Wishing Mike Davis a Very Happy Birthday–And Hoping for Good News

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Happy 63rd Birthday, Mike!

Today must be bittersweet at best.

Mike is an Ethiopian adoptee, raise by his U.S. Army adoptive dad on military bases. Mike settled in Georgia. He got married, had children, and ran various businesses.

Over 30 years ago, he got into trouble with the law. He served his time, and has had no trouble with the law since then.

As is true for too many adoptees today, Mike was unable to prove his citizenship, despite his dad’s efforts: documents had been lost, government agencies failed to respond, and his lawyers were unreliable and uniformed about adoption and immigration laws. Mike was deported back to Ethiopia in 2005, and been separated from his friends and family since then. He has yet to meet his grandchildren in person.

We started a GoFund Me for Mike in June 2023. Mike is deeply grateful to all who have donated.

Mike Davis is an older man, smiling, wearing a red tee shirt and black jacket.
Mike in Addis in 2023

A total of $5250 has been raised over the last two and half years. Mike has used about $5000 of it, so roughly $2500 each year, to cover rent, food, access to water, legal fees, and medical care. His other sources of income are minimal at this point.

While that $210 a month goes fairly far in Ethiopia, it’s not much. He lives a hard life. His efforts to attain citizenship have involved document fees, lawyer fees, and more, at U.S. prices. It’s been an uphill climb in many ways.

Many folks in the adoption community want to let Mike know he has not been forgotten. Mike has had a rough time in Ethiopia, though he does not complain. He had no friends, no money, and no work when he arrived 20 years ago. He’s done his best to survive alone. Safe housing, food, and medical care haven’t always been easy to find. He’s dealing with health issues now in his early 60’s.

Please help. Donations have slowed significantly, and inflation/expenses are rising these days in Ethiopia.

Please join me in wishing Mike a Happy Birthday, and donate to our GoFund Me. Please share the GoFundMe with others.

So many people support international adoption. Please support international adoptees as well, in this case a now-63 year old man who made a mistake over 30 years ago, and who believed (as many adoptees do) that he had citizenship (he paid taxes, he paid into Social Security). His wife, his sons, and his grandkids would love to have him back.

Mike is a good person. Adoptive families and adoptees have met up with him in Addis, which has brought him great joy.

As a community, I invite everyone to wish Mike a good birthday, and to send your prayers, blessings, and hopes that he might return to the U.S., which was supposed to be his forever home.

Many thanks. Amasegenallo (thank you in Amharic).

Please also support the valuable work of Adoptees for Justice, who have helped Mike and many other adoptees in positive, productive ways. They are a hard-working, amazing organization.

Adoptee Remembrance Day 2025

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Today is Adoptee Remembrance Day, designed to honor and remember adoptees who have died, who have been deported, who are survivors of the Troubled Teen Industry, who are incarcerated, who have been abandoned after being adopted, and those dealing with mental illness and/or substance abuse. We honor and remember all the forms of loss in the adoption community.

My post today is drawn essentially from my 2024 post about Adoptee Remembrance Day. The reasons for the day remain the same, and I am grateful for all those, especially adopted people, who promote awareness and the need for this day.

In the words of Pamela Karanova, the U.S. adoptee who founded Adoptee Remembrance Day, “While our primary goal is to uplift the legacy of those who are no longer with us, we also seek to share the truth of how adoption has impacted each of us. October 30th is our day of truth, transparency, and remembrance—a day for adoptees around the world to come together and be seen.”

What can you do to observe this day? There are many wonderful suggestions here. I’ve drawn some ideas below from the Adoptee Remembrance page. Please consider these actions, and share them with others.

  • Pause for a moment of silence for adoptees who have died.
  • Donate to help Mike Davis, who was adopted by a U.S. Army officer and was deported to Ethiopia in 2005. He has never met his grandchildren, and hasn’t been his wife and children for many years.

Twelve years ago yesterday, the parents of Ethiopian adoptee Hanna Williams were sentenced to lengthy jail terms for Hanna’s death. So many of keep Hanna in our hearts.

Adoptee Remembrance Day is “a beacon of awareness, remembrance, and solidarity.” Deep gratitude to those who work tirelessly to help and support adopted people around the globe.

Hanna Wallensteen, Ethiopian-Swedish Adoptee, Speaks About Reclaiming Identity and the Importance of Adoptee Community

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Hanna Wallensteen is a psychologist, an adoptee, a mom, and an advocate for Ethiopian adoptees. Here is the link to her wonderful, insightful YouTube discussion.

