Welcome!

Welcome! Feel free to use this blog as a resource for researching international adoption. Courtesy of www.vancetwins.com

Holt International’s price for children

Her siblings hated Leanne. She had small eyes and black hair. Leanne was the only person of Asian descent that lived in her small neighborhood located in the city of Detroit, Michigan. Her three siblings bullied her and her adoptive parents abused her. It was a different story though when Leanne was first received into the arms of her adoptive parents in December of 1966. They voluntarily adopted Leanne. They must have once had sympathy for a baby coming from a poor country.

However, Leanne’s adoptive mother began to treat her coldly. Later the mother attempted a suicide ? she had a weak character and was unable to give Leanne the motherly love that she was supposed to receive. The adoptive father sexually abused Leanne until she was 13 years old. Leanne did not know what he was doing to her when she was little, and did not realize what it was until she grew up, but by that point, she had to remain silent because she did not want to be abandoned again. She found herself surrounded by white people like her adoptive father and she ran away from home when she was 18 years old. She got married before she reached 20 years of age, but got divorced five years later....


click here for article

Illegal adoptions contribute to child trafficking

In a new report, World Vision highlights illegal adoption as a contributing factor to child trafficking.

The report, 10 Things You Need To Know About Human Trafficking, warns of situations in which desperation and vulnerability may lead to parties overlooking both the law and child rights in the adoption process.

“It’s important to have systems in place, particularly in vulnerable communities, to ensure the best interests of the child are always at the heart of any adoption,” says World Vision UK’s Child Rights Advisor Philippa Lei.

“As this report highlights, circumventing those systems sets a dangerous precedent that can ultimately contribute to child trafficking.”....

click here for remaining article

`Mistaken orphan' to meet lost father after 34 years

By Bruce Ward, Canwest News ServiceMay 30, 2009

OTTAWA - Thirty-four years after he was mistakenly whisked away from a Saigon orphanage, Thanh Campbell - Orphan 32 - is returning to his homeland.

Campbell, one of 57 children spirited from a Saigon orphanage to Canada in April 1975, is returning Saturday to be reunited with his biological father and the brothers who never stopped searching for him after losing him in the chaotic fall of Saigon.

``The anticipation is from something you never think could possibly happen and is actually happening. I just think of my father and how long it has been for him, searching,'' said Thanh, who is travelling with his wife, Karina, their four children, and his adoptive father William Campbell.

The flight arrives Sunday evening, and Thanh expects to meet his father and brothers Monday morning.....

click here for remaining article

Adoption of Chinese orphans dwindling

The "golden time" of international adoption of Chinese children is no more.

According to international media reports, adoption of Chinese children by US citizens has dropped 50 percent in three years, from 7,906 children in 2005 to 3,909 in 2008, as per figure given by the US State Department.

China's new laws on adoption, enacted in May 2007, that insist on a higher threshold for adopting family's financial asset seem to be emerging as the main cause of this decrease in adoption. The fees and expense can amount to 20,000 US dollars, according to a media report on Xinhuanet....

click here for article

Silence greets exposure of corrupt adoption practices

By Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer

Saturday July 29 2006
THREE weeks ago the Irish Independent published secretly recorded
interviews with My Linh Soland, the woman who organised all 150 of the
Vietnamese adoptions to Ireland since 2004.

Ms Soland revealed the adoptions were corrupt, that birth certificates
were routinely forged, that officials who declared children abandoned
knew exactly where their parents were, how money meant for
humanitarian aid was part of the corruption and that Vietnamese
officials at the highest levels were getting pay-offs.

She named the names and how much everyone received.

We have it all on tape.

There was so much money involved that Vietnamese children were being
removed from their parents unethically and illegally for profit. Ms
Soland, who arranged adoptions to France and the US, grossed over $1m
from Irish couples alone.

The story was a nightmare for the 150 adoptive Irish couples who now
do not know the true history of their adoptive child.... click here for article

Orphanage scandal officials punished

Orphanage scandal officials punished

By Tom Qian | 2009-7-3 | NEWSPAPER EDITION

SIX government officials in southwest China have been punished over
an orphanage scandal when three children were taken away from their
families who could not afford fines for violating family planning
regulations.
The orphanage sent the children overseas for adoption from 2004 to
2006, a Guizhou-based newspaper reported today....


click here for remaining article

Grim Facts

For true thoughts from real adoptees:

http://holtsurvivor.wordpress.com/

http://adopted-abused.com/

http://adoptionsurvivor.wordpress.com/

Some Chinese babies adopted abroad even though parents still living

Some Chinese babies adopted abroad even though parents still living
Saturday, July 04, 2009 | 10:53 AM
AP

July 4, 2009 (BEIJING) -- Six Chinese officials have reportedly been
punished for letting three baby girls be adopted by foreigners even
though the girls' parents are still alive....


click here for remaining article

Setback for adoptive parents as Vietnam talks stall

By Breda Heffernan


Monday July 06 2009

HUNDREDS of prospective parents will have to wait at least another month to find out if they will be able to adopt children from Vietnam after talks between the two countries failed to secure a new agreement.

Adoptions from Vietnam to Ireland were halted in May after a five-year agreement between the two countries came to an end without a new procedure in place.

Up to 350 parents, who had already been approved for adoption after undergoing a lengthy assessment, have been left in limbo and do not know when their adoption can go ahead....

click here for article

Historic step for adoptee rights, adoptees urge full inclusion in adoption law revision process

Seoul, July 1, 2009 (TRACK) – Fifty overseas Korean adoptees and their allies participated in the second public hearing on the revision of South Korea’s civil and overseas adoption laws Wednesday at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family’s second public hearing sponsored by the Korean Women’s Development Institute (KWDI). The discussion marked the first time in 56 years of international Korean adoption that overseas Korean adoptees represented their own interests in a governmental forum.

The ministry is revising both the laws on domestic adoption and intercountry adoption, called the “Special Adoption Law,” which has been amended nine times since its enactment in 1961, each time without adoptees or birth families as shareholders.

Adoptees were able to participate because professional simultaneous translation was provided by KWDI. The first public hearing held Feb. 26 did not include professional translation despite requests made by Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK), a nonprofit organization aimed at healing the relationship between adoptees and Korean society. The language barrier prevented 30 adoptees and supporters from speaking about the proposed law revisions....click here for link to remaining blog