Man Charged in Adoption “Ponzi Scheme”

There’s a special place in Hell for people who take advantage of anyone in the adoption triad — the parents desperate for a child to raise and love, the birth parents who are making the most difficult decision of their lives, and of course the child who didn’t ask to be part of any of this.

And by that measure, Kevin Cohen of Roslyn, NY is a very very bad man (if he did what he’s accused of). Which is: Continue reading »

Federal Program Aims at Increasing Adoption of Black Foster Kids

While only about 15% of U.S. American children are African American, over 30% of the children in U.S. foster care are Black.  A new federally funded campaign aimed directly at encouraging Black parents to adopt Black children from foster care launched this week to try and balance some of the disparity.

Programs to help place children with biological relatives have already moved the numbers of Black children in foster care from Continue reading »

Post-Adoption Depression Peeks Out of the Closet of Secrecy

As post-partum depression begins to slowly come out into the light and be spoken about openly by brave mothers on blogs, in magazines and books, its lesser-known cousin, post-adoption depression remains mostly hidden.

Adoptive parents can feel especially ashamed and guilty for experiencing doubts, anxiety or even just a post-big-event let-down once a longed-for child arrives at last.

Perhaps the pressure of Continue reading »

Ohio Cuts Funding to Foster and Foster-Adoptive Families

Ohio Cutting Funds to Help Foster In the latest sad story of state budgets getting desperate, Ohio is planning cuts that will directly and negatively impact the well being of foster and adoptive families across the state.

After last year’s raise from the $250 per month to $300 a month–a raise twenty years coming–the stipend for families adopting foster children will be cut to $215 per month.

This is just one example of the negative repercussions Continue reading »

Adopted Children = Psycho Killers?

A new summer horror movie is getting a deluge of negative publicity from adoptive parents and other members of the adoption world for portraying an older adopted child as a deranged would-be murderer of her adoptive parents and their (of course) biological children.

On the one hand Continue reading »

Adoption After Having Biological Kids: What’s the Big Deal?

I got a bit ferklempt watching the recent New York Times video of a May Lee Wong, a NYC principal who just adopted a little girl from Ethiopia after giving birth to three boys. Maybe it was the fact that the little girl, Mebrat, was thought to be three-years-old when she came to the Wong family but was, in fact, a malnourished six-year-old.

More likely? The fact that a family has adopted after having children “of their own.” Continue reading »