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American missionaries travel to Haiti to rescue thirty-three earthquake orphans by taking them, temporarily, to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, and then back to families in the US prepared to take the children in.

According to their lawyer, the missionaries are said to be in possession of paperwork backing up their authorization to remove the children from Haiti. But it is unclear whether the authorization is proper, or whether the children had passports.

It turns out that twenty of the children may not actually be orphans and may have one or more living parents. And their parents allegedly claim that the missionaries were only supposed to educate the children in the Dominican Republic, not take them to the US.

Now the missionaries are detained, under arrest in Haiti, for kidnapping the children into the Dominican Republic and for criminal conspiracy.

Rumor suggests that the missionaries’ leader may have misled others in their group about their humanitarian mission and/or legal procedure. The leader is under investigation in the US in connection with other possible crimes. But she reportedly maintains that the children’s parents wanted to give their children a better life.

It does not appear that most of the missionaries were aware that it would be illegal to remove the childen from Haiti without proper legal authorization.

The Haitian court has three months to rule on this case. Kidnapping is punishable in Haiti by up to fifteen years’ imprisonment.

Read more in

• this China Central Television article: Missionaries charged with child abduction
• this Salem [OR] News article: Five of Ten Americans on Child Abduction Charges Taken to Port-au-Prince Court
• this UK Times article: US Baptists charged with Haiti child abduction face 15 years in jail
• this New York Times article: Haiti Charges Americans With Child Abduction

Teens in foster care are not that adoptable. So they tend to remain in foster care. Permanently.

Yet these teenagers may have extended family who might be willing to take them in and adopt them. If they only knew of their circumstances. Or existence.

That’s the premise that gave birth to the non-profit, Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition. Among other things, the non-profit’s investigators search for such extended family members of teens in foster care.

Where teens do have suitable relatives, the odds that these relatives will adopt them are significantly greater than the odds of their adoption by unrelated strangers looking to adopt.

In fact, the organization is able to get ninety percent of teens in foster care connected with their extended family members.

And seventy percent of the children with relatives end up being adopted, generally by their own extended family members.

In St. Louis, there are often 400 teens and preteens in foster care. Extended family member adoptions can make a big dent in that number … and a big difference in these foster children’s lives.

Read more in this New York Times article: A Determined Quest to Bring Adoptive Ties to Foster Teenagers.

Years after the capability came into being, having a child through a surrogate mother who carries the baby to term is still fraught with legal perils.

And the circumstances surrounding each baby are different.

Sometimes the surrogate mother is “merely” the carrier or vessel for a couple’s own biological child. (Mother can’t physically carry the child.)

Sometimes the surrogate mother is the carrier for the biological child of one member of the couple and a third party. (One of the couple is infertile.)

Sometimes the surrogate mother is the carrier for the biological child of neither member of the couple. (Both of the couple are infertile or gay parents.)

And the applicable law of a particular state may view each of these scenarios differently.

A surrogacy arrangement may involve the following players:

1. intended legal parent
2. intended legal co-parent
3. egg donor
4. sperm donor
5. fertility clinic
6. surrogate mother

That’s a lot of folks to coordinate and work with.

The most common legal breakdown in the process is that the surrogate mother decides she wants to keep “her” child, for any reason or for no reason.

All told, there are about seven hundred fifty babies born this way each year. That’s about half the number that couples try to arrange.

This “cottage industry” is something of a free-for-all, at least unless and until a court becomes involved.

For the most part, fertility doctors call all the shots.

Some states require the intended parents to go through a home study and legal adoption of the baby. Some also require some type of psychological screening of the intended legal parents.

Some other states are satisfied by the surrogacy contracts alone.

Still other states don’t recognize or enforce surrogacy contracts at all.

Some only recognize surrogacy where at least one intended legal parent is biologically related to the baby.

The incredible upshot is that, at times, babies who have two sets of “parents” who want them end up in foster care while the courts try to sort things out.

A model act has been proposed by the American Bar Association to address the issues in a consistent way.

Read more in this New York Times article: 21st-Century Babies – Building a Baby, With Few Ground Rules.

Florida reportedly has the distinction of having enacted this country’s strictest state prohibition on adoption by gay prospective parents.

But gay people are permitted to serve as foster parents (and collect state funds for same).

Even for years.

One gay foster father (Foster Dad) took in a baby boy and his four year old brother (Boys) five years ago.

It is undisputed that both Boys have thrived in Foster Dad’s care. Even the Department of Children and Families concedes that Foster Dad is a great parent.

