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 »

Video on Adoption: Moving or Trite?

Maybe you can help me clarify my feelings about this rather trippy short film, a candidate in the Reel13 Shorts competition. The topic is ostensibly the confusion some adopted kids face when they become old enough to grapple with the fact that they are not biologically related to their parents.

Except that the kid in this short is a light bulb, and his mother wears nothing but ballgowns and pearls. Also, the Disney Princess mother rescues her light bulb baby from the bottom of the sea at one point.

The video is worth watching for the lovely animation alone, but I’d be curious to hear how others respond to the rather simplistic narration about the struggles with adoption–does this fairytale ring true to adoptive parents or feel a bit trite?

Juxtaposed from Reel 13 on Vimeo.

Photo: gladneyethiopiaadoption.blogspot.com

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 »