WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Amy Klobuchar D-Minn., today introduced a bill to help save adoption agencies serving American families. The legislation, titled the “Voluntary Specialized Accreditation for Background Studies and Home Studies Act,” would help to remove barriers to intercountry adoption by increasing flexibility for adoption service providers and providing a new track for accreditation for agencies providing specialized services.

“There are countless children around the world with no parents or family to care for them, yet Americans who want to adopt these children are finding fewer adoption agencies available to help,” Wicker said. “This bipartisan bill would lower barriers for intercountry adoption, making it easier to welcome children into loving families.”

“Local adoption agencies help children around the world find the loving homes they deserve. But too often, families struggle to find accredited adoption service providers to assist them during the adoption process,” said Klobuchar. “By creating a specialized accreditation for small and medium-size providers that offer background and home studies, our bipartisan legislation ensures that families have trusted local agencies to help them navigate the adoption process and give children safe, stable homes.”

Current regulations require any organization wishing to provide adoption services to be accredited under a single standard. This rule means that specialized agencies that provide only a limited range of services have to pursue a costly accreditation that goes far beyond the scope of their work.

This bill would enable agencies that only offer “home studies” or “background studies” to be accredited in their area of expertise without having to be certified in other areas. This would allow specialized adoption agencies to continue operating and would lower the cost and time needed to stay accredited.

Newborn found abandoned in a bag in Lucknow, given to adoption centre

A newborn baby, found abandoned in a bag near the Apna Ghar shelter home in Lucknow’s Motinagar area, has been handed over to an adoption centre.

Lucknow: A newborn baby, found abandoned in a bag near the Apna Ghar shelter home in Lucknow’s Motinagar area, has been handed over to an adoption centre.

According to orders from the Child Welfare Committee, the baby has been handed over to the care of Lilawati Munshi Orphanage and Adoption Centre.

The baby was first discovered by a local women who then contacted Safalta Singh, in-charge of Apna Ghar Ashram, for help.

Bengaluru, Nov 15 (IANS): The State Children Protection Committee on Tuesday directed the Directorate of Child Protection to submit within seven days a report on the dereliction of duty by the officers concerned.

Based on committee's president Naganna Gowda's direction, the officers of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and Child Protection officers of Chitradurga will be inquired.

The order has been issued following the submission by Stanley and Parashu, founders of Odanadi NGO that exposed the scandal.

Several illegalities had come to light after the lodging of a POCSO case against Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru. The allegation surfaced on children being nursed in the mutt illegally without adhering to the guidelines of adoption.

Meanwhile, in yet another important development, Parashurama Nayaka, from the royal heritage of Chitradurga rulers, has demanded reformation of the historical cash rich Mutt's administrative board. He also stressed that the royal family should also have representation.

A three-part series coming to Amazon Prime Video will unpack the extraordinary story of a former Flintshire couple who made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic when they paid more than $10,000 to adopt twin baby girls.

Three Mothers, Two Babies and A Scandal will launch exclusively on Prime Video on Friday, November 18.

It will hear from the three of the women at the heart of an internet baby adoption scandal: Judith, Vickie and Tranda, speaking together for the very first time.

Judith and Alan Kilshaw paid $12,000 to adopt twin baby girls from a young American mother, Tranda.

Global outrage ensued. The Kilshaws stood accused of buying the babies online and the new World Wide Web appeared to facilitate a global baby trade.

November is National Adoption Month, an occasion usually devoted to celebrating adoptive parents and asking more families to step up and care for children whose own parents are unable or unwilling to do so. But this year it might be more appropriate to use the occasion to ask why state and federal agencies are standing in the way of more children being adopted.

About half of Americans hold a favorable view of adoption, compared with about one in ten who view it unfavorably. (The remainder either don’t know or don’t have an opinion.) But in recent years, the media and policymakers have tried mightily to chip away at those numbers. Especially in the wake of the Dobbs decision, the Left wants to make sure that no one thinks adoption is preferable to abortion.

The drumbeat appears to be having an effect. According to data released from the Children’s Bureau of the federal Administration for Children and Families a few weeks ago, 391,000 kids resided in foster care on September 30 of Fiscal Year 2021, of whom 114,000 were waiting to be adopted. But the actual number who were adopted—54,200—reflects a 6 percent drop from the previous year and an 18 percent decline from FY2019.

Last week’s dialogue between Nicole Chung of The Atlantic and her fellow adoptee Tony Hynes is emblematic of the anti-adoption messaging. “Many adoptees I know today feel conflicted at best about this month,” Chung explains, “in part because the narratives leveraged to celebrate and promote adoption have not always left space for discussing its complexity.” Hynes, who is black and was raised by a white lesbian couple, responds that we are feeding into a notion that “families of color are somehow ‘less fit’ to raise their children.” Chung adds, “Yeah, sometimes it’s hard for me not to hear the assertion that ‘more kids should be adopted’ as ‘more kids should experience the trauma of being separated from their families of origin.’”

The problem of speaking in these broad terms about “narratives” is that no one is denying that adoptions are complex. Of the hundreds of adoptive parents and professionals I have met in the past several years, I cannot think of one who does not see the process as inevitably beginning from a source of loss or tragedy.