Foster Dad wants to adopt the Boys.

But he was blocked by Florida’s ban on gay adoption.

So Foster Dad challenged the ban in court – and won at trial. Because there is no evidence of inferior parenting by gay parents and because the statute denies children in foster care permanency.

Now, the case is crawling its way up the state’s appeals ladder.

And all the while the Boys are denied permanency…

Read more in this Palm Beach Post blog editorial: Lose his case, lose his kids? and this National Public Radio article: Florida Judge Rules Against Gay Adoption Ban.

Adoption can be a complex legal process and a costly social process.

It can also be the answer to a couple’s prayers.

There are several types of adoptions:

1. domestic private, through an agency or direct
2. domestic foster care
3. international private
4. foreign or domestic special needs

Eachy type of adoption typically imposes different costs and expense, offers different potential tax benefits and other government support and follows a somewhat different process.

Read more in this Southgate [MI] News Herald article: Adopting a child can be a long, costly journey.

Florida does not allow adoptions by a homosexual couple.

Washington state does.

A lesbian couple living in Washington state each give birth to a child.

And each partner adopts the other’s biological child as permitted under Washington law.

Lesbian couple relocates to Florida.

And eventually breaks up.

At first, they agree to share legal and physical custody of both children, so that the children can spend most of their time together.

The next year, however, one of the couple “goes straight” and becomes engaged to marry a man.

Who wants to adopt his fiance’s biological child.

At that point, when the child is about 9 years old, her mother denies any timesharing to her former partner.

The frustrated partner brings suit to determine parental responsibility and timesharing.

At trial, the court denies the frustrated partner any parental responsibility or timesharing with the denying partner’s biological child.

On appeal to an intermediate level appellate court, that ruling is reversed.

The Florida appellate court holds that Florida has to give full faith and credit to the Washington state adoption and the rights and obligations flowing from it.

Without regard to Florida’s law and policy against gay adoption.

The birth mother intends to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

Read more in this Courthouse News Service article: Fla. Must Recognize Gay Adoptions, Court Rules and this Sarasota Herald Tribune article: Adoption by Sarasota lesbian is upheld on appeal.

Today, mothers celebrate Mother’s Day with their children.

A foster mother and adoptive mother is among them.

While she is celebrating Mother’s Day, she also celebrates the selflessness of the birth mothers of her adopted children.

And she wishes those birth mothers a Happy Mother’s Day as well.

Read more in this Examiner editorial: Happy Mother’s Day to my children’s birthmoms and this Woonsocket Call article: There’s plenty of love to go around on Mother’s Day.

Father has custody of Daughter.

Father marries Stepmother.

Stepmother is only mother Daughter has known since she was three or younger.

Daughter is now 32.

Stepmother recently became ill.

Daughter decides to formalize what she feels.

Stepmother adopts Daughter.

Stepmother becomes Mother.

More than half of the states in the US permit an adult to be adopted.

Stepparent adoptions, in particular, are fairly common.

When the prospective stepchild adoptee is a minor, however, the consent of the other biological parent is typically required.

So, many such adoptions are deferred until the child becomes a legal adult, at which time consent of the other biological parent is no longer required.

Read more in this Beaumont [TX] Enterprise article: Adoption makes 31-year mother-daughter relationship official.

A 2 year old central Florida Child was slowly beaten to death … allegedly by her adoptive Mother.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) believes that Mother must have been mentally ill, although never diagnosed.

Mother was arrested on first degree murder and child abuse and neglect.

DCF’s investigation into the Child’s death revealed that her maternal grandmother was aware of Mother’s sometimes abusive behavior toward Child but did nothing.

DCF concluded that Mother and her husband were a threat to any child in their custody.

Mother and her husband have five other adopted children under the age of eight.

The other children were placed in foster care.

So much for the preadoption home study …

Read more in this Ocala Star-Banner article: DCF report documents tot’s severe beating, troubled mom.

Numerous illegal immigrants work in a food processing company in Missouri.

Immigration authorities conduct a raid there.

136 illegal immigrants are taken into custody.

One Mother is sentenced to jail, with deportation likely to follow.

American couple seeks to adopt Mother’s Baby.

Missouri Court terminates Mother’s parental rights to Baby based on abandonment of Baby.

The Court finds that Mother hasn’t contributed to the Baby’s support or tried to visit with Baby … while in jail.

Although Mother may have received two letters from the Court and the adoptive parents’ attorney, Mother doesn’t read English and does not have an attorney for her custody claim.