While I have not yet had the joy of meeting Hanna in person, I know her through her beautiful essay in “Lions Roaring Far from Home: an Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees.” We chose her essay intentionally to close out the book. If you’ve read “The Return” from our book, you know its gentle power.

The YouTube discussion was presented by the Ethiopian Adoptee Collective, as well as Adoptee Diaries, and Ethiopian Adoptees of the Diaspora. Please be sure to follow these groups!

Deep gratitude to Hanna and to the Ethiopian adoptees and groups who produced this great video.

Ethiopia Tourism Ministry Announces Plan for Adoptees to Reconnect With Homeland

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The Addis Standard yesterday posted on X that the Ethiopian Ministry of Tourism has created a new program for adoptees, “Journey to Root.”

Here is the Addis Standard post from X:

“#Ethiopia Launches “Journey to Root” Initiative to Reconnect Adoptees Abroad with Ancestral Heritage Addis Abeba –The Ethiopian government has unveiled a new initiative titled “Journey to Root” to help Ethiopian-born adoptees living abroad reconnect with their ancestral homeland and strengthen their cultural identity, the Ministry of Tourism announced. In a press briefing held on 24 October 2025, the ministry said the program is designed to enable adoptees to “learn, appreciate, and experience the country’s diverse culture, natural beauty, and historical heritage,” while fostering deeper emotional and cultural ties with Ethiopia.

Endegena Abebe (PhD), State Minister of Tourism, said during the briefing that the initiative draws inspiration from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s earlier call for people of Ethiopian descent around the world to visit their homeland. That call led to the “Back to Your Origins” campaign, which sought to encourage greater diaspora engagement. According to the ministry, Journey to Root will organize guided visits for adoptees from various countries across #Europe and #North_America, providing opportunities to explore Ethiopia’s languages, traditions, and national identity.

The program is described as “a bridge of understanding and belonging” for those separated from their roots at a young age. Ambassador Fitsum Arega, Executive Director of the Ethiopian Diaspora Service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the government remains committed to supporting all Ethiopians abroad, including adoptees, who wish to take part in the country’s cultural and development efforts. The Journey to Root initiative was jointly developed by the Ministry of Tourism, the Ethiopian Diaspora Service, the Addis Ababa Tourism Commission, Hareg Audio-Visual Production, and members of the adoptee community in Sweden, according to the ministry.”

Screen Shot from Addis Standard on X.

I hope this is a positive development for Ethiopian adoptees. It will be interesting to see how the program rolls out. Will adoptees’ travel be funded? Will there be access to their records? Will programs go to all regions? Will there be social work support for the emotional journey of visiting their motherland?

Beyond the many questions of logistics and funding, there could be concerns about the current security levels in the country, pressure for adoptees to bring more dollars (and other currencies) to Ethiopia as other members of the diaspora often do, and a rekindling of unregulated cottage industries that faded when adoptions were ended from Ethiopia in 2018. Adoptions of Ethiopian children brought in huge amounts of money to the country, via drivers, bed and breakfasts, translators, tourist spots, and more. Not all of them, including the adoption agencies, were as scrupulous and transparent as would have been hoped. The role of capitalism, the imbalance of wealth, and the impact of privilege all played a complex part.

I don’t mean that to sound cynical on my part. Perhaps cautious. And I am happy to be proven wrong.

I am heartened by the fact that members of the Swedish adoptee community were involved–they are an older (many in their 40’s and 50’s) group–and so they have an important perspective on this.

I am hopeful that this will be a positive, viable, feasible program for adoptees from around the world. Ethiopia is a complex country with astonishingly beautiful nature, mountains, waterfalls, and wildlife. Many adoptees have been unable to return because of the costs, though many (at least via GoFundMe and similar) very much want to go. May the adoptees who are able to travel there be welcomed back to their homeland.

The Root (1.6 Million Followers) Speaks Out on Potential Deportation of Black U.S. Citizens

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The Root is a digital magazine that provides “commentary and news from a variety of black perspectives.”

Today they posted “House Republicans Shoot Down Proposed Law to Protect Americans From Being Deported, and No One Is Talking About It.”

The subtitle is “Republicans are laying the groundwork for the President to deport Black folks. We cannot let them do so without a fight.”

The post discusses a proposal by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) to block ICE agents from using tax dollars to deport U.S. citizens. The Root says, “the idea of deporting U.S. citizens should give any thinking person pause. We can have a debate about people who are in the country illegally, but there should be NO debate about folks who are citizens.” (Emphasis in the original.)

Republicans voted down Jayapal’s proposal twice.

