Ukrainian children say they were taken against their will by Russian forces and placed up for adoption in Russia, where the process has been expedited

Ukrainian officials said thousands of children were taken by Russian forces from occupied areas of Ukraine and forcibly deported to Russian-occupied territories or Russia itself, where adoption of the children has been fast-tracked.

One child, a 14-year-old girl identified only as Anya, told The New York Times she was taken against her will and is still stuck in Russia, living with a foster family. She said she was on track to become a Russian citizen, even though she wants to return to her friends and family in Ukraine.

"I didn't want to go," she told the Times, who interviewed her via instant messages and voice memos. "But nobody asked me."

Anya is just one example among recent reports on Russia's efforts to adopt Ukrainian children and raise them as Russian. Ukrainian officials as early as April said Russian forces were "forcibly deporting" kids and fast-tracking adoptions. An official count tracked by the Ukrainian government says more than 8,700 have been deported, but the figure is difficult to track.

Children’s minister Roderic O’Gorman said the Mother and Baby Homes Commission report revealed “the truth of what happened” in the institutions in a letter to Orders seeking a financial contribution to the Government’s redress scheme.

In a series of letters to the religious orders that ran Mother and Baby Institutions, as well as to the Archbishops of Dublin and Armagh sent on January 12, 2021, Mr O’Gorman said the Commission had “delivered an independent, comprehensive, and factual account of the institutions under investigation, and the experiences of the women and children who resided there for a period”.

“Publication of the Report is a landmark moment for the Irish State. The Report reveals the truth of what happened, within the walls of Mother and Baby Homes and beyond them, to many thousands of women and children. Importantly, it also captures those journeys and experiences in the words of those who experienced them first-hand,” he said.

In its final report, the Commission found:

“no evidence” that women were forced to enter mother and baby institutions by Church or State authorities;

Hollee McGinnis added 3 new photos to the album The Journey.

30 October 2022  ·

Like many adoptees, the only pictures I had of my birth growing up were the ones of me when I entered the orphanage around the age of two that convinced my parents I was to be their daughter and photos of my arrival to the U.S. when I was three. And so, I felt as a child I had fallen out of the sky on a Boeing 747, walking, talking, and potty-trained.

Being born was foreign. I had no evidence of it happening to me, no one to be my mirror to remind me, except when I peered into a mirror and saw a face that looked foreign to me because it didn’t match the faces of those I called my family, peering back.

It has been a long journey to know ~~ and accept and love ~~ that face, this body, who held all the knowing of my birth. The terrain of my face I carry from my mother and father, and my ancestors in Korea. Yet, the laugh lines, the crows feet, are all imprinted from a life filled with love from my family and friends in America.

Mater Matuta vzw

22 October 2022  ·

Ook hier werden moeders gedwongen om hun baby af te staan. En NOOIT werd hier het aantal gedwongen adopties onderzocht.

prospectmagazine.co.uk

More than 50 years after her newborn baby was taken from her in a Brisbane hospital, Lily Arthur is still fighting for justice on forced adoption. Hear how she was reunited with her son.

IPOH: After paying RM9,000 to an unregistered agent to adopt a child, Cheah Yoon Moy is now worried about the future of her daughter.

The 53-year-old trader paid an agent whom she had met through a friend in Johor to adopt her daughter 14 years ago.

“I was working in Kuala Lumpur and unmarried. My mother was concerned that when I get older, no one would be there to look after me so she asked me to consider adopting a child.

“After asking around, a friend of a friend told me that an agent could help me out. I drove all the way from Ipoh to Johor Baru to adopt my daughter, who was four months old at the time, with a payment of RM8,500,” she told reporters during a press conference held by Ipoh Barat MCA coordinator Low Guo Nan.

Cheah said upon adopting her daughter, the agent also provided her with a birth certificate with her name registered as the biological mother.

When most people think about the adoption process, the expenses for the birth mother (parent) are rarely considered. These expenses include pregnancy-related medical and living expenses. In some cases, expenses can extend beyond birth to postpartum recovery.

Almost all U.S. states have laws governing the fees and expenses that adoptive parents are expected to pay when arranging a private-placement or independent domestic adoption.

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There are also provisions that limit birth parent expenses. These limits are usually vague (“reasonable and customary”), which leaves it to the court to decide what is reasonable in each family’s case.

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Holt’s interim CEO shares a message with Holt supporters.

To our valued partners, collaborators, and friends:

I am humbled to serve as the interim CEO in addition to my role as CFO at Holt International. I am confident our team will remain strong together during this transition and help pave a path of resilience well into the future.

My career and personal passion are rooted in organizations like Holt International. My wife, Cathy, and I have a heart for adoption — we have three adult children, the youngest of whom was adopted from China. I started my nonprofit journey in 2001 as a missionary, serving in Tanzania as the finance director for the Lutheran Mission Cooperation. Before joining Holt as CFO five years ago, I served in leadership positions for complex, mission-focused organizations that provided social services or healthcare within the U.S. and abroad. Prior to my nonprofit roles, I worked as regional director of procurement and logistics for a Fortune 100 company. I trust that my diverse background and experience will serve Holt well at this time.

Our mission still lies ahead of us. As a leader, I’ve always taken a multifaceted approach for increasing revenue, expanding services and establishing long-term strategic visions. This approach will guide me, putting the children, families and partners we serve as my top priority every day.

A couple have spoken out after being tricked by an 'adoption scammer' - who made them believe they were going to become parents to her unborn baby.

Karli Johnson, 34, and husband, Blake, 35, from Nevada, have spent the past five years hoping to adopt a baby girl to complete their family after having two sons.

They were thrilled after being approached by a woman who said she wanted them to adopt her unborn baby girl - and excitedly awaited scan photos and updates on her pregnancy while they decorated the nursery and picked out names.

Anthony Lynch was adopted at 20 months. For National Adoption Week, he writes about how adoption is like having a superpower

Identity and belonging are feelings that everyone wants, and they are often taken for granted. However, my path to them has been different from most.

I was adopted at 20 months from foster care and grew up in London. My parents already had two biological daughters when they adopted me, before going on to adopt another son five years later.

In our family, there is no hierarchy between the birth kids and the adopted kids. We are all one massive family, and I remember feeling really loved and appreciated. In my eyes, adoption gives children who can’t live with their birth families the life that every child should have: a life with a loving family that enables them to fulfil their potential.

I was lucky enough to have parents who supported me in everything I wanted to do. They encouraged my passion for music, and I went on to perform at the Barbican, Glyndebourne, and the Royal Albert Hall. Likewise, they supported me throughout my education and after graduating in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Exeter, I am now studying a Masters in Philosophy of Medicine and Psychiatry at King’s College London.