Mother has not known where Baby is.

Every time Mother has gone to Court, Mother has tried to find out about Baby.

Terminations of parental rights of mothers like Mother are occurring with increasing frequency, with babies like Baby being adopted by Americans.

Read more in this New York Times article: After Losing Freedom, Some Immigrants Face Loss of Custody of Their Children.

Florida birth Mother gives her twin babies (Twins) up for adoption.

Mother maintains she signed adoption papers under duress resulting from sleep deprivation.

Twins are adopted by North Carolina couple.

Adoption is open, according to contract, with Mother being involved with the Twins after the adoption.

Then Mother allegedly takes off to Canada with the Twins.

Mother is charged with kidnapping the Twins.

Mother’s parental rights to Twins are terminated.

Now Mother is seeking visitation with the Twins from a North Carolina court.

The trial court ruling apparently turned quickly on the fact that Mother’s parental rights had been terminated.

Mother is pressing to have a full hearing despite that.

Mother characterizes the case as a custody dispute.

The adoptive North Carolina couple characterize it as a contract dispute.

The North Carolina appellate court has yet to rule.

Read more in:

1. this Raleigh [NC] News TV 14 article: Court continues to mull Quets’ visitation rights
2. this Raleigh [NC] WRAL TV 5 article: Adoption case goes to state Court of Appeals
3. this Raleigh [NC] News & Observer article: Quets makes appeal for visitation

Mother is sentenced to ten year prison term for robbery conviction.

Mother, believing she has no other option, reluctantly relinquishes her parental rights to her 4 year old Daughter.

Woman adopts Daughter. Woman allegedly abuses Daughter. More than once.

Now, Woman faces multiple charges of child neglect, aggravated kidnapping and assault.

The child welfare agency (DCS) has taken Daughter into protective custody and is seeking a permanent placement for Daughter.

And Mother, since released from prison, would like to get custody of Daughter restored to her.

DSC indicates that it will consider Mother’s request as well as Daughter’s wishes.

It is unclear whether Mother stands in any better position as any other applicant for custody.

Read more in this WTVF TV 5 news article: Mother Wants Custody Of Her Biological Daughter.

Washington State teen Mother and Baby live with Baby’s Grandparents.

Grandparents care for Baby.

Then Mother moves out with Baby.

Baby loses significant weight, and doctor reports neglect to Child Protective Services.

Baby is placed with Grandparents.

Baby improves.

Then Mother and Baby are placed in “transitional housing”.

Mother gets evicted.

Grandparents complain to child welfare and their senator over the handling of the case.

Now Baby gets placed in foster care, instead of back with Grandparents.

Apparently child welfare agents changed their collective minds about Grandparents.

Their documentation finds fault with Grandparents undermining Mother’s parenting – by giving Baby a pacifier over Mother’s protests.

There are many unfavorable conclusions disproved by child welfare’s own documentation.

Under Washington State law, relatives are favored for placement over foster care.

Agency officials report that child welfare professionals don’t always follow the law.

Grandparents are even denied visitation for extended time based upon an alleged court order that doesn’t exist.

Now child welfare is pushing for the Baby to be adopted by her foster mother.

But the case will be back before a judge before long.

Read more in this [Washington State] NWCN TV news article – Investigators: Grandparents passed over in favor of foster care.

Arkansas man (Father) and woman (Mother) obtain marriage license and have a church wedding. For whatever the reason, the minister doesn’t sign the license and it is not filed with the county.

Mother and Father have Baby. Mother and Father break up eight years after wedding.

Mother files action to establish paternity of Baby.

Father ignores paternity case. Court rules that Father is the father of Baby and orders visitation and child support.

A few months later, the Mother marries another man, without obtaining a divorce from the Father of Baby.

Mother and her new Husband pursue stepparent adoption of Baby by Husband.

Father challenges adoption.

The trial court denies Father’s challenge, concluding that Father and Mother were never legally married because the marriage license was not filed and that Father had abandoned Baby by not paying support.

The intermediate appellate court reversed the adoption, finding that Father and Mother had been legally married, despite the licensing deficiency.

The Arkansas Supreme Court held that the default trial court judgment ruling that Mother and Father had never been married was binding, as well as the ruling determining that Father is the Father of Baby. The stepparent adoption was upheld.

Other states have come out differently on this issue.

Read more in this Arkansas News article: High court reverses ruling that ceremony, not license, validates marriage.

A 70 year old Hawaiian Grandmother is raising her teenaged and preteenaged adopted grandson, and her grandniece and grandnephews, of whom she is legal guardian. Because their parents are unable to do the job.