“When it comes to immigration,” The Root notes, “President Trump clearly has it out for brown folks…it is reasonable to suspect that we (Black people) are a close second.” They note the attack on DEI programs, the quote about considering deportation of U.S. “homegrown” criminals, and the troops sent into predominantly Black communities. “His behavior suggests that he equates cities that have an abundant Black population as inherently criminal.”

The article concludes: “(W)e must remain vigilant and keep a watchful eye. They are laying the groundwork for the Commander In Chief to deport Black folks. We cannot let them do so without a fight.”

Whatever your race, you may or may not agree with The Root. The article deserves consideration, as a position voiced by a media site with 1.6 million followers.

We know that brown folks are being rounded up, sometimes including U.S. citizens. We know that too few are getting due process. We know that international adoptees have been deported.

We know that adoptees, those born in the U.S. and those adopted internationally, are wondering about their status and value here in the U.S. That includes black adoptees, whether from New Orleans, Haiti, Ethiopia, Congo, or New York City.

To learn and understand, I listen to a range of black folks and a range of adoptees, and to black adoptees, because I am a white, non-adopted, born in the U.S.-with-proof-thereof person.

So I am also remaining vigilant and keeping a watchful eye.

Post on ICE Detaining Latina U.S. Citizen Adoptee Gets Big Numbers (For My Blog)

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On October 15, I posted about a U.S. citizen detained by ICE. Maria Greeley is an adoptee, born in the U.S.. She is Latina, and may well have fit a certain racial profile for ICE detention and zip ties.

Mine is a small blog. I appreciate each of my readers very much; they are not a large group in comparison to others.

Yesterday alone, 592 visitors took a look at my blog; 590 of them looked at the Maria Greeley post. That’s wild for a single day on my blog. If anyone knows anything more, such as who picked up and shared my post, that would be great to know.

In any case, I am heartened by the fact that this news is getting out, via me and via many other sources. Thank you! The fact that a U.S. citizen was detained by ICE because her Irish-sounding adoptive family name did not fit her brown appearance is an ominous harbinger of sorts for many adoptees, including those not born in the U.S..

Check in on your adoptee community, your children, your friends. Acknowledge their concerns, especially if they are black or brown, about the ICE raids. If they are looking for advice, suggest that they carry a passport card, or a photocopy of their passport. Suggest they memorize the name and phone of an immigration lawyer. They may not need any of that; I hope I am being overly-cautious.

Let them know that you are thinking of them, especially of they are unsure of their citizenship status, or even if they are 100% sure they are citizens.

International adoptees without citizenship have been deported. Learn more about ways to support the Protect Adoptees and Adoptive Families Act to grant citizenship to them and other non-citizen adoptees.

And again, thank you to each person who has read my post, and more importantly, shared this information. May all of us receive due process. May all of us be safe.

ICE Detains U.S. Citizen Who Is Latina Adoptee

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Her name is Maria Greeley, and ICE agents in Chicago told her she didn’t “look like” her name. They zip-tied and detained her. She was born in the U.S. and adopted. She is Latina. She had a copy of her passport with her. ICE said her passport didn’t look real, and told her she was lying.

“I am Latina and I am a service worker, she told the Chicago Tribune. “I fit the description of what they’re looking for now,” according to Newsweek.

She remains a bit shaken and said the experience was frightening. No doubt.

It also looks like racial profiling.

Many international adoptees don’t “look like” their adopted name’s ethnicity. A Chinese or Mexican or Haitian adoptee with the last name “O’Donahue” (I’m using this Irish name randomly) could find themselves in the same position as Greeley–it sure seems the ICE agents saw things that way.

These are very frightening times. Racial profiling is real. Adoptees should probably carry at least a paper copy of their passport, or of their passport card. That is unwieldy, I realize, but keeping a photo on the phone could be more problematic if ICE then takes the phone. Make copies of the passport and give them to family and friends, just in case. Know the phone numbers by heart of family members and a lawyer if possible.

Another reason to carry ID is that our U.S. government is now apparently enforcing a law allowing folks to be fined if they don’t have their “documents” on them. According to an NBC news channel in Chicago, “Chicago man fined $130 by ICE agents for not carrying identification.”

I am no investigative reporter. I do find it odd, though, that I can no longer find the Chicago Tribune article mentioned in the Newsweek article. If anyone else finds the Tribune article, please let me know.

Also, I believe in fairness and due process. I find it troubling to sanction abuse by our government, yet we keep hearing of so many cases.

Related Articles:

ICE Detains Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look Like” Her Last Name.

Grandparents and Adoption–A New Conversation

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I’ve been a grandma for almost 20 years now. I have had 26 cumulative years of grandparenting if I add up my three granddaughters.

