Adoption Advocate No. 90

Every adoptee has their own personal and unique adoption story. That history is a part of who they are, and remains a part of them as they move from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood.

As intercountry adoption has changed over the years, more international adoptees have become interested in searching for information and trying to learn more about their families, countries, and cultures of origin. An adoption search and/or reunion for an intercountry adoptee may look very different from one undertaken by a person adopted in the U.S. Typically an international adoption search will require working with officials in another country and dealing with complex legal issues, language translation, and cultural differences. To better understand the international search and reunion process, NCFA asked Susan Soonkeum Cox, Vice President of Policy and External Affairs at Holt International and a Korean adoptee, to share some of her own personal experiences.

NCFA: When did you search for your birth family, and why did you make that decision?

Susan Cox: I began my “official” search for my birth family in 1992. Looking back, it is clear that a variety of circumstances and moments brought me to that decision. In the late 1980s, I was leading a family tour to Korea, my daughter was with me, and I wanted her to see my records. I had seen them many times before, but part of the information was written in Chinese characters – which are often used in Korea as well – and on that trip the person reading the file was able to read Chinese and give me additional information that I had never known before — including that I was from Inchon, and the name of the director at the time I was there. She arranged for me to meet him, and that answered many questions, but also created more.

The former reality TV star, who has made several humanitarian trips to the continent in recent years, has been at the center of a controversy since rapper Booba accused him of wanting to kidnap a child in Madagascar.

Immaculate white sneakers, good looks and a big smile. Dylan Thiry, Luxembourg influencer with 1.6 million subscribers on Instagram, nevertheless wets the jersey. In 2021, we see him, under a bright sun, carrying food in a Senegalese village surrounded by many children.

Thiry, just under 30, often shows himself surrounded by smiling kids in the videos that document his humanitarian trips, in particular those made on the continent, in Morocco, Senegal or Madagascar.

"I take a big ticket and it saves a child"

But for the past few days, the handsome, friendly-looking kid who has set up his own charity, For our children, has been the subject of a lively controversy on social networks. In question: the publication, on April 25, by Booba, a famous French rapper of Senegalese origin in open war against influencers, of a voice message whose author would be Dylan Thiry.

The bench said if the adoptive parents fail to get a stay from the other bench, appropriate orders will be passed on the next date of hearing on June 7.

By Vidya : The Bombay High Court has granted five weeks' time to a Mumbai couple to get a stay from another bench of the high court on an order of the Mumbai Civil court, which had directed them to return their adopted child to its biological parents.

The bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sharmila Deshmukh were hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the biological parents through their lawyer, Edith Dey. Dey submitted before the court that when the lower court had directed the adoptive parents to hand over the child to the biological parents, it had stayed its own order for a few weeks. After the stay period lapsed, and when the child was not handed over, they approached the court with a habeas corpus plea.

Thiruvananthapuram: The woman who is now facing legal action in the case related to the alleged sale of a newborn baby had been divorced twice because she could not give birth to a baby, police investigation has revealed. She had even approached the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) a few years ago to adopt a child; however, it did not become a reality as the CWC officers reportedly rejected her request as she did not own a property in her name.

She also failed to meet other criteria put forward by CWC to adopt a child.

Lali (33), of Nedumcaud near Karamana, is now facing charges in a case registered for purchasing the baby under sections 75, 80 and 81 of Juvenile Justice Act.

“Lali was first married some 12 years ago, and her first husband legally divorced her after she failed to give birth to a baby. Later she married again and had conceived twice. However, she suffered miscarriages. Later, her second husband also divorced her and she was leading an isolated life after that. Lali was working as a house maid to earn a living and it was by accident that she met the biological mother of the newborn.

The woman used to sell clothes to earn her livelihood as her husband had left her after she got pregnant. When she met Lali, she was seven-months pregnant and was struggling to find the expense for the delivery.

The Eftychia Project

5 May at 00:41 ·

ATTENTION ALL GREEK-BORN ADOPTEES!!! PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE POST!!!*** (This post was originally posted on the private group “Forgotten Children of Greece”. More than 30 Greek-born adoptees have already agreed to join this lawsuit. This is open to all Greek-born adoptees)

***UPDATE ON ACCESS TO RECORDS AND RESTORATION OF GREEK CITIZENSHIP***

It is painfully apparent that the Greek state has no real interest in acknowledging us, making our birth, orphanage and adoption records easily accessible or restoring our Greek citizenship. We have been fighting for this for over 2 years now and enough is enough. Now is the time to take action and that is precisely what we are going to do.

Studies

1968 to 1971

lic. Nat. oec. in Paris and Basel

1971 to 1975

Studies: Social service work/ Psychology in Luzern and Fribourg

My name is Radhika, and I was adopted from India when I was 17 months old. My birth mother gave me up when I was 10 months old, and I was in an orphanage for 7 months before being adopted. For the majority of my life, I have shoved anything related to my adoption down so far that I couldn’t feel the pain. But it’s all coming up and has overwhelmed me to the point that I feel lost. I am now a 25-year-old living in South Dakota going through so many emotions revolving around being adopted: grief, loss, anger and sorrow.

Growing up I didn’t deal with the trauma of losing my birth parents because, well, I was adopted and had a family. But I hated the fact that I was different from my adoptive family. Except for my brother who was also was adopted from India, they were all white. But my brother wasn’t biologically related so I felt like an outsider. To be honest I still feel like that to this day.

I hated my skin color, oh how I hated being brown! I hated it so much that I would wear long-sleeve shirts and pants to just hide my skin. I did this up until my high school years. I also hated my name, I hated the fact I was from India. I would act like I wasn’t from another country. I literally hated EVERYTHING about myself. All I wanted was to fit in with my family and the town I lived in. But that was damaging, and I am still recovering from the pain I put myself through. I am saddened looking at it now, as an adult. That little girl definitely did not deserve that.

I was 12 when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. Along with being adopted with trauma, it felt like too much. Though I had a family, I felt alone. All of this impacted my life into being either good or bad. There were no in-betweens. After being diagnosed with my mental illness, I began hating my birth mom even more than I already did. Back when I was 12, all I saw was how she had given me up. I felt like I hadn’t been good enough for her and she hadn’t loved me. And the realization that she may have given me a mental illness made me even angrier and more resentful toward her.

I began therapy sessions soon after and this resentment became a large part of it. Though it seemed pointless to talk about, I began to understand how traumatic it was for me. A child that needed unconditional love had been given up. Though my memories before being adopted are shaky, the emotions that the trauma left behind remained.

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DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. — A West Chicago couple is finally back together with their family after they were stranded in India while picking up their adoptive daughter.

The couple was stuck in India for 21 days while their two other children were waiting for them back in Illinois.

“We’re very excited to be home, a little tired, but we’re glad to be home,” Chris Santa Maria said.

“Basically we got there March 1. We were moving along with the adoption paperwork and then in the middle of it this lockdown occurs and everything shuts down. Once the lockdown came in, we weren’t able to travel at all,” Chris said.

India announced two different dayslong lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while the couple was there.

He has lived most of his life in the U.S., but criminal record makes him ineligible for asylum

Samuel Jonathan Schultz, a legal resident of the United States, fears the worst if he is sent back to India, a country he left at age 3 when he was adopted by a West Valley City woman.

The 25-year-old knows little about the nation of his birth, speaks only English and believes he would have to live on the streets there, according to court documents. As a Christian in general, and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular, he believes he will be targeted for persecution.

But immigration authorities are unconvinced. Based on his two felony car-theft-related convictions, the federal government wants to send him packing to one of the world's poorest nations.

On Wednesday, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals that ordered him removed from the country.