Making matters worse, this Grandmother recently suffered a stroke that left her dependent on a wheelchair to get around.

She manages to care for the kids, with her 18 year old grandson’s help.

But she worries about child protective services removing the children if she can’t take care of them.

She gets by with public assistance, but would welcome additional assistance, especially for a larger vehicle to accommodate her wheelchair.

Legal Aid of Hawaii offers grandparent seminars on child protective services, adoption and guardianship, complete with free resource kits.

Read more in these Honolulu Advertiser articles: Grandmother needs help with 4 kids she’s raising and Seminars set for grandparents raising grandkids.

Couples who go through in vitro fertilization typically have unused embryos left after achieving a successful pregnancy.

Unused embryos may be frozen, destroyed, donated for research or … “put up for adoption”.

Meaning, they can be donated to other couples who are infertile, thawed out and implanted in a would-be mother’s womb.

Purists are quick to point out that it is not truly “adoption”, because the embryos are not the same as a living, breathing baby.

But they do offer another option for infertile couples who want to have a child.

Read more in this Seattle Times article: “Embryo adoption” gives new life to some couples’ hopes for a child.

Idaho Father and Mother get pregnant. Father and Mother get engaged.

Six months into the pregnancy, Mother calls the engagement off, breaks up with Father and cuts Father out of her life completely.

Father claims to contact state department of health and welfare to find out how to protect his rights to his child. They supposedly tell him he must wait until baby is born.

Next thing Father knows, he hears Mother’s baby has been adopted. Without a word to him.

Father took his case all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court. But he lost.

Because he didn’t timely register with Idaho’s Putative Father Registry. Because he says he didn’t know about it.

A number of states, including Florida, now have a putative father registry scheme and a requirement to timely register with it to assert parental rights and block any adoption.

Despite Father’s wishes, Mother says it was best for the baby to put it up for adoption.

Read more in this [Pocatello, ID] KPVI TV 6 news article: Man Loses Son in Adoption Without His Consent.

Today is National Adoption Day. In fact, the entire month of November is National Adoption Month.

As part of his legacy, an adoptee’s foundation offers a Foster Care Adoption Awareness Toolkit to agencies, civic and religous groups, corporations, teachers and others.

The kit promotes adoption of children in foster care and publicizes the need for adoptive families for well over 100,000 abandoned, abused or neglected children. The kit also addresses myths about adopting kids out of foster care.

The adoptee behind the Foundation is the late Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s restaurants. And the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is the only foundation dedicated exclusively to foster care adoption.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal Market Watch press release: Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Offers Free Foster Care Adoption Awareness Toolkits

A 22 year old Minnesota man has been convicted of strangling his 19 year old ex-girlfriend … in front of their 2 year old son.

For his murder weapon, the man constructed a noose from shoelaces – and allegedly killed her because the young woman was a half an hour late picking him up for a shopping excursion.

After she was dead, he set fire to her body in her car.

At the time of the murder, the man was in the process of finishing out his probation for a previous assault on the young woman.

Under the terms of his probation, he was required to attend anger management … and avoid contact with the young woman.

It is unclear whether he attended the anger management …

The man now faces multiple life sentences.

The couple’s baby boy is now staying with his mother’s mother and her husband. The boy’s maternal grandparents are pursuing custody of the child and hope to adopt him.

The poor toddler sees a psychologist for night terrors.

Read more in this Twin Cities [MN] Pioneer Press article: Man guilty of murder for strangling ex-girlfriend with shoelace.

A Michigan mother, hearing of Nebraska’s liberally drafted “safe haven law”, allegedly traveled there to abandon her 13 year old adopted son, with impunity.

The mother reportedly abused the boy the entire time the couple had custody of him. Both parents defended that they never wanted the boy, but had to take him in order to adopt another child that they did want.

The adoptive parents tried to return the boy to his biological parents and to previous foster parents on several occasions.

The County is pursuing terminating the adoptive parents’ parental rights to all of their children.

The adoptive parents’ other children, both adopted and biological, have temporarily been placed in child protective custody as well.

The County previously brought a similar termination of parental rights petition, based on child neglect, against the couple, but they dropped it.

Read more in this Detroit News article: County wants abandoned boy, 13.

A California Mother is known to the local child welfare agency as a drug user. Mother has had other children taken into protective custody and placed into foster care.

Mother wants to avoid that happening to coming Baby. Mother arranges for this Baby to be adopted through a private adoption.

