Yeny was 3.5 years old when she was adopted from Colombia. Together with her older, biological sister and adoptive parents, she left for the Netherlands, on her way to her new life. There are a lot of assumptions and prejudices surrounding the subject of adoption, while every adopted child has a different story and experiences different emotions. Yeny talks openly about her search for her biological family, the difficulties she encountered in the Netherlands, but also how she now stands as a 38-year-old woman.

Yeny's mother became pregnant at a young age and as a result Yeny and her sister were largely cared for by their grandmother. After a few years she indicated that she could no longer provide care. Through the agency Wereldkinderen, Yeny's adoptive parents received a photo of her and her sister. In 1987 they met the two girls and after staying together for another week in Colombia, the four of them flew to the Netherlands.

From a young age, Yeny has been very concerned with her adoption. Despite the fact that she experienced her childhood as pleasant, she was already occupied with certain things that her peers did not experience at an early age and she did not feel completely at home in Dutch culture. When she was about ten years old, she developed many questions and experienced a form of loss. “Being sad and missing someone you don't really know, that is very strange and difficult to deal with. Fortunately, I was able to talk about this well with my mother in the Netherlands.” One way for Yeny to deal with these feelings was to write a letter. She addressed the letter to herself as if she were her biological mother. A way to reassure and comfort herself. “In the letter I wrote that it was not my fault and that she was simply too young to raise us.”

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Submit written evidence to the inquiry: Improving family court services for children

In 2023, more than 130,000 children were involved in the family court system.  A large part of family courts’ work is dealing with disputes over children, such as deciding which parent a child should live with or whether a child should be taken into care for their protection.. The system relies on input from a range of bodies including  His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ); the Department for Education (DfE); and the Children’s and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), to provide adequate support and services for the children and families involved. 

The work of Cafcass was last examined by the Committee in 2010 when it determined that the service, which looks after the interests of children involved in family court proceedings in England, was not fit for purpose. However in the years since these findings Cafcass has been rated outstanding by Ofsted, although some past challenges identified by the PAC still apply today, including the pressure caused by high caseloads. 

The National Audit Office’s (NAO) work in this area in 2025 questioned whether the MoJ, DfE and other bodies involved in the family court system in England and Wales managing the system effectively to provide better outcomes for the children and families involved. In recent years the time taken to resolve cases in the family courts has steadily increased, with figures in March 2024 showing that families were waiting almost a year on average for decisions to be made.  

Based on the NAO’s work, the Committee will take evidence from senior MoJ and DfE officials, and representatives from other relevant bodies on topics including:   

Alan Jones, 56, and Kris Kathryn Jones, 57, are each facing a list of felony charges

A West Michigan couple is facing multiple felony charges for allegedly abusing their adopted children over several years.

DAVENPORT, Fla. - A 4-year-old boy is dead, and his mother is in jail on murder charges, accused of beating him to death.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says Bryan Boyer, who was born in Haiti, went to live with Patricia Saintizaire, 36, in Davenport last year. The sheriff explained that the child was born to a woman who didn’t want him and Saintizaire’s sister began the process of adopting him for Saintizaire to keep. Saintizaire, according to Judd, also adopted her 16-year-old son from Haiti. 

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Local News

Homicide charges brought against adoptive parents in death of 5-year-old boy

SURRY COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — New details are emerging in the death of 4-year-old Skyler Wilson.

According to warrants, Joseph Wilson, who is charged along with his wife Jodi in the death of their adopted child Skyler Wilson, got a text from his wife that there was a “problem” with “swaddling” Skyler on Jan. 5. She also sent a picture of Skyler, wrapped in a sheet or a blanket face-down on the Wilsons’ living room floor with duct tape attaching him to the floor.

Skyler Wilson died on Jan. 9.

An inquest into the death of a baby murdered by his prospective adoptive mother will look at how his placement came about, a coroner has said.

Thirteen-month-old Leiland-James Corkill was killed by Laura Castle in Barrow, Cumbria, in January 2021.

Castle, 39, was convicted of murder and is serving at least 18 years in prison.

At a pre-inquest review, Cumbria assistant coroner Dr Nicholas Shaw said he would look at how Leiland-James's care was handled by local authorities.

Despite Castle's conviction, Dr Shaw said there was "sufficient reason" to hold an inquest to "inquire into events leading up to [the baby's] death" that were not covered by the court case.

A 27-year-old former foster mother in New York may spend more than two decades in prison for lying under oath about the abuse her husband inflicted upon the children in their care, ultimately ending with him beating their 4-year-old son to death.

Visiting Schenectady County Court Judge Chad Brown on Friday ordered Latrisha Greene to serve the maximum sentence of 9 1/3 to 28 years in prison for intentionally misleading authorities investigating the brutal 2020 death of young Charlie Garay.

Greene’s husband, former ordained minister Dequan Greene, was convicted by a jury in December 2022 on one count of second-degree murder in Charlie’s slaying. He was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years to life in prison.

Before the sentencing, a jury found Greene guilty of four felony counts of perjury and two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child over testimony provided to authorities in August 2022, The Daily Gazette reported.

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The adoptive parents convicted in the starving death of a 15-year-old boy in Washington state have been sentenced to decades in prison.

Judge Suzan Clark last week sentenced Felicia L. Adams to 35 years in prison and Jesse C. Franks to 30 years in the 2020 death of Karreon Franks. The couple also had been convicted on charges of criminal mistreatment of Karreon’s brothers, The Columbian newspaper reported.

Attorneys for Adams and Franks said they planned to appeal the convictions and sentences.

Clark called what happened to Karreon “one of the saddest things I have seen in 37 years.” She said she had never before returned to her chambers after a trial and “had all of the jurors in tears because of what they had been through.” An alternate juror complained of being unable to sleep.

Adams, 54, and Franks, 58, were convicted by a jury in Clark County Superior Court in October.