Lately there have been many articles in various news publications about pending legislation to open adoption records so that adoptees would have access to their birth records. This would allow adoptees to have a greater chance of obtaining medical information and reuniting with their birth parents.

The state of New York is no different. If the pending legislation is passed in New York, adoptees born in that state will soon have the same right to their birth records like any other U.S. citizen.

Do you ever wonder why records were sealed in the first place? I have and this article attempts to address that.

New York began sealing adoption records in... more

Illinois is trying to pass a bill that would make it easier for adult adoptees to get their original birth certificates, very similar to the bill in New Jersey. Republican Sara Feigenholtz is sponsoring the bill that would give many adoptees twenty one years old or older access to their original birth certificates. Birth Certificates have been sealed in Illinois since the 1940’s.

Feigenholtz herself is an adoptee. In the article out of the Chicago Tribune she talked about how... more

I have just come across something that has brought an extra furrow or two to my already worried brow, and I would like to trot it out here and ask if my concern appears to others to be warranted.

From the president of Origins USA, Bernadette Wright, with a "please forward far and wide!" message as a header, it's a call for stories for People Magazine "seeking recent victims of unethical adoptions", with a deadline for updates of today, the 7th of November.

Although I understand Ms. Wright's hope that this "could be a great opportunity to increase public awareness of coercive and exploitative adoption practices", I can't help but question such enthusiastic urgings to participate... more

A month of positive representations of adoption during National Adoption Month would be a welcome change. Here on the Adoption.com blogs there will be a great deal of focus on all aspects, information on events, suggestions for celebrating our children's adoptions, tributes to birth parents, recommendations for reading, details on various processes, and so on throughout November ... even more than is usually on offer.

Adoption.com also has an "National Adoption Awareness Month" calendar that has daily ideas... more

A couple of announcements need spreading today.

First, the National Council for Adoption has one out about an upcoming national summit to address parent recruitment and training strategies for children in foster care.

It's to be held in Washington D.C. on the 3rd of October ... Rodney Atkins will be there. The idea is to put together a consensus statement to widely desemminate to educate, policy makers, the media, and the public about the need for adoptive and foster parent recruitment and foster care financing reform.

The contact for info is lallen@adoptioncouncil.org.

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