Being a Sunday, it seems a good day to focus our news coverage on profiles of people helping people in real and important ways.

Starting in Iraq, from where we've heard of so much suffering and torment, there are small glimmers of joy in the eyes of some children thanks to British soldiers.

The Al Seedaqah orphanage is located just a mile from Basra Palace, the besieged British Army base in the southern part of the country. It is... more

"Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana

Gazing backwards over history may sound like a practice in calm meditation, but when a specific topic is the focus of the retrospective examination what comes into view is often more shocking than appeasing, generating a perception shift that may greatly influence how today's world is seen and understood.

We see this in the adoption world regularly. Books like "The Girls Who Went Away" and "The Baby Thief" go a long way toward relieving... more

In a post from a while back, I questioned the existence of one Jessica DelBalzo, owner of a ridiculous website that sells anti-adoption mouse pads and things like an, "Adoption aborts the mother woman's tank top".

Hey! I'm a grown woman who knows that the world has more than a fair share of nuts and loonies, but I honestly did doubt that something as odd as a webpage called "Legalized Lies Online Store" selling "Save the Family Trees" mouse pads could possibly be anything other than a rather sick hoax.

Unfortunately,... more

I wrote yesterday on the International Adoption Blog about J.K. Rowling and the organization she founded with Emma Nicholson that is meant to address issues Eastern European kids face. Orphans and children in care in Romania are the primary focus, but all of Eastern Europe gets a look.

I'm none too impressed with that organization, but it's not the only thing Jo Rowling supports, thankfully. She also supports a UK group, ... more

This is by no means new news, but since we've been focusing here on some of the negative messages about adoption that roll around in the world, it seems a good time to relate an inspirational tale ... a true story of kismet and success in epic proportions.

Sometime during the summer of 1954, a college graduate student in California learned that she was pregnant. Not yet married to the father, also a grad student, an adoption plan was made.

Given the importance of education to these two, the mother was determined that her baby would go to an educated family ... college graduates, at least ... and she was matched with a lawyer and his wife.

The baby was born on the 24th... more

Continuing on adoption reform hero Dr. Elizabeth Bartholet from here.

In discussing real reform in the adoption world, I chose "Educate Others" as the second step. Although I do what I can through this blog and others, it's people like Dr. Elizabeth Bartholet that lead the charge, making a huge difference... more

Continuing the series on adoption reform that appears on this blog sporadically, today's post features a look a someone who does so much more to make a difference for the positive than simply wag fingers in vaguely accusatory directions and slap the same old, tired links all over the place in an effort to make tiny bits... more

I've been trying like mad to garner information from 2008 presidential candidates on adoption-related issues and where they stand, but have had no luck at all in getting direct answers to direct questions. Apparently today's political climate has campaigns wary of some alignments, and with me on this side of the world and HQs on the other I lack the opportunity to plop myself and my questions down in front of someone who would rather answer than have me taking up space, so, I'm left to glean what I can from harvests less focused.

Rudy Giulliani's campaign has done some adoption addressing recently, though, one that's... more

In 1965, Faith Ireland was a 22 year old college student at Washington State University. She became unexpectedly pregnant and like many women in that era who experienced unplanned pregnancies, she went to an unwed mother’s home and then gave up her baby girl for adoption.

Faith carried that secret with her for years all the while building a successful career as an attorney and a judge. In 1983, Faith Ireland was elected as a Superior Judge and in 1998 she was elected to the Washington State Supreme Court. While on the Supreme Court she decided to break her silence and share with the world that she was a birthmother.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Ms. Ireland a few... more