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Birth parents using Facebook to find child given up for adoption?
The Today show covered an interesting story about birth parents who found the child they gave up for adoption – on Facebook, of all places. This isn’t the only instance of parents finding their children via Facebook, but begs the question of whether people should use this method to find their children.
In some instances, birth parents made contact with their child before getting in touch with the adoptive parents – and in other cases, they contacted a child before the kid even knew he/she was adopted. Continue reading »
Adoptions among gay couples spike, but not because laws have made it easier.
Despite barriers that hetero-sexual couples don’t face, adoptions by same-sex couples are really on the rise. New census data shows that in 2009, 19 percent of gay couples had an adopted child in the house. That’s more than double the number that it was in 2000 — only 8 percent.
Gay couples still have to negotiate confusing and inconsistent laws throughout the country. They face a legal patchwork, outright discrimination and, in two states — Utah and Mississippi — laws forbidding them from forming a family through adoption.
So what this sudden and striking rise? Continue reading »
A nursery set up by one of the couples defrauded by Jones.
34-year-old Roxanne Jones conned at least 10 US couples “by pretending to be a birth mother willing to give up her newborn babies,” according to The Daily Mail. Jones “demanded hundreds of dollars in living expenses, rent and groceries during her fake pregnancies.”
This story is sadly reminiscent of the surrogate mother who decided to keep the baby she’d promised a British couple. Never fear, though: Jones was caught “following an undercover investigation by CBS News after she allegedly defrauded one of their employees.” At least there’s some justice in this world. Jones faces up to 22 years in prison. Here’s how she was caught: Continue reading »
Imagine Adoption was supposed to help kids like these find homes.
Two years ago, trustees of the Cambridge, Ontario-based Imagine Adoption Agency discovered “questionable” spending in the firm’s records. Today, the founder and general manager stand accused of defrauding the agency of over $420,000.
The agency matched children from Ghana and Ethiopia with Canadians eager to adopt. Imagine declared bankruptcy in July, 2009, which literally left hundreds of families who were midway through the process up in the air.
Penny Lawrence and her Daddy Baby Daddy.
Julie Ryan Evans of The Stir sent me a previously uncited link last night to a blog post on The Guardian‘s website featuring a photo (left) of the print-only Irish version of The Sun confirming the veracity of 28-year-old Penny Lawrence’s romantic relationship with her biological father, Garry Ryan. (Thank you, Julie.) The couple suffer from Genetic Sexual Attraction, a psychological condition that causes adults who are genetically related but who were not exposed to each other during childhood to feel romantic love for one another. Theirs is not the first instance of GSA nor will it likely be that last; GSA seems to be a fairly common side-effect felt by individuals who meet their blood relatives for the first time as adults.
Many people, including Evans, have no sympathy for the couple, despite their claim of GSA. In her blog post on the topic, Evans writes, “it’s illegal … and disgusting,” adding, “I’m sure it’s tough to grow up without a father, but it still doesn’t excuse or explain such a relationship.” I agree that GSA might not excuse such a relationship, but I do think it explains it, and the presence of so many biologically related couples suffering from GSA should encourage society at large to treat it as a real psychological issue, not a sexual taboo. The Guardian‘s 2003 expose on the subject says, “The emergence of GSA both in the US and the UK coincided with the relaxation of adoption laws in the mid-1970s, which gave adopted children easier access to their records and led to an increase in the number of reunions between adoptees and their blood relatives.” Experts believe “the frequency of these cases is almost impossible to quantify, although some agencies estimate that elements of GSA occur in 50% of reunions.” Continue reading »
Little does this con artist know that she's on camera.
Anyone who has ever been through the adoption process will tell you that it’s an extremely emotional one. Often times it’s the very last straw available to a couple who badly wants to become parents. Such is the case for Holly and Mark Gonzales. After four painstaking years of trying to have children, they decided to give adoption a chance.
Enter con artist “Kristy Bennett,” whose real name is Roxanne Janel Jones. She told the Gonzaleses that she was pregnant with twins and that she wanted them to be the parents. But Jones never intended for Holly and Mark to become the parents of her twins. Instead, she was driven by financial gain.
1. Omaha school shooting ends in tragedy
Yet another tragic school shooting hasleft the suspected gunman — a 17-year-old student — and the vice principal dead. It leaves everyone wondering how a kid gets a gun (although in this case the suspected gunman’s father was a police officer, and the gun was allegedly his), and what prompts a kid to do something this frighteningly awful.
2. Elizabeth Edwards omits John Edwards from her will
Just under a month after she passed away from cancer, the details of Elizabeth Edwards’ will were revealed. Most notably, she left instructions for who should care for her minor children in the event that they’re left with no living parents, and she left nothing for her estranged husband, John Edwards. Would the headlines have been less salacious, and could she have spared her kids some additional heartache if she had divorced her lying and cheating husband? Or was she displaying an act of outrageous strength and commitment by dying as she was still married to the man who humiliated her in her final few years of life?
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