Category Archives: International adoption

Summer Reading

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As we move here in the US toward the Fourth of July holiday, I hope you are all keeping up with your Summer Reading List. I was one of those kids who loved that list of required reading over the summer–and we get to write reports about the books too? Yay!

The Washington Post has a great list of favorite books of their foreign correspondents for 2013. I share it here because it may be of interest in particular to international adoptees and to parents of internationally adopted children, but really it’s a fascinating list for anyone. The recommendations include books about Syria, India, North Korea, Jerusalem, China, Russia, and more.

The 2012 List is great too. Among the selections are these:

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Recommended by: Sudarsan Raghavan, Africa bureau chief, who says this about the book: “It’s a wonderfully reported and written profile of Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie’s last days, from the point of view of his servants, aides and others close to him. The book is considered one of the 20th century’s best works of nonfiction literary journalism. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand Africa.”

And how about this one?

Recommended by: William Booth, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean bureau chief. “I am delightfully shocked to learn the sublime Mexico City taco as I know and love it — a shave of pork from twirling spit, made happy with onion and cilantro (y por favor señor! that chunk of pineapple) — only dates back to the 1950s. Of course, wrapping something in a tortilla is as old as tortillas, though they didn’t call them tacos.”

And this one is absolutely a must-read:

This is me speaking now, not a foreign correspondent lol: Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a beautifully written book about India–its incredible poverty, and its astonishing potential. A challenging, well-worth-it kind of book.

Not on either of these lists is the newest novel by the brilliant Afghan-born American novelist Khaled Hosseini, And The Mountains Echoed. (He also wrote The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.) Mountains has something of an adoption-related theme, in that one of the main characters was essentially trafficked, as a toddler, by her family, to a wealthier, childless couple, who never told her the truth of her origins. When Pari is a middle-aged adult, she re-connects with her family. In talking with a relative about her realization of what had happened to her, she says “You say you felt a presence, but I sensed only an absence. A vague pain without a source. I was like the patient who cannot explain to the doctor where it hurts, only that it does.” 

To me, that sums up the poignancy of the adoption journey.

I hope your summer time is one of rejuvenation and adventure, and one that includes lots of good books. Library cards are free. Enjoy.

 

 

Gazillion Voices– An All-Adoptee Led Online Magazine

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While there are lots of articles, magazines, and policies about adoption, most are written by adoptive parents or adoption agencies. Very few are written by adoptees. Well, that’s all about to change.

Gazillion Voices will be the first All Adoptee Led publication addressing adoption issues from an adoptee-centric perspective. They’ve assembled an astonishing group of (US and international) adoptee writers, artists, academics, chefs, musicians, actors, researchers, change agents, activists, iconoclasts, and more. It’s gonna be great.

Its roots are in the Land of Gazillion Adoptees blog, and its branches are now looking for a little green.  The Kickstarter campaign launched today. Your donation will be well-placed. The magazine launches in August–I can’t wait.

Full disclosure:  My daughter Aselefech–the one who wrote the most viewed post on my blog ever–will be a contributing columnist. I will also be writing an article for a fall issue.

DNA Testing and Adoption: Filling In Many Missing Pieces

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Access to information about our DNA is now easily available. This genetic information is wonderful and daunting for all of us, and perhaps especially valuable for adoptees, whether US or international.

It’s relatively inexpensive ($99) now to find out what percent of your DNA comes from what population (Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, South America, etc.). Adopted people of mixed background can get an accurate breakdown of information that they may never have received nor otherwise could find out. A friend of mine, adopted from Colombia, found out she is Mayan, Middle Eastern, and Spanish/French.

You can also find out about medical matters,  such as whether you are a carrier for cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, and many more. You can learn your genetic risk for diabetes, macular degeneration, Parkinson’s, and other serious conditions.  You can discover how your genetic makeup could impact sensitivity to certain medications and drugs, such as Plavix and Coumadin.

Because the DNA results are all part of a global database, it is possible to find previously unknown relatives, from close family to distant cousins. In terms of search, for adopted people, this is huge.

I drew the information above largely from the website of one of the most popular sites, www.23andme.com. The “23” refers to the number of pairs of chromosomes we humans have.

The testing is done via saliva, about a half teaspoon’s worth. Young children can be tested; the kit is modified for folks who can produce saliva but not spit.

Adoptees are often missing their own medical histories. Every visit to a doctor’s office can be a reminder of loss, guesswork, and uncertainty.  Writing “Adopted” and crossing out the Family History section can be frustrating. DNA testing eliminates some of the mystery, and fills in some of the blanks.

Of course, this genetic information opens a lot of potentially complex new doors.  Finding out about potential future medical conditions could be frightening.

I still will say, though, that information is power. These days, we all have to be really strong advocates for our physical and mental health. Genetic testing gives us more information to work with, and allows us to engage our health care providers more effectively.

I’ve offered to get the testing kits for each of my (young adult) adopted children. They are considering it, and I can understand the need to take some time to decide. I’m going to get the testing done on myself.  I’m not adopted, and I feel pretty confident that my ethnicity will be fully Irish. My mom died at 74 from cancer; she suffered with interstitial cystitis for years. Dad, now 83, is in great physical health, and also in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. So I have some sense for the possibilities, and, at this point in my life, would rather have the information than wonder about it.

Everyone should have that option.

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Here are some interesting sites to explore and consider:

www.23andme.com

www.FamilyTreeDNA.com

www.mixedrootsfoundation.org/global-adoptee-genealogy-project

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AdoptionDNA

SMH: Not making this up, Only wanting to help

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This is one in an occasional Shaking my Head series about random but significant issues in adoption. 

