Women who were historically forced into giving up their children for adoption are being asked to share their experiences. An estimated 60,000 mothers in Scotland had babies adopted simply because they were unmarried.

Lisa Rolland was living in Edinburgh in 1982 when she became pregnant at the age of 16.

Still a schoolgirl, she remembers her GP's reaction to her pregnancy was to say: "Who's been a silly girl then?"

"I felt so shamed," she said. "[I thought] I have obviously been bad, I have done something bad. I felt very isolated."

She was unmarried and says the pressure on her to give up her newborn son for adoption was so great, she could not stop it.

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas' baby born through surrogacy has restarted debates about the practice. Why do we think there's only one way to be a mother?

“Motherhood is a state of being which has, from time immemorial, been defined by a set of cliched, internalized words that are as powerful as they are evocative. Woman, womb, mother…. In our minds, the creation, sustenance and nurturing of life hinges on the blending of these words into synonymity.” I wrote these words in in the preface to my 2014 book Baby Makers: The Story Of Indian Surrogacy, and went on to ask whether being a “mother” necessarily includes the whole gamut of actions like conceiving, carrying and bearing a child. What if one cannot conceive or bear a child for some biological reasons, or chooses not to for personal reasons? Does that make her less of a woman? Can she not still be a mother?

A 31-year-old woman accused of leaving her baby in an underground waste container in Amsterdam-Slotermeer in 2014 should be convicted and sent to a prison cell for four years, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said in court on Thursday. The prosecutor said that Todisoa R. deliberately tried to kill her one-month old daughter when the child was abandoned in an underground dumpster.

On Sunday, 26 October 2014, the child was found around 4:15 a.m. by a passerby who heard crying noises coming from within the waste bin on Fritz Conijnstraat. The police and fire brigade together managed to rescue the baby girl.

Nothing was known about the child’s birth parents, or how she ended up in the garbage, until nearly seven years later. During that time, she was adopted into another family. The police identified the mother, R., thanks to a fingerprint left on the bag in which the baby was found in 2014. Last May, Germany extradited the woman to the Netherlands.

Her attorney said that the R has an intellectual disability. Originally from Madagascar, R. moved to the Netherlands as an undocumented immigrant in 2014. She denied leaving her child in the dumpster later that year. She alleged an alternative scenario claiming that the father absconded with the child while R. was sleeping, and then came back to say that the girl was dead.

R said in court that she, "didn't throw Nomena in the trash." When explaining further, she added, "But I didn't do it. I did not do it. I only want a future for my children.” Her attorney said that there was not enough evidence to convict her and called for an acquittal.

According to court, the state is not liable for the suffering of 'remote mothers'

The Child Protection Board has not acted unlawfully towards a group of 'remote mothers' in the last century. That is what the court in The Hague ruled in a case that women's rights organization Bureau Clara Wichmann and 75-year-old mother-in-law Trudy Scheele had brought against the Dutch state.

The women they represent had to give up their newborn child between 1956 and 1984, often against their will. This concerns approximately 13,000 to 14,000 women who often became pregnant without being married.

Not well informed

Scheele herself became pregnant in the sixties, while she was not married. She was sent by her family to the Catholic Paul Foundation in Oosterbeek, where she gave birth to a son in 1968. After she gave birth, she had to give her son up for adoption, although she didn't want to.

The District Court of The Hague has today rendered a decision in a case concerning the question of whether the Child Protection Board has acted unlawfully towards mothers in the Netherlands who, in the period 1956-1984, gave up their child against their will (remote mothers). . The case had been brought by the collective interest group Clara Wichmann, which stood up for a group of give-away mothers, and by one individual give-away mother. The court dismisses the claims.

Background

In the period between 1956 and 1984, it is estimated that between thirteen and fourteen thousand women in the Netherlands gave up one or more children for adoption. At the time, unmarried pregnant women were stigmatized as 'fallen women' because they had had sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Social attitudes have since changed significantly. It is difficult to comprehend with 'nowadays' how people thought about relinquishing a child in those days. The renunciation of adoption has deeply grieved the distance mothers. Many of them are still struggling with it. They want recognition for this suffering and that is why the claimants have started this procedure.

statute of limitations

It has been a long time since the women involved gave up their children. The State has therefore invoked limitation. The court is of the opinion that there are good reasons that the claims of the claimants are time-barred. But because it has not been established that the Council made errors that are legally culpable at the time, the court rejected the claims for that reason.

The DNA database for missing persons is a success. The National Institute of Criminology and Criminalistics (NICC) reported this on Wednesday. Since the database was founded four years ago, 273 new profiles have been added and in 21 cases the database has contributed to the identification of unknown bodies or body parts.

The DNA database was established on July 1, 2018 with the aim of identifying unknown bodies or finding traces of missing persons. There are three types of DNA profiles, explains Bieke Vanhooydonck of the NICC. "First, there are the unidentified bodies. In addition, traces of missing persons, such as teeth, are also added to the database. Finally, the DNA of relatives of missing persons is added."

