After reading this article in the Times Online from the UK,"A system guaranteed to damage babies; If you want to adopt, you're better off in America", I'm trying to figure if the author indicates a good example of the grass always being greener, is comparing apples to oranges, or makes valid points about the American system of infant adoption that puts it far and away above that in Britain.

With the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, missing out on all the hoopla during the State visit of the Saudi King and that country's version of Foreign Secretary ... much of it very important hoopla... more

There has been a great deal of news happening, as always, and it is time to catch up with some of it.

Reports from Chad are all over the place with the confusing story of Zoe's Ark and whatever those people were trying to pull off.

The French charity workers claim their aim was to rescue 103 sick children from Darfur by flying them to France.

“The team is made up of firemen, doctors and journalists,” said Christophe Letien, the charity’s spokesman. “It’s unimaginable that doubts are being cast on these people of good faith who volunteered to save children... more

A long feature in the New York Times this weekend looked at adoptive parent attempts to reconnect with the birth mothers of their internationally adoptive children, looking at the process and potential outcomes for those who decide to attempt connection before their children are old enough to fully participate in either the search or the decision-making.

Like every conversation in the adoption world, opinions range wide and fierce on this topic, and there is little agreement, if any, even amongst members of groups coming... more

There is an abundance of adoption-related sleaze in the news today, all of which deserves to be repeated and widely disseminated.

Starting in South Carolina, this report from Spartanburg that asks of an Internet ad: Real or scam?

Apparently, some guy named "Franc" is claiming on postaroo.com to have lost his wife and says he's now looking for "prospective foster parents" for his baby girl, Brenda. The ad has a photo of a man with a baby. Franc says he is in Spartanburg.

The local TV station... more

This issue of child labor in the developing world is more complicated than many would have you believe. Kids having to go to work at the age of four or five or twelve seems a cruelty, and since the conditions for employment are very often far below any standard we ourselves would tolerate, the idea of abuse often comes into our perceptions.

Anyone who has managed to spend all their years in the comfort of a nation like the USA is sorely stretched to imagine a world where there are no safety nets of any shape or size and where children are often considered as parasitic little creatures uselessly... more

In Friday's International Adoption Blog we celebrated the the arrest of a hunted sexual predator and mentioned what could be a prevalence of perverts among those who take teaching jobs in other countries.

With many of our kids coming from places where sex with children hits the headlines often, adoptive parents can't help but feel that "there but for the grace" thing, and if our children come to us at older ages we have to wonder ...

Directly on the heels of the report of the Canadian pedophile arrest, and through an ... more

There are some wide-ranging bits of interest in the news today, starting with this story about a new online video that gives clues meant to help parents with early detection of autism.

Access to the site is free and provides an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Video Glossary containing more than one hundred clips that juxtapose video of kids with ASD aside those without, dramatically illustrating such symptomatic behaviors as stimming'and echolalia.

Although... more

Before getting to any other news today, I'd like to ask everyone to pop over to Lisa's Guatemalan Adoption Blog for some excellent information on how you can participate in advocating for the children of Guatemala.

There is a real and present danger that thousands will be condemned to legal and permanent limbo in the very near future, and those trying to avert this disaster could use more support.

Check out Lisa's post, please, add your voice to those scrambling to keep this hash of a mess from destroying many lives, and send Lisa's blog out to... more

In an interesting turn of events, Ministers in the British government have decided that children conceived through egg or sperm donation will not have that information registered on their birth certificates, contrary to a report compiled by MPs and peers (Members of the House of Lords) saying that by "not doing it the state was complicit in a lie".

In its draft of the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill, the government did relax limits on inter-species embryos, however.

The government originally proposed banning the creation of any embryo containing human and animal cells in a... more

There's a scam with an orphan theme going around at the moment according to the Modesto Bee in California.

A variation on the Nigeria scam, this one touts a job offer that will help poor orphans in the process, but ends up getting your money and your bank details.

Because it uses appeals to emotion and the thought of an easy financial windfall, this scam is particularly clever. Still, it has all the warning signs: overseas wire transfers, mysterious transactions, "checks" you have to deposit... more