Perhaps more A-parents (which is a trendy abbreviation for "adoptive parents" I can only promise I'll try never to use again) should read more stories like this one, in which England's foreign secretary, David Miliband, is praised by a mother who adopted from Shenzhen eight years ago. He's just adopted internationally, too.

From the United States.

There's more detail about his adoption in this rather critical Guardian column, which mentions quite a few things about the context of Miliband's happy day - in that he wound up snubbing a Saudi Arabian delegation because he had to "dash off to America."

There are extra helpings of "but it's only an adoption, not a birth" and "surely Prince Saud should take precedence" in there, but to the columnist's credit, he does say he's wrong about that. He just doesn't *feel* wrong.

Miliband's wife is American (which the press says gives her "adoption rights"), but a little digging shows that there are plenty of non-citizens who view America as an ideal "sending country," as mentioned previously here and here on this very blog.


It's probably also good for us (in much the same way that eating unsweetened shredded wheat or jogging laps) to have to read stories like these every so often - at least as long as these things actually happen. It's not pleasant, and it would be better by far if things like that didn't happen, but as long as they do.... That link goes to further coverage of the Focus on Children agency in Utah, including a rather sordid description of a disrupted Chinese adoption that took place under Focus on Children's auspices and seems to have resulted in an unhappy daughter and two unhappy families - at least for now. Happiness should come with resolution. At least, let's hope it does. And let's hope not too many people read that and think that's what this process is generally like.

_{Photo credit: Public domain image of the US Civil Flag from Wikipedia}