Although the US State Department has had an announcement of a suspension of Nepalese adoptions posted since mid-May, the news appears to just be getting around in some quarters.

Reporting that Nepal has suspended international adoptions, the Ministry of Children is quoted as saying, "“Child adoption from Nepal has been temporarily stopped as we’re preparing new policies to end irregularities and malpractice in the adoption process.”

I'll hope for the sake of Nepalese children living without benefit of a family that this is a short process and a temporary suspension.

Good news for foster children in Rhode Island, as the Brown Rudnick Charitable Foundation kicked in a $2,000 grant to fund the Ocean State Systems Utilization Mediators program.

This works through the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association and teaches foster kids, "how to be heard on issues related to their health and safety."

Cool.

And while we're looking at foster families, this story from USA Today looks at single men adopting from foster children and how the numbers are going up.

According to the paper's analysis of government statistics, there are more than twice as many single men adopting from foster care now than there were in 1998, although they still only account for 3% of all foster care adoptions.

The Adoption Institute's Adam Pertman comments on the issue, saying that foster care may be the best bet for single men wanting to adopt, as " ... they are typically the "last in line" to be chosen by women putting babies up for adoption or foreign countries sending orphans to the USA. In contrast, he says, they are often welcomed in the foster care system, which has about 515,000 kids, 115,000 of them eligible for adoption."

For a look at outcomes of adoption from public care, you can access an abstract of a study out of the UK on placement issues and effective ways of intervening in adoptive families for effective support services. The article recommends comprehensive assessments and "carefully targeted adoption-aware psychosocial interventions."