So far, the database has been able to contribute to the identification of an unknown body in 21 cases. It concerns five profiles of relatives and thirteen trace profiles of a missing person.

The database also works together with the Missing Persons Cell. "The database is relatively small, but very effective, as it turns out," says Vanhooydonck. For example, the database would also have led to a breakthrough in files with few indications.

Operation Graveyard

The couple has named their youngest daughter Naina Hope Mylius.

It is said that not all families are based on blood relations. Nothing embodies this more than Johonna Jo Mylius and her husband Shane Michael Mylius. The Texas couple faced lengthy paperwork, visa issues, and pandemic restrictions for more than two years to finish their daughter’s adoption process.

The Mylius’s wanted to adopt a second child after the birth of their daughter Kaila. Their search brought them to India where they matched with Naina in October 2019 when she was just 18 months old. Naina was a premature baby and was hearing-impaired. She was abandoned in a newborn intensive care unit. However, her medical complications did not stop Mylius from going ahead with the adoption.

They were set to obtain Naina’s custody in March 2020 but then the whole world went under a lockdown due to Covid-19 and all operations were put on hold. After anxiously waiting for many months, they got Naina’s custody in December 2020 and were set to travel to India in February 2021 to receive their daughter.

Unfortunately, a week before they were set to leave for India, it snowed too much in Texas that put all operations at a halt. The couple was yet to receive their visa from the Indian consulate. Explaining the precarious situation, Johonna Mylius wrote in an essay published on Love What Matters, “We were set to fly out of Houston on Wednesday. Saturday and Sunday, it snowed and no mail was delivered. Monday was President’s Day so, no mail was running. Tuesday, roads still icy, we were out of electricity at home, phone lines were down, and the Indian consulate wasn’t answering.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 26, 2022 – The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), partnered nonprofit to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption (CCA), is pleased to welcome Angelique Salizan as the organization’s Policy Director. As of January 31, she will lead CCAI’s government relations, education, and advocacy strategies in domestic and international child welfare, permanency, and adoption policy.

“There are various challenges when it comes to addressing the needs of children and families. I am eager to build on the established advocacy and policy efforts at CCAI. My priority is to collaborate with Members of Congress, child welfare leaders, and impacted voices to holistically resource and educate the caucus on nonpartisan policies to ensure children all over the world have a permanent, safe, and loving family,” said Angelique Salizan, CCAI Policy Director. “I look forward to reconnecting with Members of Congress and their staff as well as forge new relationships with congressional partners and the community to address policy challenges and opportunities.”

Prior to joining CCAI, Angelique’s work in child welfare advocacy, policy, and reform dates back to 2013 when she participated in a New York State campaign advocating for support services for foster youth pursuing a higher education with the Children’s Aid Society, a program that is still in existence today. These efforts led to an internship and career working for the United States Senate as a congressional staff member.

In fact, Angelique was first introduced to CCAI through her participation in the 2015 Foster Youth Internship Program® where she worked as a congressional intern with the United States Senate Committee on Finance. Angelique is a published author in CCAI’s Embracing Our Past, Empowering Their Future: Why Child Welfare Reform Matters on the topic of closing the educational gap for foster youth by addressing the need for educational-vocational specialists.

Angelique has a wealth of policy experience and is skilled in facilitation, community and outreach engagement, public advocacy campaigns, government and constituent relations, and has been successful at coalition and capacity building among youth, personnel, and leaders in the child welfare community locally and nationally. Her career includes roles with the offices of U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (OR) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) – both members of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption – as well as U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH).

A teenage boy in China, who was sold as a baby only to be ditched again when he sought out his biological parents years later, has apparently committed suicide, the South China Morning Post reported in the latest shocking development.

Overdosed

Liu Xuezhou, 17, reportedly overdosed and died early Monday morning, Jan. 24, after he consumed a vast quantity of anti-depressants, which were prescribed to him for over a year, according to The Global Times.

He had left behind a 10,000-word suicide note posted on Weibo, where the last words were written 2 minutes after midnight on Monday morning.

Police searched for him after being alerted by the public

This video posted by the Instagram page of Humans of Bombay shows how a couple beat all odds to adopt their younger daughter, Naina, from India.

Videos that show how people make their adopted children are always very emotional and heart-warming to watch. This video that was recently shared by the Instagram page of Humans of Bombay shows exactly that kind of a story. In it, viewers can see how a couple adopted their sweet daughter from India.

The father, Shane Michael Mylius and the mother, Johonna Jo Mylius - shared about their adoption journey in this video. The couple already had a daughter but decided to adopt another one from India. After two years of talking to agencies here, they got to know of a little, hearing impaired girl named Naina. And deep down, they knew immediately that this was their daughter.

When they finally came to India and met their child, the duo teared up when they finally got custody. The caption that accompanies this adorable video reads, “You don't have to share the same DNA to be family!” The video was complete with the information that not only is Naina enjoying her life with her new family but also, her older sister loves her a lot.

Since being posted on Instagram around an hour ago, this video has already received 31,000 likes. It has also received several comments from Instagram users who found this video way too adorable.