Search Results for: adoption child abuse neglect

Should You Consider Adoption Part 2

I am trying to help bring to light the major need for people to adopt from the United States foster care system. I know there are some concerns that people have when they think of adoption. The first one that I want to talk about is that they want a newborn only and they do not think they can get a newborn from the foster care system. I personally know that is not true. There are a great many infants in the foster care system. They may have been given up by their mother, turned into a safe site through … Continue reading →

Why We Chose Adoption

When my husband and I started discussing getting married we both decided that we wanted to adopt a child or a sibling group. Unlike a majority of the people who make the decision to adopt we did not have a fertility issue. We actually took all the necessary precautions not to have children the good old fashioned way. If you are anything like my in-laws, you may be wondering why we would chose adoption rather than birthing our children. Hopefully this blog will help clarify that for you. When we thought of our family we both knew that the kids … Continue reading →

Banning gay adoption

I don’t typically like to post about such controversial topics. However, I receive regular emails from the Child Welfare Information Gateway, and in reading one such email I was struck by two opposing news articles. They were both right at the top, one right after the other. The first two links, in fact. The first link was to an article about a man who fought Florida’s ban on gay adoption, and as soon as it was lifted he proceeded to adopt two boys, brothers who had been in his home as foster children for a number of years. Martin Gill … Continue reading →

Giving up on your own child

Of course I understand that there are reasons why parents would willingly give up their rights to their children. People do it all the time when they put their babies up for adoption. My husband adopted our oldest child. I had her when I was young, her biological father was not ready to be a father, and he was all too happy to sign away his rights and allow someone else to take over that role. I don’t blame him for that; he was young too. I guess I always just assumed that this happened only with babies, though. Mothers … Continue reading →

National Adoption Month 2010

November is National Adoption Month! I won’t go into the history or anything, since that has already been explained quite well in a previous post. I will say that I didn’t even realize myself that there was such a thing until this week! I arrived home from work on Monday to find a post put out by the Child Welfare Information Gateway about National Adoption Month showing up in my Facebook news feed! Had I known that this was coming up, I would have had a post about it ready by November 1st. I have now been made aware! So, … Continue reading →

Every child deserves a family – The *right* family.

I grew up in a wonderful family, and I had the most normal childhood imaginable. My parents are still married to this day; there was no abuse, alcoholism, drug use, or neglect going on in my home; and we always had everything we needed, and most of what we wanted. I have always believed that family is the most important thing. The members of your family are the only people who will always be there for you. You should always be able to count on them, and you should always be able to go back home if you need to. … Continue reading →

Adopting a Child with Special Needs

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The desire to adopt a child is a great gift but can be a long process. When considering adopting a child with special needs, there are many additional factors to consider. Children who are up for adoption, especially older children, come with a history that many of us can’t even imagine. Some have been through numerous foster homes, some have suffered abuse and neglect, and some were born with disabilities. Each child is unique, and understanding and accepting who he or she is and what you as parents can offer, are key in making sure your adoption goes off without … Continue reading →

An Update on the Adopted Child Sent Back to Russia

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The adoption agency World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), which handled the adoption of Artem Savaliev, also called Justin Hansen, has filed a petition Tuesday in Bedford County, Tennessee, asking the court to investigate whether his abandonment (in his case, being sent back to Russia alone on a plane) constitutes abuse or neglect. The agency said in its petition that the adoptive mother Torrey Hansen and her mother Nancy Hansen had inflicted “severe emotional injury upon this minor child who has now been abandoned twice, by his biological and adoptive parents”. (The boy’s biological mother’s rights were terminated in … Continue reading →

Teens who Choose Adoption More Likely to Succeed–So Why Don’t More Teens Choose It?

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We’ve been talking about educating youth about adoption, caring for babies, and life in general. In the middle of the twentieth century, the majority of girls and young women who gave birth while unmarried placed their babies for adoption. Now, the figure is less than two percent in most areas. The director of our agency’s adoption program told us that most of the birth mothers in their program were college-age. He said almost all of the high school students decided to parent their babies. Yet, most social service workers agree that children of single teenage mothers are at higher risk … Continue reading →

Adoption Loss: Legal-Risk Placements

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My last blog talked about adoption loss, meaning the grief experienced when an anticipated adoption does not happen. Some adoptions are known as “legal-risk placements” from the start. Often called foster-adopt or fost-adopt programs, these are not voluntary placements by the birthparent, but situations where the birthparents are at risk of having their parental rights terminated. For example, a mother who has illegal drugs in her system when she gives birth may have the child removed from her care by the state, but may be given a certain amount of time in which to go through addiction treatment, participate in … Continue reading →