheme | Reuters.

Korean Doctor Defends International Adoption Program

The Korea Herald recently published an interview with  77-year-old pediatrican Dr. Cho Byung-kuk, who has worked with more than 60,000 adoptees in Korea over the last four decades. Though she's now a grandmother with her own share of health problems, Dr. Cho continues to work for Holt Children's Services until a replacement can be found, but few physicians have an interest in the demanding, low paying work. Hwang Jurie writes that:

She admitted that from time to time she feels like running away. “I couldn’t stand the children dying, one time I wrote 13 death certificates in one day. To be honest, I’m really exhausted, but there is no one to substitute this job here.”

It has been 13 years since she first tried to retire, but she has had trouble finding a successor... 

She stopped work again at the facility due to her own severe health problems in October 2008, only to come back again last year. “No one wanted to fill the job, so I came back, you won’t understand unless you see the children here for yourselves, they are helpless.”

Dr. Cho also bristles when international adoption is characterized as commerce:

"During the 70s and the 80s there were not many choices for the adoption homes in Korea. At that time, there were a large number of children given up for adoption ― 4,000-5,000 children ― and facilities were insufficient to accommodate these kids, especially those with handicaps. There just wasn’t enough room, food, or hands to take care of them."

“What would you be doing with all the kids dying from malnutrition and a shortage of medical care?”

She told a story about a couple who adopted a girl with a disease called dysostosis, a condition which causes easy bone fractures.

“I asked them why they would take these kids who had an illness, and the father answered, ‘I have an adopted son with the same disease at home, and he now is 10, I thought now my son could help my daughter move with less pain,’” she said.

“How could I have not been happy with a child that was about to lead a new life with such loving parents? If not for the couple, she’d be here like most of the children here, who stay here all their lives. One of them even celebrated their 50th birthday a little while ago. No one has the right to block these children from living their second life.”

 

Family Sues International Adoption Agency

According to a legal website, a Wisconsin couple is suing Lifelink International Adoption Services for  damages in excess of $850,000 and other relief.

Patrick and Stacey Stufflebeam claim that they were misled and charged additional fees while trying to complete an ultimately unsuccessful international adoption they say caused them both significant emotional distress...

The couple claims that the defendants misled them about the wait time for adopting a child from first China and then South Korea and then demanded extra funds that made the adoption impossible.

The couple is suing on claims of the intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, social work malpractice and breach of contract.

According to its website, Lifelink is a Hague-accredited agency licensed in Illinois, Iowa, Florida and Wisconsin


Harrison to hear motions to dismiss in botched adoption suit | Madison/St. Clair Record.

UPDATED: How Much Does International Adoption Really Cost?

UPDATE: This morning I received an email from Reuters Online reporter Lara Hertel about my concerns about her story. She has since updated her post to eliminate the erroneous reference to adoption from Zimbabwe. She also told me that her information about international adoption fees came from the folks she interviewed for the story: a parent who adopted through a private, domestic placement, and a spokesperson for the National Adoption Center, which advocates for foster children. The description of exorbinantly high international adoption fees is still up on the website at this point, but I appreciated the contact and the chance to share more information with her.

I was extremely annoyed by this article posted by Lara Hertel to Reuters Online's personal finance page:

When adoption is Plan B

Hertel writes:

Adopting a child from a foreign country may seem more common given the batch of celebrities who are adopting from Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, but in fact the number of international adoptions into the U.S. in 2009 was around 13,000, down from a peak of 22,990 in 2004.

Fees may account for part of the problem. With a price tag of anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 before travel costs, international adoption can run nearly double that of a domestic adoption. The risks are worth noting, too:  countries can close their adoption borders with very little warning, and often would-be parents don’t see their money again.

First of all, can you name a celebrity who has adopted from Zimbabwe? Or anyone at all who has? You can't, because according the US Department of State, Zimbabwe actively discourages international adoption. Last year, two US citizens adopted children from this country. Don't you think if one of them was Angelina Jolie, we'd all know?

And then, the misinformation about adoption fees! Who are these people who supposedly pay $25,000 - $60,000 to adopt a child -- before travel? What agencies are charging such exorbinant sums? Obviously, Ms. Hertel didn't do her homework here.

I just checked the website for our old adoption agency, Bay Area Adoption Services, to get a handle on current fees. If a client went with that agency's most expensive country program today, he or she would shell out approximately $9,000 in advance of travel costs. That's still a huge amount of money for most families, but nowhere near the egregious figures presented in the article. When Reuters can't even get the facts straight, it's no wonder that average folks sometimes think of adoption as buying a child.

International Adoption Discussion on NPR

A recent edition of Forum with Michael Krasney, an NPR program on KQED San Francisco, featured a discussion of international adoption policy and parenting. Panelists included:

• E.J. Graff, associate director and senior researcher at The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University
• Janet Shirley, overseas program coordinator for Bay Area Adoption Services
• Kathleen Nielsen, Bay Area Adoption Services board member who adopted a child from China
• Marguerite Wright, author of "I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race Conscious World" and senior clinical psychologist at the Center for the Vulnerable Child at Oakland Children's Hospital
• Tom DiFilipo, president and CEO of the Joint Council on International Children Services, a child advocacy group focusing on international adoptions

To listen, follow the link to KQED or download the MP3.

Download audio (MP3)

Russia and US prepare to sign international adoption agreement that includes right to prosecute parents

According to The Christian Science Monitor and other media outlets, after months of negotiation, the US and Russia have finalized an international adoption agreement that will allow the threatened program to continue. Key points in the accord include:

• Independent adoptions involving facilitators will end. Only international agencies accredited by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science will be permitted to process adoptions.

• Prospective parents must undergo special training, for which they will receive certification. Regular reports on the progress and conditions Russian children find in their adoptive homes become mandatory.

• Russian "monitors" will have the right to check on adoptees in their US homes.

• Russian authorities will have the power to press charges against negligent adoptive parents.

• The most noteworthy aspect by far is the fact that the right to press charges will be retroactive, which: will enable Russian authorities to prosecute...Torry Hansen of Tennessee...[the adoptive mother who returned] her son to Russia with a note claiming he had severe psychological problems and posed a danger to the family.

India's Preet Mandir Orphanage Finally Suspended

The Indian Express newspaper is reporting that India's Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), the country's governing body on international adoption, has told Preet Mandir orphanage of Pune to discontinue inter-country adoptions. Some 25 pending adoptions now face an uncertain fate. Preet Mandir has operated under a cloud of suspicion for years, and was the subject of a televised sting operation in 2006, orchestrated by an Indian news channel.