For large parts of her life, Maiken Helene Bergsmo has tried to push away the fact that she is an adopted child. She calls for better follow-up of people adopted abroad.

- It has been difficult for mum and dad to understand. In recent years, it has dawned on them how challenging it can be to have dark skin.

Maiken Helene Bergsmo was born on 8 March 2001 and was found in a cardboard box along the street in the Chinese city of Shanghai.

Two years later, Bergsmo sat on the plane with his new Norwegian family on the way to Harstad. Bergsmo has been told that the tears fell when the snow in northern Norway hit her shoe.

Today, Bergsmo studies journalism at Oslo Metropolitan University. She smiles widely when she meets the journalist in Framtida, but behind the smile there is also a lot of seriousness.

The Karnataka High Court ruled that adopting a child directly from the parents, where the ward is not abandoned or surrendered or an orphan, does not constitute an offence.

The Karnataka High Court has ruled that adopting a child directly from the parents, where the ward is not abandoned or surrendered or an orphan, does not constitute an offence under Section 80 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The Karnataka HC ruled that adopting a child directly from the parents, where the ward is not abandoned or surrendered or an orphan, does not constitute an offence. (Arijit Sen/HT Photo)

Justice Hemanth Chandanagoudar, in a recent order, quashed the proceedings against four people in the Magistrate court. “In the absence of any declaration that the child is deserted by his biological or adoptive parents or guardians, the filing of the charge sheet is also without any substance,” the High Court said.

Banu Begum, a resident of Koppal, had delivered twin girls in 2018, and one of these children was given in adoption by her and her husband Mahiboobsab Nabisab to the couple Zareena Begum and Shaakshavali Abdulsab Hudedamani.

Josephine Fenech from Mosta was 18 when she got pregnant 54 years ago. Back then, a teenage pregnancy out of wedlock was considered a big taboo. Something had to be done to hide the pregnancy.

The teenager and her parents moved to the US together with three of her siblings, while one brother stayed in Malta. When she gave birth in the US, she gave her newborn, who she called Jason, up for adoption. A year later, Josephine got married and had two sons and a daughter.

Seven years ago, Josephine passed away at the age of 65, taking her secrets with her to her grave.

Her son and his half-sister are now on a quest to trace the father, who they believe may have been a priest, and would like to get a DNA test to confirm.

Just three years ago, her daughter Jolene Usitalo found out she has an elder half-brother, Tim Grunert – as he was renamed by his adoptive parents. Now that they have established contact, they want to learn more about their background.

Unimaginable. Dozens of meters of adoption files have been destroyed . Shredded by an unfeeling civil service. People with an adoption background often have a desperate need for this information. Because every snippet might provide answers to their most basic life questions.

Who am I? Who are my parents? Why couldn't they take care of me? Where do I come from? Where did they take me? Why do I have this appearance, this color? Why did I end up in another country? Why in Europe? Why in the Netherlands? Why in this adoptive family? Who, what, where, why, how?

They are endless questions that, if left unanswered, can lead to grief and lifelong trauma.

Wanting to know where you come from is a fundamental building block of human existence. The grief of children of sperm donors shows us how deep that longing can be, how groping in the dark seems to pull the bottom out of your life.

For adoptees you can do quite a bit on top of that. Because no matter how lovingly you are taken care of in your adoptive family; being separated from your birth mother is already traumatizing. Let alone the chaos of being given up, staying in a home and being dragged from place to place. Already in the womb, a fetus attaches itself to the mother, we now know from research. A fetus becomes familiar with the voice and movements of the mother and even starts learning the language in the last term of the pregnancy.

Senimah keeps her promise to the family that adopted her son, Jordy Nijkerk. He's not going to look for it. After being separated by thousands of kilometers for 43 years, mother and son were reunited.

REVELATION OF ZANUAR BUSTOMI, Surabaya

ARTIMAH could not hold back her tears when she met Jordy Nijkerk at Ngagel Mulyo Gang IV (3/5). Mother and child hug each other to miss. "I do not sell children," said Senimah.

Senimah has repeatedly said this sentence to emphasize that she really loves Jordy. He had been looking for his son. However, the family that adopted Agus Purnomo, Jordy's birth name, brought him to live in the Netherlands.

