My story is a family coming together through international adoption.

The story of my family is familiar to some of you. The context might be remembered by others, even if you don't know our story specifically.

It began 8,435 kilometers away, yet not really. The origin was right here, in the desire of my husband and I to have a family. Unknown by us, and yet running parallel to our discussion, were factors leading up to a political uprising in the country of Romania. The two would soon intersect.

What did I know of Romania? Not much. An eastern bloc country. Stellar performances from athletes at the Olympics. But then a dramatic revolution took center stage—and grabbed our attention.

For seven days before Christmas in 1989 protestors took to the streets to express outrage over the policies of dictator Nicolai Caecescu. Massive demonstrations took place in Bucharest, including in front of his palace, where white crosses would soon mark the places 1,104 people died in the uprising. As the international media shone a spotlight on the country the picture that emerged was desperate. Among the many stories was seeing that the country's orphanages were overrun with children whose families had no option but to place them in the care of the state.

Hoping to give another abandoned child a home, Sarah Salmon visits an orphanage in Cambodia.

Idon’t want a biological child. Most people think that’s odd. In fact, they don’t believe me. But after three rounds of supposedly “non-invasive” fertility treatment, I am 100 per cent sure.

“You don’t want to try IVF?” my husband, Ben, asks regularly.

“Positive,” I say.

I look into my 18-month-old daughter’s black possum eyes every day – beautiful eyes gifted to her by her birth mother – and I am saturated with love. I squish Sophea’s Cambodian button nose against my pointy Caucasian one and I inhale her sweet scent. It’s an unbeatable high.

Louis Michel, Member of the Commission. (FR) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission is very aware of the situation in Guatemala, as reported on by a variety of United Nations special envoys, as well as by the European Parliament delegation despatched to Guatemala in April. Within the framework of implementing the 1996 peace agreements, defending human rights is a key priority in our relations with Guatemala.

Regarding the adoption of children, the Commission has, since 2004, supported the actions regularly taken by the European Union in respect of the Guatemalan authorities. These actions enable us to express our concern about the failure properly to implement The Hague Convention. The contacts between the European Union and UNICEF have also been satisfactory in this regard, particularly on the occasion of the recent visit to Guatemala by the Secretary General of the Hague Conference, Mr van Loon. This visit enabled a climate more favourable to the necessary implementation of the aforesaid convention to be created. At the same time, the Commission supports a series of cooperation projects concerning the problems surrounding the trafficking in children in Guatemala and the fight against child pornography, and it does this within the framework of the ‘country’ strategy for the period 2007 – 2013, which is in the process of being defined. We intend to supplement and increase these efforts by means of a cooperation policy entirely focused on the protection and overall affirmation of children and young people, particularly young people and families at risk.

The Commission has also associated itself with a variety of actions by the European Union in support of, in particular, the Interior Minister and the Public Prosecutor. These have enabled us to express our concern about the human rights situation, including the growing violence against women and the attacks on those organisations set up to protect human rights. In terms of cooperation, the overall indicative budget of the European Union allocated to Guatemala in the area of human rights and democratisation for the period 2002 – 2006 amounts to EUR 18 million. This aid includes support for the judicial authority and for the office of the human rights public prosecutor in the rural areas. The Commission has also launched a specific ‘gender’ programme, aimed more specifically at indigenous women and equipped with a budget of EUR 6 million.

Finally, the Commission has approved a budget of EUR 1.2 million in support of establishing the office – due to be ready by July 2005 – of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala.

Where our future cooperation is concerned, the absolute priorities in our relations with Guatemala are still social cohesion, rural and local development, including the definition of a comprehensive food aid strategy, and, finally, the advancement of the indigenous peoples.

EXCLUSIVE: Woman given up for adoption in Australia by unwed mother who was sent Down Under to have her is reunited 60 years on with British family she never knew she had

Suzy Fraser, 64, was given up for adoption after her mother was sent to Australia

Her unwed mother Janet was packed off from Portsmouth to give birth in 1958

Janet had asked not to be contacted but Suzy did and found out she had siblings

Suzy has been reunited with her siblings Sharon, 57, Eileen, 54, and Steve, 61

“Shame” culture and poverty are forcing some Uzbek women to sell their newborns for pennies and purity.

Although trafficking in person has decreased in Uzbekistan due to a number of government efforts, the sale of children has taken off in recent years. While financial difficulties force many young families to sell their newborns, unmarried girls are opting to do so primarily because of “purity” culture.

Uzbekistan adopted its first law against human trafficking in 2008 and updated it in 2020. Reportedly, nearly 100 non-governmental organizations also work in the country to eliminate it. The number of registered crimes related to human trafficking decreased from 574 in 2012 to just 74 in 2020. However, the trafficking of children has seen a relative increase compared to other types of human trafficking – in 2018, 38 percent of crimes related to human trafficking involved child trafficking; by 2019 that proportion was 43 percent. In 2017-2020, 185 crimes related to selling and buying children were registered. Often, the crime mostly involves women. In 2019, for example, 86 percent of people charged with a child sale were women.

There are three main explanations of this practice. One is “purity” culture, which dictates girls should not have premarital sex. The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan says that in many child trafficking cases, girls become pregnant before marriage and hide it from their families and neighbors. They give birth in other regions of the country, away from their home. The people who help them with delivery also arrange the sale of the baby.