All is in place. Mother gives birth to Baby at hospital.

And then … local child welfare agency takes newborn Baby into protective custody from the hospital … with a view to placing Baby with a different prospective adoptive mother.

The agency could not care less about the private adoption. It insists that its juvenile dependency case supersedes the private adoption – even though it appears that the dependency case was filed after the private adoption paperwork was completed.

The dependency case is entirely premised on the danger to the Baby if returned to live with the Mother – which was not going to happen.

A court will soon decide who gets the Baby. The child welfare agency has refused to divulge why it removed the Baby before the Baby could be placed into the physical custody of the adoptive parents.

Prrivate adoption attorneys suggests that the local child welfare agency is being punitive toward substance-abusing biological parents like Mother, while their charge is only to protect children. Punishment, where appropriate, should be left to other governmental agencies. If provision is made for the private placement of an otherwise dependent child, a dependency case is a waste of public funds.

The private adoptive parents are angry. And so is the biological Mother, who wanted to insulate this Baby from the foster care system.

Read more in this Ventura County Star article: Custody of local baby in dispute.

Nebraska Father repeatedly rapes thirteen year old Girl (daughter of his girlfriend). Girl conceives Child.

Girl gives birth to Child. Girl voluntarily gives Child up to foster care, intending for him to be adopted.

Foster family seeks to adopt Child. But first, Father’s parental rights must be terminated.

At the termination hearing, it comes out that the state has failed to provide proper notice to the Father and otherwise to protect Father’s rights to due process.

Nebraska law draws no distinction between a father who becomes a father as a result of sexually assaulting a minor, and any other father. They are all the same and the process for terminating their parental rights is the same for all of them.

The termination process was re-started from scratch, this time, with the Father’s rights being fully respected and protected. Following the full procedures comes at the additional expense of six to eight months in the adoptive family’s and Child’s lives and thousands of dollars to taxpayers.

But it should stick, in spite of possible appeals by Father.

The foster family-turned-adoptive family are determined to do what they can to change the laws in Nebraska to streamline termination of the parental rights of a sex offender.

In this case, the Father’s parental rights were terminated as much as anything because he refused to participate in a sexual offender treatment program in jail.

Had he sat through a treatment program then, his parental rights might not have been terminated – and he might eventually have gotten custody of Child.

Nebraska is not unique among the states in this respect.

Read more in this North Platte [NE] Telegraph article: Court documents reveal mistake in adoption case.

India has a small but thriving industry. Surrogate mothering.

For poor, uneducated Indian women, being a surrogate is a way to earn the equivalent of $4 or $5,000.

And then the biological parents adopt the child.

But sometimes, things go wrong.

For example, a Japanese couple hired an Indian surrogate mother to carry their baby to term.

But before the baby was born, the couple divorced.

Now the biological mother no longer wants the baby. And the surrogate doesn’t want the baby.

The biological father does but, under Indian law, a single father cannot adopt.

So now the eleven (11) day old baby remains in the hospital, under the care of the biological father’s mother.

Awaiting someone who can take legal custody of her.

Read more in this Canadian Press article: Surrogate child custody case in limbo in India after Japanese parents divorce.

Japan may be a modern country technologically. But not legally, according to reports.

In approximately 80% of divorce and paternity cases in Japan, the father loses all parental rights, excluding the “right” to pay child support. In the remainder of cases, it is the mother who is stripped of her parental rights.

Visitation? That’s not a concept that is part of Japanese family law.

When parents break up, the “other parent” fades out of their children’s lives. Another family member may even adopt their children without their consent.

How does a parent win custody in Japan?

One alleged way to get a leg up on a custody award in Japan is to abscond with the child, even across international boundaries.

Statistics suggest that some 10,000 children in Japan have no access to their foreign parent.

Japan is a not yet a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Although there are rumors that it will adopt the convention in a couple of more years, one has to wonder whether it will really matter.

Japanese family law is in need of a paradigm shift. Without that, change may be a pipe dream.

Japan did sign the Convention of New York, the purpose of which was to assure children access to both parents. It didn’t.

Family law activists in Japan are lobbying for a long overdue overhaul of the Japanese family law.

Read more in this Singapore Straits Times article: Over 160,000 Japanese children split from one parents every year.

It seems that the answer depends on who is answering the question.

A report just released, and endorsed by several associations, concludes that it is worth the extra wait for minority foster children.

The reasons cited were that minority children adopted into white families “face special challenges” and that “white parents need preparation and training for what might lie ahead”.