Not many words were spoken at the beginning of the mother and child encounter. The two of them just hugged each other. Senimah does not want to lose her child for the second time. Jordy finally found his biological mother back.

The following list of potential twin pairs is gleamed from our orphanage data books and other sources. It is based on common characteristics such as naming, birth/finding date, shared finding location, similarities, etc. It is provided to assist families in determining if a lost sibling has been adopted by another family. The information includes the child's orphanage name (if known), finding date, gender (if blank female) and health status (if blank healthy), finding age (in days), and qualifiers that suggest a relationship.

If your child is found on this list, contact us and we will try to put you in touch with any other family. Also, please let us know if a relationship is confirmed by DNA testing at 23andMe.com, so that we can help celebrate!

Anhui

Bengbu Orphanage

Name unknown 1/13/99 B-SN 9 (Same birth date/finding date/finding location)

Assam Police on May 6 arrested Guwahati based doctor Sangeeta Dutta from Meghalaya border in connection to the case of child abuse.

Assam Police on May 6 arrested Guwahati based doctor Sangeeta Dutta from Meghalaya border in connection to the case of child abuse.

Dr Sangeeta along with her husband Dr Waliul Islam were accused of abusing their adopted minor daughter. Meanwhile, Dr Sangeeta was on the run and hiding in a house at Umsning in Meghalaya’s Ribhoi. However, the police were able to track her down and brought her to the Paltam Bazar police station at night.

Dr. Waliul, Sangeeta's husband, is being held by the police for five days in connection with the case. In the meantime, Lakshmi Rai, the caretaker who was also allegedly involved in the case, has been taken into custody by the court.

The doctor couple duo are accused for their alleged involvement in a child abuse case and the matter came to light after child rights activist Miguel Das Queah took to social media and informed about the incident.

Women and adopted children demand Westminster follows example of Wales and Scotland

Women forced to give up their babies for adoption in the 1950s, 60s and 70s are stepping up pressure on the UK government to issue a formal apology following the lead of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

The women and their adopted children are urging MPs to demand the government act on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee that called for a retrospective public apology for the violation of human rights and psychological trauma.

The Labour party is also expected to come under pressure to commit to issuing a formal apology should it win the next general election.

An estimated 185,000 women, most of them unmarried teenagers at the time, were coerced into having their babies adopted between 1949 and 1976. Many were sent to mother and baby homes run by state, religious or charitable bodies, where they were made to feel shame and guilt and some were required to do menial labour.

Olivia Atkocaitis, now 19, alleges in the lawsuit that her parents prevented her from attending public school and imprisoned her in a room in their basement.

A woman born in China and adopted by parents in the New Hampshire town of New Boston is now suing them alleging years of abuse, dangerous living conditions and racist treatment.

Olivia Atkocaitis, now 19, alleges in the lawsuit filed Monday that her parents, Denise and Thomas Atkocaitis, prevented her from attending public school and imprisoned her in a room in their basement. It also alleges they forced her to perform intense manual labor, beat her and shouted racial slurs at her, among other abuses, for nearly 14 years.

Atkocaitis said in the suit she attempted to escape multiple times throughout her childhood but was reprimanded and returned to her home’s dangerous conditions by local police each time, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says Atkocaitis escaped for the last time in 2018 by digging through the walls of a “basement prison” and running away to nearby woods.

Upon learning of her escape, the New Boston police used dogs to track her, according to the lawsuit. After a private citizen found Atkocaitis covered in dirt from the woods the next day, the New Boston Police Department investigated and arrested her adoptive parents and initiated criminal prosecutions of them for felony-level offenses in September 2018. After pleading guilty to the charge of criminal restraint, Denise Atkocaitis did not serve jail time, while Thomas Atkocaitis served six months after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

Lucy Hardcastle, regarded by some as the unofficial mayor of Forestville, was a woman with a piece missing, until an ordinary day in February when she returned home from shopping to life-transforming news that she had hoped but never dared believe she would ever receive.|

She held him in her arms for only a few moments.

The nurses left the room, and Lucy Wilkins was alone with her infant son for the first and last time. The thought raced through her mind: “I could just run down the hall and run out and not get caught.”

But even if she did make it out of the hospital doors, where would she go? In 1964, there was no place for a 19-year-old unwed mother. Not for a good Catholic girl in polite society.

It just wasn’t done.