As my children, all adopted, grew up, I had many opportunities to learn about adoption, through my lived experience and through professional work and training. My grandchildren are not adopted. They, like their parents, are people of color; I am white. As is true for my children, my grandchildren have no biological connection to me. Adoption affects them even so, through their parents. Add into that their genetic ancestors, some known, some unknown.

I’ve thought lots about how adoption affects me as a grandparent, and how it affects my grandchildren. I know many adult adoptees who are grandparents–they have a biological connection to their grandkids, though they may not have any connection with their own birth parents and other relatives. I know grandparents whose grandchildren were placed for adoption, and who no longer have any connection to their grandkids. I know grandparents whose grandchildren are adopted.

Grandparents and adoption–that’s the Substack link, and there’s a lot to talk about.

I’ll be providing ideas, information, and resources. I plan to host online sessions with a variety of grandparents who have a connection with adoption. We will take a look at the nature of loss, love, joy, race, trauma, healing, grief, laughter, and understanding, all in the context of adoption and grandparenting.

Please take a look, and feel free to share. You can subscribe for free; you can donate to the cause. I welcome your thoughts, questions, insights. Thank you!

https://substack.com/@grandparentsandadoption

New Legislation Introduced for Adoptee Citizenship

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Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to grant citizenship to all international adoptees.

Please contact your Congressional representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the “Protect Adoptees and American Families Act,” PAAF.

Proponents of the bill have for years focused on a bipartisan effort.

The bill introduced in the House by Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) is H.R. 5492.

In the Senate, the co-sponsors of S. 2923 are Sen. Maizie Hirono (D-HI) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Here is a statement by Sen. Hirono:

Proposed law aims to correct citizenship oversight for adoptees

Adoptees United has solid information here about PAAF.

Next steps could be hearings in the Judiciary Committees of both chambers, then passage in both the House and Senate, and then signature into law by the president.

That’s certainly my hope. Thousands of international adoptees, brought to this country to join new families, did not automatically receive citizenship because their parents failed to get it or because of bureaucratic errors. This reality has been an untenable, unfair reality that the Congress has taken far too long to rectify. This legislation has been previously introduced over the last 10 years, though it has not passed. It would provide a long overdue correction, one wanted by the sending countries, by the adoption community, and by adoptees.

It seems amazing that, for decades, international adoptees were not granted automatic citizenship when they were adopted by U.S. citizens and arrived in the U.S. You can learn more here.

IMG_1734

Some folks might forget that international adoptees are immigrants, with all the complexity that immigration involves. I urge all adoptees and their families to make sure they have a Certificate of Citizenship. A passport is a limited means of proving citizenship, can expire, and is issued by the U.S. State Department, The Certificate of Citizenship is issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and does not expire. State and Homeland Security use separate databases, and so having a passport may not be adequate proof of citizenship for some purposes.

And the current cost of the Certificate for adoptees is 0, which is wonderful and could change. More info on the fee schedule for the N-600 is here.

You may never need the CoC. I get that. But the parents of deported adoptees (those convicted of a felony and without citizenship) probably never envisioned their children subject to deportation either. Nor, of course, did the adoptees themselves, including those who have been deported to Germany, Korea, Brazil, and elsewhere, who are sitting in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, or who are unable to vote or get financial aid because they have no proof of citizenship. Why risk it?

And please support the passage of the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act. It is long overdue, and it is the right thing to do. Thank you.

New Anthology on Estrangement in Adoption Is Seeking Submissions

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Estrangement in adoption is a complicated topic. As a co-facilitator at Adoption Mosaic, I’ve been part of the Navigating Estrangement class for adoptive parents for three years. Adoption Mosaic also runs an adoptee-only estrangement group, Adoptee Beacon. Both are offered once a year, usually in the spring. Adoption Mosaic’s We the Experts program had a great adoptee panel on estrangement.

In fact, Lora Alegria, one of the panelists, is one of the editors of a new anthology on estrangement, along with Sullivan Summer. Both are adoptees and writers, and they describe the anthology as a collection of “creative nonfiction work exploring the theme of estrangement, written by adoptee authors.” You can find more iinformation here. You can email them at adoptee.estrangement@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2025.

I hope many adoptees will consider submitting their essay to this important anthology. Please spread the word about this!

Supporting the voices of adoptees is vital. I would feel remiss if I did not mention “Lions Roaring Far From Home: An Anthology by Ethiopian Adoptees.” I am honored to be a co-editor. I am deeply grateful for each of our adoptee writers. All revenue from sales of the book goes to help Ethiopian adoptees. Thanks.