waltersnewaddition

November 26, 2006

I hope that posting this is ok. I received this from another group. I am sorry if I am posting this wrong.

Thought some of you would be interested...

----- Original Message -----

By

BRYAN GILMER

With children grown up and living elsewhere, a Tarpon Springs couple are starting round two of raising kids, adopting four Russian girls.

Five-year-old Yulia Casson wears overalls embroidered with Tigger, Piglet and Winnie the Pooh. Glittery butterfly clips pinch bunches of her wispy blond hair.

The Sunset Hills Elementary School kindergartener gives her mom a 20-second barrage of kisses on the cheek, then disappears into the back yard to play.

Proposal for a

COUNCIL REGULATION

on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic

instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of

Parenthood

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PF7EPmNMRLQpuXy15JZZRkpByF6HbnHh/view?usp=sharing

Study to support the

preparation of an impact

assessment on a possible

Union legislative initiative on

Amy (40) is with Xavier (42). Together they have daughters Sophie (13), Luna (10) and son Bo (8).

“I am a Sunday child; my life has, on myadoptionafter, never known setbacks. And I don't even see my adoption as something negative. My biological South Korean parents could not take care of me because of the economic situation in their country, around 1980. The fact that my Dutch parents, whom I consider to be my real parents, had a place for me in their home and heart, is something that I thank them for. always be thankful.

I was one and a half when I was delivered by plane to Schiphol, accompanied by a supervisor from the adoption foundation. After me, my parents had a biological child, my sister Lisette, but I never had the feeling that there was a difference between us. My parents loved us both equally, from their toes - and still do.

Biological parents

Xavier and I had been together for eighteen years, our kids leading carefree lives in elementary school, when I suddenly began questioning my heritage. Looking at my beautiful, healthy, happy family, I couldn't imagine a mother ever voluntarily parting with it. More and more often, reports came out in the media that many adoptions in my time were not completely kosher, and that information on adoption papers was not always correct. What if my parents had not given me up voluntarily at all?

Digging up painful memories in order to qualify for an 'insulting' payment

It was meant to be the redress scheme that would help to heal some of the wounds endured by those forced into mother and baby homes, but instead it has caused a furious backlash from survivors.

Last year, Children's Minister Roderic O’Gorman announced the biggest compensation package in the history of the State, amounting to an estimated €800m, would roll out this year.

As many as 68,000 people went through the religious-run mother and baby homes, suffering the worst cruelty imaginable — women’s babies were forcibly taken from them and adopted. Many remain separated to this day.

Up to 9,000 children died in institutions all across the country in appalling conditions.

Adoption STAR, the largest adoption agency in WNY, fired employees organizing a union. The fallout has impacted some families trying to adopt.

The complicated process of adopting a child was upended last year after Western New York’s largest adoption agency lost a third of its staff, an exodus triggered by what one labor attorney called the worst case of union busting she has seen.

Adoption STAR, founded in 2000 in Amherst, fired four staff members last April who were attempting to organize a union. The firings resulted in an exodus of the agency’s staff — 13 out of approximately three dozen employees. The departures included the agency’s executive director — who left a month after the firings — and an associate director.

The firings hollowed out some departments, including the one that handles adoptions of older children in foster care.

The departures rocked the agency, former employees said, causing some clients — including expectant parents and families looking to adopt — to feel left in the dark, cut off from communication with case workers and social workers.

Pforzheim/Enzkreis. Outbursts of anger by the accused, tears and threats of suicide: In the appeal process for defamation, which Oana Krichbaum - wife of the CDU member of the Bundestag Gunther Krichbaum - met, emotions regularly boiled up. Now the die has been cast: the jury chaired by judge Stefan Bien sentenced a 50-year-old from the Enzkreis district to seven months in prison for defamation in three cases and defamation against people in political life.

According to Bien, one month is already considered to have been executed due to a delay in the proceedings. The subject of the indictment were four posts on Facebook in which the accused allegedly described Oana Krichbaum as a "child trafficker". Three of these posts have now resulted in a conviction.

The 50-year-old repeatedly referred to media reports from which she had information about Oana Krichbaum's alleged involvement in child trafficking. Attorney Hubert Gorka even spoke of the "biggest attack on press freedom since the Spiegel affair" in the event of a conviction. Because: His client only referred to the press releases.

Shot over the target

For Judge Bien, the tables have turned in this regard. "Freedom of expression is essential for the democracy in which we live." But what is decisive is that the accused clearly overshot the mark. For example, Oana Krichbaum is not mentioned in any of the questionable articles that talk about illegal adoptions.

A man who found the identity of his birth mother after 41 years of searching says he can’t wait to finally meet her in person.

Auckland resident Jozsef Szabo, 49, was adopted as a baby in Hungary in 1974. His mother, Ilona Huszar, gave him up because she couldn’t keep him.

After finally tracking her down last year, she has had a heart scare and he’s determined to reunite with her again before it's too late.

From the age of 8, Szabo knew he was adopted after his parents told him he wasn’t their son by birth.

“My adopted family raised me in very hard conditions,” he said.

Discrimination laws have been at the heart of the conflict between faith-based adoption agencies and local government bureaucracies for years. Faith-based agencies argue for the right to operate according to their beliefs, even if it means adopting only to heterosexual couples. Local governments are responsible for ensuring that the agencies they partner with abide by local discrimination laws.

In a surprising settlement regarding this very issue, New York state officials have agreed to pay $250,000 in attorneys' fees and costs after attempting for years to shutter New Hope Family Services' doors. New Hope's supposed offense? Operating in accordance with its religious beliefs.

While this is a positive outcome, it’s unfortunate that the city targeted New Hope for several years, forcing the organization to participate in time-consuming and costly litigation, via Alliance Defending Freedom, to defend itself for doing something that was well within its First Amendment purview.

Two rulings predated the settlement. One ruling in 2020 temporarily ruled in favor of the faith-based adoption provider. Another ruling in 2022 prohibited the state of New York from enforcing state law "insofar as it would compel New Hope to process applications from, or place children for adoption with, same-sex couples or unmarried cohabitating couples, and insofar as it would prevent New Hope from referring such couples to other agencies."

New Hope is a nonprofit adoption agency and pregnancy center that helps new mothers. While adoptive parents do pay fees, the organization operates without government funding and through private funding from churches, donors, and private grants. For four years, the New York Office of Children and Family Services agency threatened to shut it down, despite the fact that it received no state funding, because New Hope would only place children with a married mother and father, based on orthodox religious beliefs.