A study on international adoption brings together topical discussion and studies carried out in four European countries concerning international adoption.

The adoption study examines reviews of adoption that have been carried out or that are under way in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland. These countries were selected for the study because they have carried out such reviews in recent years.

The report provides a comprehensive overview of the reasons that had led to the reviews, the countries of origin for adoption, and the measures taken based on the reviews in each of the four countries.

In addition to country reports and reviews, the study drew on literature on adoption and data on national and international legislation. To obtain background information on the issues, the study team met with representatives of the Finnish Adoption Board and the Ministry of Justice, which are the Finnish central authorities, and the City of Helsinki Department of Social Services, Interpedia and Save the Children Finland, which provide intercountry adoption services.

Discussion on adoption continues in Finland

Justice minister Franc Weerwind wants to make foreign adoption possible again in order to "not exclude" prospective parents. Children's and human rights organizations are outraged. They believe that the minister does not put the interests of children first.

"There will always be people with an unfulfilled wish to have children. For example, people who have a same-sex partner. We want to offer that group a choice by still allowing adoption from abroad," a spokesperson for Minister Weerwind told NU.nl. . "If we completely stop foreign adoption, we will exclude these prospective parents. For the time being, we therefore see no reason to stop adopting from abroad."

The minister says that foreign adoption is only possible if a child cannot receive suitable care in its own country and there is no other option. The government will monitor this more closely. In addition, the Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV) expects that foreign adoption will automatically decrease. For example, 145 children from abroad were adopted in 2019. In 2015, this was still 304 children.

Intended parents can now adopt children from six countries: Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, South Africa, Lesotho and Hungary. Adopting a child from China, the United States, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Colombia, Peru, Slovakia and the Czech Republic is no longer possible. In these countries it is more difficult to supervise adoption practices strictly, or the minister is of the opinion that suitable reception can better be arranged in the own country. The ministry is also investigating whether it will also remain possible to adopt children from Portugal and Bulgaria.

Mistakes cannot be avoided

A local adoption agency that specialises in bringing children from India to Malta opted to cancel its party at L-Arka Ta’ Noe in Si??iewi after a public status by the establishment’s owner was interpreted as “xenophobic”.

Anton Rea Cutajar, the park’s owner, posted a status to his Facebook page, saying he “wishes that cowboys would come to Malta so that we stop seeing Indians around”.

“Workers at the grocers are Indians, workers at supermarkets are Indians, cab drivers are Indians, everywhere you look, it’s Indians,” he wrote in the now-deleted status.

A parent of an adoptive child informed Lovin Malta that the venue for the party was changed after the organisers saw his Facebook post and found it offensive and in bad taste.

“We had a Christmas party planned for our adoptive children from India booked there! Obviously, it was canceled after seeing this post,” the parents told Lovin Malta.

Eline and Sander decide, when their son is three years old, to start the adoption process for a second one. After six years, the redeeming phone call comes: an adoption proposal is ready for three Hungarian sisters. “I preferred to hug them completely flat, but we held back. It was of course very exciting for them.”

Ten years ago, Eline and her husband Sander were very happy with the birth of their biological son Noah. When he was 1 year old, they tried to have a second child. Unfortunately, they had three miscarriages. “The doctors saw it as bad luck. They expected me to carry another pregnancy to term, but we still decided to stop getting pregnant.”

Eline always dreamed of a big family and one day when she put Noah to bed, she thought that countless children all over the world went to bed without a mom or dad who gives them a goodnight kiss and says 'I love you'. “That touched me. Every child deserves a loving, safe home.” In the end it is a documentary about adoption that is decisive. "We really see it as our mission to give these children a safe, loving home and, as far as we can, take the pain out of their hearts."

When Noah was 3 years old they started the adoption process. The family soon found out that there is a serious shortage of parents who want to adopt several brothers or sisters at the same time, so that children are often separated from each other. “We found that heartbreaking. Adopted children already lose so much.” Thanks to Eline's work experience and their experience with foster care, the family received special permission from the Child Protection Board to adopt several children at the same time.

Tough years

Volunteering in a library, surrounded by books and curating an author’s series provides me with a steady stream of information, education and inspiration. I get the opportunity to choose the authors, read their books and interview them. At least that's how it usually works.

It was different with Catana Tully. We met for lunch before I read her book "Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity." She had told me over the phone that she would bring me a copy. I immediately recognized this striking older Black woman from her website, and the moment I saw her enter the restaurant, I became fascinated with her beauty and easy-going sophistication.

From my research, I knew Tully grew up as an adopted child in a German, Spanish and English household in Guatemala. Her well-to-do adopted family gave her every advantage, even sending her to a fancy private boarding school in Jamaica that was affiliated with Cambridge University in England.

With her life of privilege and education, and her knowledge of many languages, Tully aspired to be an international interpreter. While studying in Germany, she fell in love with acting and became an actress, fashion model and appeared in films in Germany, Austria and Italy. While in Munich she met and married American actor Frederick Tully and moved to the United States. Soon after, the couple had a son, Patrick, a mixed-race child.

Tully decided to complete her degrees, including a Doctorate of Humanistic Studies, and served as an associate professor at SUNY, Empire State College in Albany, New York, before retiring in 2011.