On the other hand, many child welfare workers say that the federal law that makes the adoption process race-neutral has helped many minority children find permanent homes – and sooner.

It is unknown whether the report addresses whether children in foster care “face special challenges” … particularly when they remain in the child welfare system for prolonged periods of time, even through the age of majority.

Maybe the answer really turns on precisely how much longer minority children will be doing the waiting. At least to the minority children doing the waiting in foster care.

One has to wonder: was the question put to any of them – while they were still children in foster care?

Read more in this New York Times article: De-emphasis on Race in Adoption Is Criticized.

Baby is taken into protective custody by Missouri.

Baby is placed with Biological Cousin and his wife.

They provide a loving home and seek to adopt Baby.

State removes Baby from Biological Cousin and places Baby with unrelated couple.

Generally, children’s welfare agencies prefer to place children with suitable relatives rather than strangers.

Why would the state remove Baby from biologically-related foster parents to strangers?

Well, Biological Cousin alleges that it was because he was obese.

The Court said that he didn’t properly follow state procedures for bringing a child into the state.

It took six months, but Biological Cousin got Baby back – after having gastric bypass surgery …

Read more in this Kansas City KMBC TV 9 article: Judge Rules In Baby Max Custody Case and this Kansas City KMBC TV 9 article: Baby Max Stuck In Middle Of Custody Battle.

Florida Baby’s biological mother is incarcerated for trafficking in narcotics and prostitution.

Baby’s biological father left the state when Baby was just three weeks old.

Baby was placed in foster care with a loving family, the only family she has since known.

Baby is now four.

Foster family continues to want to adopt Baby.

But, now, biological father, long absent, returns, out of the blue, to assert his right to take Baby to his new home in California.

It was recommended some time ago that social services terminate the biological father’s parental rights, to free the child up for adoption to her loving foster family.

Only it never happened, let alone in a timely fashion. Had it happened, the courthouse door would most likely have slammed in biological father’s face.

What is particularly sad in this case is that the foster family could have – and undoubtedly would have – asked the Court themselves to terminate the biological father’s parental rights – if they had only known that they had that power and right.

But no one ever told them … until it was too late.

Meanwhile, the biological father is allegedly still battling substance abuse problems of his own, even as the Court appears to be ordering reunification.

But the biological father has rights.

And, according to the family courts, Baby apparently doesn’t.

Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Orlando-area family faces losing foster child.

Four month old baby removed from parents’ home by social services.

Baby placed with foster family.

Biological parents’ parental rights are terminated.

Foster family wants to adopt Baby, who is a dual citizen of the USA and Mexico.

Twenty two months later, Baby’s biological grandmother in Mexico seeks to adopt him.

Trial court holds that Baby should be turned over to biological grandmother in Mexico.

Appellate court agrees.

Case draws national and international media attention.

Oregon’s child welfare services agency took something of a beating in the case, accused of misleading all concerned. Then agency arranges a mediation in Oregon – which lasts for ten hours.

As a result, everyone agrees that Baby should remain with foster parents in Oregon and that foster parents may adopt him.

They also agree that biological grandmother should have visitation and access rights and that Baby should learn to speak and write Spanish fluently.

Last, but not least, agency agrees to pay the Baby’s foster parents’ legal fees in the matter.

Read more in this Newport News-times article: Foster child to remain in Oregon.

November is National Adoption Month.

In her new book, an author reminds potential adoptive parents that many children, particularly special needs children, are waiting for them … and adoption out of the foster care system into loving homes.

She would know. She is the adoptive parent of a special needs child herself.

Learn more from this PRWeb press release: Best Selling Author Speaks Up For Special Needs Adoption and the author’s own website.

Woman adopts eleven children in New York City. Woman later moves to Florida.

Woman raises children – with no education beyond fourth grade, no medical care, without adequate food, without normal social contact, without freedom.

Why?

She adopted the children to collect payments from New York City. Over a million dollars in fact.

All of the children, now aged 15 to 27, suffer from physical and mental disabilities.

The woman, now 62, faces criminal charges of abuse and neglect in Florida.

And the Florida court can now request that the New York courts unseal the normally confidential adoption records.

The records are needed to nail down the identities of the victims, nine of whom are now disabled adults in the care of the state of Florida.

The whereabouts of two others is unknown.

The state just took the woman’s grandchildren from her biological son into protective custody as well.

Read more in this ABC ActionNews.com article: Florida prosecutors can ask judge to unseal records in abuse case and this Newsday article: NY adoption records relevant in Florida abuse case, judge says.