The shame of being a non-virgin, especially giving birth without a husband, is detrimental for girls in Uzbekistan. “Non-virgin” girls have to settle for previously married or widowed men who are usually around a decade older or they become second wives. To avoid such a fate, girls either terminate their pregnancy or sell the newborns and restore their hymen.

The revelation has led the police to suspect that the accused might have similarly arranged more illegal adoptions in the past, and he is being interrogated accordingly.

Mumbai: Santosh Dhumale, the man arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a 71-day-old girl, had facilitated another illegal adoption of a baby girl on the same day as the abduction, investigations have revealed. The police have arrested Bhimshappa Shanivar, 45, who had illegally “bought” the child from Dhumale.

“Dhumale, in his interrogation, revealed that he had arranged another illegal adoption of a two-month-old baby girl, and handed her over to the 45-year-old Sion resident on Tuesday morning,” said assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, Azad Maidan division.

He added that the girl was taken from her biological mother with her consent and paid her ?90,000, while Dhumale received ?3 lakh for the job.

“The girl is currently in a shelter home for children and we are trying to trace her biological mother so that we can make inquiries with her as well,” Khetle said.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by a couple against the 2021 order of the Bhiwani Family Court, which had dismissed their application under Section 56(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Holding that application for adoption cannot be dismissed merely on the ground that a biological mother cannot become a mother in dual status – which is a biological mother as well as adoptive mother – the Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside an order of the Bhiwani Family Court in this regard.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by a couple against the 2021 order of the Bhiwani Family Court, which had dismissed their application under Section 56(2) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The petitioner-appellants contended before the HC that appellant no. 2 (wife of appellant no. 1) initially was married to respondent (man) and a female child was born of this marriage in 2012. Later, the respondent-man and the appellant got divorced. Thereafter, appellant no. 2 (woman) married appellant no. 1 in 2017.

Both appellants then filed an application under Section 56 of the Act read with Regulations 52(4) and 55(2) of the Adoption Regulations for adoption of female

The revelation has led the police to suspect that the accused might have similarly arranged more illegal adoptions in the past, and he is being interrogated accordingly.

Mumbai: Santosh Dhumale, the man arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a 71-day-old girl, had facilitated another illegal adoption of a baby girl on the same day as the abduction, investigations have revealed. The police have arrested Bhimshappa Shanivar, 45, who had illegally “bought” the child from Dhumale.

“Dhumale, in his interrogation, revealed that he had arranged another illegal adoption of a two-month-old baby girl, and handed her over to the 45-year-old Sion resident on Tuesday morning,” said assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, Azad Maidan division.

He added that the girl was taken from her biological mother with her consent and paid her ?90,000, while Dhumale received ?3 lakh for the job.

“The girl is currently in a shelter home for children and we are trying to trace her biological mother so that we can make inquiries with her as well,” Khetle said.

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court has directed the Chandrapur Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to decide whether to hand over a two-year-old child’s custody to her birth mother, or a couple who raised the baby since soon after birth. The girl is currently placed in a home for destitutes.

The girl was born out of a live-in relationship in December 2019, and in March 2020 handed over to a childless couple after the petitioner was unable to take care of her. Even the girl’s father refused to look after her, and none of the relatives supported the petitioner as she was an unwed mother. The HC had ordered DNA tests of the petitioner and the child on September 19, to confirm she was her biological mother.

“The DNA profiling of the child and the petitioner has been done. The report is that she is the biological mother of the girl. In this view of the matter, we dispose of the petition by requesting the CWC to take an appropriate decision, consistent with the DNA profiling report, and of course keeping in mind the interest and welfare of the child,” a division bench comprising justices Rohit Deo and Urmila Phalke Joshi said, while allowing the petitioner to interact with her daughter subject to administrative convenience.

The backdrop of their order was a complaint lodged by the petitioner alleging that the foster parents had induced her to deliver the custody of the child, and prepared a false and fabricated document purporting to be an adoption deed which was notarized. “We are not delving deeper in the rest of the allegations in her complaint since we are informed the foster parents have instituted civil suit seeking to establish rights as adoptive parents,” the judges said, while directing the CWC to admit the kid into the remand home for destitutes.

According to the petitioner, when she found that the couple lacked financial resources, she demanded they hand over the child’s custody back to her. After the couple declined, she approached the district child protection officer.

EAU CLAIRE — Erika and Jeff Ehrhard were met with a smiling face almost a year ago when they first welcomed the young boy they would one day hope to adopt into their home.

“Hi, Jeff and Erika,” said Vanya, now 13 years old.

The couple had awaited his arrival for around three weeks by that point, nervous about the inevitable language barrier between them. They didn’t speak a word of Russian, and they were told Vanya knew very little English.

But they soon learned that gestures and Google Translate go a long way. Within weeks, the Ehrhards and their Ukrainian foster child spoke a language of their own. And within those same weeks, the Ehrhard Family soon realized they didn’t want Vanya to leave when the six-week foster period was up.

“I began to realize that, gosh, our family’s not going to be complete anymore,” Erika Ehrhard told the Leader-Telegram. “It’s like the piece that was missing that you never knew was missing until it got there.”