Weekend to remember

t your paths." (Prov. 3:5-6)

02 April 2010

A weekend to REMEMBER!!!!!! March 26-28, 2010

Well, the journey to revisit the beginning years of my life has begun...I am not sure that I will have closure, answers or complete healing in the coming weeks or months that lie ahead...but I am trying to let God hold me through this journey. Last weekend, Don and I flew into Atlanta, GA for Ms. Betty Tisdale's An Lac Orphans Reunion in Columbus, GA!!!!!

My American Twin, Heather & me :)

After arriving into Atlanta, our dear friends that we met in Vietnam- 3 years ago - to adopt our babies met us at the airport to go to dinner. We have been blessed beyond words to have Jason, Heather and Rocco Willis to travel, bond and connect with during our adoption pregnancy & after. We got to see Rocco on his birthday weekend, reminiscing when we were coming home to the States with our babies on Rocco's longest and first birthday ever. Because of the time zones & traveling, March 29, 2007 ended up being like 36 hours :).

Kim-Lan with Ms. Betty Tisdale & Ms. Truc (Mdm. Ngai's niece)

It was an honor to meet and thank in person the woman that helped get me out of Vietnam, 35 years ago. I was in one orphanage then transferred to An Lac, then airlifted out with over 200 other babies. I arrived in the States mid April, landed in CA, then onto GA. I was then escorted to Detroit, MI on Tax Day = April 15, 1975 to my mom & grandma.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Truc at the airport and finding our way to the Columbus shuttle together. Ms. Truc was Madame Ngai's niece, the VN Director of An Lac Orphanage. Mdm. Ngai came to the States after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and died 3 years later, 1978 at the age of 73. We had a memorial service for Mdm. Ngai at her grave site. Local & Fox National News covered the whole weekend.

There were over 50 adoptees gathered here to honor, thank and hug Ms. Betty Tisdale & Ms. Truc.

Well, I got to meet the FIRST, taller, prettier Kim-Lan in Ms. Betty's life!!! Betty's 4 daughters came to the GA reunion and they are so beautiful, precious and kind in person as I imagined they would be.

From Left to Right in the picture above: MaiLara, Kim-Lan (me), Ms. Betty, Xuan, TuVan, Kim Lan (Betty's daughter).

I am packing now for the next BIG trip to Saigon, Vietnam - in less than 2 days....WOW!!!! Yikes...I'm not sure what I'm feeling but I am thinking, I can't believe the time has come, months of planning, dreaming, praying, waiting...coming down to this moment in time.

Persons: Vu Thi Ngai, Betty Tisdale

A Sacred Mission: WSA Adoption Program in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

ETHIOPIA IS CURRENTLY ACCEPTING ADOPTION APPLICATIONS FROM MARRIED COUPLES AND SINGLE WOMEN FROM THE AGES OF 25 TO 55. APPLY TODAY WHILE THIS WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY IS OPEN.

Overview

We are proud to be directly licensed to conduct adoptions from Ethiopia. Please contact us directly for more information about our adoption program in Ethiopia. We also encourage you to watch our Ethiopia Adoptions Videos (A Sacred Mission and The Orphans of Ethiopia) and read about the services we provide.

You can download an Ethiopia Adoption Fee Schedule.

Organizations: West Sands Adoptions, Village of Hope - Ethiopia

Bulgaria NOT Closing to Adoption

Rumors

April 01,2010 / Anonymous

Rumors of Bulgaria closing to international adoption are untrue. Bulgaria continues to iron-out its program to place orphaned children internationally. In a March 23rd forum between Bulgarian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) officials, the Social Support Agency in Bulgaria , and representatives of Non-Government Organizations, it was agreed by all to work more closely in sharing information about special needs and older children. It was also established that many more children will be added to the adoption registry during 2010, in the hope of allowing these children to find permanency.

Due to the intensity of the work needed to thoroughly document each child's case before adding the child to the registry, it was acknowledged that patience must be exerted by each agency and prospective family concerned with the welfare of these children. The process will require many months before all children living in orphanages have a clear, documented case plan.

