If you're in Ohio and interested in starting this crazy international adoption process, I just caught wind of some seminars at The International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

I know nothing about speaker Deborah Joy, and have no idea if the things are worth the price, but it's four afternoons of information, so *something* is probably useful.

If you're not in Ohio (or near enough to care), this probably doesn't mean a thing. So just ignore it.

In the Texas area? Interested in actually talking to officials with the CCAA? Or just anyone who knows stuff about adopting from China?

I've just been forwarded an email about The East Meets West Conference.

It's something that happens twice every year in a different American city each time, when One Of The Big Agencies brings Chinese officials, adoption... more

Interesting news out of New York state: the gov't agency over background checks is speeding the process for China adopters.

Weird how all these effects ripple outward from a change made so far away.

For those of you new to the process, this also serves to illustrate the way state and federal regulations relate to Chinese requirements for adoptive parents... more

I suppose this should go in the (notional) "business of adoption" category:

A Seattle no-fee adoption agency gets boost from Xerox efficiency expert.

Antioch Adoptions will open its Wenatchee office by March and bring services to Vancouver and Spokane by early to mid-2008, Executive Director Tammie Snyder said. Plans also are under way to expand by that time to Moscow, Idaho, and Salt Lake City.

Helping to speed the expansion will be Seattle resident Cyndi Quan-Trotter, a Xerox manager who teaches the corporation's employees across the country how to work more efficiently... more

One of the reasons most folks decide to adopt from China is because there (thanks to the One-Child Policy and a host of other, less noticeable reasons), one doesn't run into any funny business with what the professionals call "termination of parental rights."

Except, well, the Washington Post says it *can* happen.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a 7-year-old girl raised by an American couple since infancy must be returned to her Chinese parents, who say they never intended to give her up for adoption.

Shaoqiang He,... more

China Daily reports on an unusual new angle for domestic adoptions in China.

Picture your S.W.I. being run like American Idol....

A well-educated retired couple in Wuhan want to adopt a daughter.

Nothing wrong with that, except that they want a grown-up and well-educated woman and their criteria are as tough as those, as many people say, for the "Super Girls" competition.

The elderly couple want their adopted daughter to be between 25 and 40, with a college or higher degree, but without living parents. She should be... more

Remember the panelists on Paula Zahn saying boneheaded things about racial motivations of adoptive parents?

(Well, to be completely fair, hopefully boneheaded things -- the unconscious is a tricky beast, after all...).

Here: Panelist Solangel Maldonado has written on the issue before. That link is a pdf file from the Law Review at UC Davis -- an article called "Discouraging Racial Preferences in Adoptions," published in 2005.

From the abstract:... more

The Hague. You could call it a convention hall....

What was that I was saying about intercountry adoption numbers dropping?

Because the little newspaper in Biloxi, MS, says, "Hooey!" to that.

(Again, it's an AP story, so there's that....)

We're down a little... more

Comments on a previous entry about America as the Sending Country led to some adoption statistics.

(Emphasis below is mine.)

Matt asked:

So, we adopt 16,000 kids from abroad and 500 or so are removed from the US. How many adoptions are there in America of Americans by Americans?(Excepting spouses adopting kids from a previous marriage, if that can be split-out.)

Which led me to this:

There are some HHS statistics... more

Someone in comments asked me about furriners coming over to America to adopt babies, which I know I've read brief references to but about which I know no firm numbers.

I found this presentation from 1999 from The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. I know nothing of the organization, and nothing on that site seems newer than 2001, so take with appropriate grains of salt.

Emphasis is mine.

One aspect of international adoption that has not been discussed openly is the issue of the United States as the "sending" country. In fact, there were only two articles found about... more