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

I wrote a couple of days ago about a court decision in Canada that came down against a birth father's rights, and today the Vancouver Sun takes the story further.

Taking no issue with the Supreme Court Judge, suggesting that any other ruling would have, "rendered superfluous the specific sections of the act that detail when a birth father must be notified," the article instead points out serious flaws in the adoption act and calls... more

Parents with kids diagnosed with ADHD may find some help in a new guide to ADHD drugs released this week by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association.

Soleil Gregg of the advocacy group Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, says, "I think this guide provides some very balanced information about risks, benefits and how to judge what is best for your child ... whether that includes drug treatment or not."

The guide addresses parental concerns like risk of addiction, side effects both... more

Seems these days that just about everything I read ends up having something to do with children/adoption/orphans in one way or another.

I wrote the other day on my personal blog a back-handed tribute to Marcel Maceau ... back-handed only because I am so not a fan of mime ... but learn today that as part of his work in the French Resistance during WWll he evacuated Jewish children hidden in a Paris orphanage to Switzerland.

He... more

Yet again, the fabooooolous world of celebrity ... where ever and what ever that may be ... is spreading its imposing ripples into the adoption community pond, and since this is a news blog I suppose I might as well take some of my finite time and energy and waste a bit on disseminating the attention those wavelets demand in the their wet, pathetic little way.

(Can you tell I write this celeb stuff grudgingly? Oh, yes you can!)

The coin toss with this sort of thing is always which way to go ... sublime to ridiculous -- yeah, like the first is possible -- or vice versa.

Okay ... that's settled ...

... more

With open adoption records in the news in Ontario ... a situation we've looked at here and here recently ... this take from the editorial board of a news organization in the Province may be of interest.

Pleased that the Ontario Superior Court struck down the new law that opened adoption records, the article goes into some detail on their position.

Adoption... more

A listening opportunity for those that may be interested, and have a good enough connection, is available on NPR, and I'm hoping they do a better job with this adoption-related story than they did with the All Things Considered ... yeah, right ... mess on Guatemalan adoption that aired recently.

With Elizabeth Bartholet as the guest, I'm guessing it will... more

Washington State is looking for foster parents, saying that the gap between kids and potential placements is worrying. As it is now, there are about 8,400 kids in care, but only 5,800 foster homes.

Not only concerned by a lack of available local placements that often results in kids having to be moved to far-flung parts of the state, Washington is also dealing with a legal obligation to increase the number of foster parents by 10% per year as the result of a legal settlement in 2004 filed on behalf of the state's foster kids who had been bounced around, separated... more