Countries: Bulgaria

Petition 1120/2009 on Romania’s fulfilment of international conventions on children’s rights

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Date: 01-04-10

Petition 1120/2009 on Romania’s fulfilment of international conventions on children’s rights

The Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament met the 22-23 of March 2010 to discuss and act on the request submitted by Amici dei Bambini through the petition No. 1120/2009 to take all measures necessary to ensure that the Romanian authorities recognise intercountry adoption as a legitimate and necessary way of finding families for abandoned children who could no be adopted in Romania.

The first petitioner, the President of Amici dei Bambini Marco Griffini, explained in his speech the reasons behind the petition and his disappointment for the lack of action of the Romanian Government for coping with the worrying conditions of Romanian abandoned children, whose number cannot be “absorbed” by the national adoption.

Organizations: European Parliament, Amici dei Bambini

Countries: Romania

Adoption Blogs Kenya (Netherlands)

Adoptieblogs Kenya

Esther's blog op Hyves

Marc's blog op Hyves

Frank, Elise en Samuel

Lesley, Deborah en James

Countries: Kenya, Netherlands

Consulate General Guangzhou Issues One Thousand Hague Adoption Visas

April 2010

The U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou, China recently issued its1,000th Hague adoption visa since the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention went into force for the United States on April 1, 2008. The Hague Adoption Convention is an international agreement which establishes international standards of practices to provide safeguards in the intercountry adoption process and works to ensure the best interests of children. Approximately 80 countries are party to the Convention.

The U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou has taken numerous steps to work closely with the Chinese Central Adoption Authority to usher in the Convention adoption process. The issuance of more than1,000 Hague adoption visas by the U.S. Consulate demonstrates an important milestone for the children being adopted by U.S. citizen parents in accordance with the rules of the Convention. It also demonstrates close cooperation between China and the United States to seek permanent homes for children when a suitable family has not been found in the child’s country of origin.

Countries: China, United States of America

A Kinshasa, notre investissement est important dans les orphelinats avec qui nous avons noué des relations. (Vivre en Famille)

A Kinshasa, notre investissement est important dans les orphelinats avec qui nous avons noué des relations.

Nous avons d’ores et déjà effectué des livraisons de vivres et donné des fonds.

Nous apportons un peu de chaleur et d’amitié, les enfants nous reconnaissent, nous font fête quand ils nous revoient. Un atout : « l’appareil photo », magie de se voir dans cette petite boite !

Les sollicitations sont nombreuses : le Bandudu, le Kivu, etc… aujourd’hui un appel par émail pour 50 enfants dans l’Est et… et… et… ! mais il nous faut gérer les priorités.

En préparation depuis de long mois, la Convention de Partenariat entre le Ministère du Genre, de la Famille et de l’Enfant et l’Association Vivre en Famille a été signée au cours de ce séjour.

Organizations: Vivre en Famille

Countries: Democratic Republic of The Congo

Summary Report: Haiti safeguards and Protection

US Department of State Announcement | Main| Happy Mother's Day »

JCICS Summary Report

Category JCICS Haiti Adoption

Bookmark :

The Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) has posted a "Summary Report on Intercountry Adoption in Haiti: Safeguards and Protections" on their blog. The report covers background on the adoption situation, a short Haitian adoption process outline, information from Haiti, and recommendations for moving forward with a Haitian adoption. Bethany Christian Services International has reviewed this report, and supports JCICS in their findings and recommendations.

Countries: Haiti

Organizations: Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS), Bethany Christian Services

ASSOCIATION OF ACCREDITED ADOPTION ORGANISATIONS Final programme – “Open Days” - 22. – 23. April 2010 “GOOD PRACTICE IN INTER-CO

ASSOCIATION OF ACCREDITED ADOPTION ORGANISATIONS

Final programme – “Open Days” - 22. – 23. April 2010

“GOOD PRACTICE IN INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTIONS”

English will be the only working language.

Thursday 22nd April: Open Day (half day)

Organizations: Euradopt

An Adult Adoptee Decides to Adopt

This spring, Bert and Sarah Ballard hope to fly to Vietnam to pick up the little boy they plan to adopt. In the three years since they began the adoption process, the couple, who already have two biological daughters, have experienced the excitement, emotional upheaval, and bureaucratic setbacks typical for adoptive families. In one significant way, though, the Ballards' experience has been unusual.

Bert Ballard is himself an adoptee. In April of 1975, during the chaotic last few weeks of the war in Vietnam, the United States government sponsored an evacuation of some 3,000 orphaned and displaced children from Saigon and placed them with adoptive families overseas. The evacuation, which came to be known as Operation Babylift, has been regarded both as a great humanitarian response to the crisis and a bungled effort that amounted to kidnapping. While most of the children were, indeed, orphans in need of homes, as many as 20 percent still had parents in Vietnam.

Bert Ballard was one of the children on those planes. I first met him in 2005, as I was conducting research for a book about Operation Babylift. As I had discovered, Operation Babylift adoptees have varying levels of information about their pasts. Some know, for example, their place of birth. Others have birth certificates, records of hospital stays, or documentation from the orphanages that cared for them. Bert Ballard has none of these. His Vietnamese name, Vu Tien Do II, doesn't even make sense in Vietnam, which has no tradition of naming children "Junior," or "the Second," or "the Third."

Soon after Bert's adoptive parents took him into their home in 1975, they asked for an explanation for the "II" at the end of their new son's name. The adoption facilitator offered an answer that reveals the disorganization of the entire effort. One baby, who had been given the name Vu Tien Do, somehow got lost. A different baby--who would later become Bert--was discovered and given the lost child's name. When the original Vu Tien Do turned up, the adoption facilitators left both names intact, adding a "II" to the name of the boy who came second.

Despite the holes in his history, Bert Ballard considers himself fortunate. Loving parents raised him. He grew up in small-town America and received an excellent education. He's quick to admit, though, that his personal history has left him with a sense of loss. "I can remember as early as third grade, sitting in music class and everyone was talking about where they were born and I didn't have any answers for that."

As the trans-national adoptees of the '50s, '60s, and '70 mature, they have come to add new, and often heated, voices to the debate over the ethics of adoption. They do not, however, offer a unified perspective on the subject. While many adoptees express satisfaction about their upbringing, others see their adoption as a crime that tore them from their vulnerable birth families.

Ballard's view on the subject lies somewhere in between, and explains, in some ways, his own reason for adopting now. Although his awkward journey to the United States underscores the perils of mismanaged adoption, he also believes that children in need can benefit from the opportunity to be raised in loving homes. "I personally have difficulty with calls to end adoption in general," Ballard says, "because I feel that that ignores the broader social context of what's going on. Whether it's war, whether it's poverty, there's a reason that adoption occurs, and it's because families can't take care of their children." He does not think adoption should be a first choice, as seems to have been the case recently with a group of Haitian children, but he also disagrees with those who would summarily dismiss it as a viable option.

Even though the Ballards hope to travel this spring--35 years after Bert was himself airlifted out of Vietnam--they know that, in the complex world of international adoption, things almost never go as planned. In part because of Bert's own troubling experience as a child, the couple have worked to ensure that this adoption conforms to ethical standards. They recognize, too, that, though they believe the boy to be legitimately in need of a home, it's possible that a biological mother could appear over the next few months and ask to keep the child. Such an event would devastate the Ballards, who already consider the boy their son, but they also believe that the desires of biological parents take precedence. "I would fight for her rights," Sarah Ballard says, "as much as I would fight for my own."

As a boy, Bert Ballard sometimes dreamed of returning to his homeland, which seemed like a way to re-capture what he'd left behind. Now, as he plans to make his first journey back to Vietnam, he finds himself less focused on the past than on the future. "Now it's about going over and picking him up," Ballard says. "I want to have good, positive memories of when I picked up my son, memories of my whole family. It's not just about me."

Related Blogs On Huffington Post:

Countries: Vietnam

Persons: Bert Ballard