I believe in adoption, I want to see adoptions done with integrity and respect, and I believe adoption practice is changing and must continue to change. A couple of recent examples via Facebook made me shake my head,

An adoptive mom of a 2-year-old from Ethiopia asked for suggestions on getting the little boy to sleep: he wants to be held until he falls asleep, then often wakes and cries. With 4 other kids, the hour plus routine is getting hard. She is hesitant to let him cry it out. The little boy has been home for a week.

A week! My heart ached–only a week since a 2-year-old child–at a big developmental point in terms of brain growth, language acquisition, motor skills–suddenly lost everything he had previously known.

I wondered if the adoption agency had provided any guidance about trauma in adopted children, about transition, about what this child is going through. The advice the mom got online was very good, including  “If you go slowly, always moving toward the goal of getting him to sleep on his own, you will probably get there in 6-8 months,” and “He is probably worried that if you leave at night, he might never see you again (like he has had happen at least once in his life, one week ago,” and “Put in the time now, hire a sitter to help with the other kids. Lie down with him, co-sleep. You will be so grateful later.”

Sleep issues in childhood are huge, regardless of adoptive status. For adopted children, they can be particularly complex and common. I’m glad this mom got such good advice, and in a supportive community.  Hope she takes the advice. I just wonder how many families struggle alone. Helping adopted children adjust to their new life, as infants, toddlers, or older, is a critical post-placement service. Sleep adjustment (the transition to sleep, the ability to sleep through the night, the development of trust and movement away from fear and loss) is a vital skill.  An overtired 2-year-old is no fun in the best circumstances; an overtired 2-year-old trying to adjust to an enormously new life where the people look different, smell different, sound different, where he has no common language, where he cannot express himself pleasantly (because he’s 2)–it’s a hard journey, and a long road. And I’ve no doubts the mom and dad are tired from trying to keep things “normal” for the other 4 children, who are all under 9 years of age.  Oh my.

As happy as the adoptive family is to welcome the longed-for, long-awaited child into their home, the confusion (stress, upheaval) for the child is just as great.

An adoptive mother posted on a closed Eastern European adoption group about how proud she is of her now 18-year-old Russian son, graduating from high school, heading off to college. She noted he “is past all that teenage angst about adoption,” and moving on with his life.

I wish them well.  I’d also suggest that adoption with its joys and sorrows, its realities, its rhythms is far more than “teenage angst.” Many adoptees aren’t even able to process some of the complexities until well into their 20’s or older. And, of course, some apparently have few struggles.  However, to dismiss understanding of adoption as post-pubesecent emotion is to misunderstand the depth of adoption, trust, grief, and loss.

We are all in this together.  It’s so important that we keep talking, that we listen to the  insights of current research, that we acknowledge struggle, and that we seek help to grow strong. There’s so much at stake, and, sometimes, no extra chances to do the right thing.

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Birth Fathers, First Fathers: To Acknowledge, Remember, Honor

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I wrote last month about Birth Mother’s Day, observed by some on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

I am a big advocate of birth/first parents, and work to include them in conversations about adoption policy. But I freely admit I rarely note the fathers specifically.

So here today, the Saturday before Father’s Day, I embrace, metaphorically at least, all those men, young and old, who have lost their children to adoption and yet still keep them in their hearts.

I acknowledge all those men who may not know that they have a child, and who may never know.

I honor all those men who wanted to provide a safe, stable home for their children, were unable to, and who did the genuine best they could.

I honor those men who work to connect with the adoptive family in an open adoption, who work to connect with their child’s mother in a complex situation, and who are a positive presence in their child’s life, whether the child is 2 or 32.

I recognize those fathers, dead and alive, who did not get the support they needed, who were left on the sidelines, whose hearts may have broken in silence and without tears.

I hold in my heart those men who no longer have a common language or culture with their child, who are separated by geography or prison or illness, who hold fast to their children nonetheless.

And I offer hope: hope that they are not forgotten, hope that their children are well, and hope that we can continue to enlarge our understanding of family, in a dignified and powerful way, for all the fathers in our lives.

Standards of Practice for Adoptive Parents: It’s Time (Part One)

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On May 21, I presented my workshop titled “Standards of Practice for Adoptive Parents: Ethics, Economics, and Responsibilities” at the annual conference of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services in New York City.

(A few disclaimers and a bit of context: I was the first executive director of JCICS, from 1994 to 2000.  I have no connection with them anymore, except insofar as some of the folks from those days are good people and remain good friends.  JCICS has changed a lot since I was there, from an umbrella group of international adoption agencies to a more broadly-focused nonprofit for global child welfare issues. I am guessing most of the conference attendees were adoption agency-affiliated, mostly administrative and executive staff. My workshop was a PowerPoint presentation; if anyone wants the slides, I can share them. My plan here in my blog is to share the main points, providing narrative similar to what I provided at the conference.)

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There is a perfect storm in adoption right now:

* The number of children being internationally adopted has dropped dramatically, but the number of children needing families remains high.

* Adoption agencies are closing, including those certified by the Council on Accreditation.

* There is an increased volume of adult adoptee voices being heard,  and their experiences and insights are becoming better known and respected.

* There is an explosion of Internet postings about fraud in international adoptions.

* There is some assent within the Christian evangelical community–recent big players in the international adoption arena–regarding fraud.

* Increasing numbers of adoptive parents are searching for their internationally adopted children’s first/birth families privately, after adoption, without agency assistance or knowledge, and while their children are little.

* Awareness and connections with birth/first families are increasing.

Given all this, given this perfect storm, where do we begin?

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These are, to me, the minimal Standards:

1. Citizenship. All adoptive parents–whether they adopted in 1956 or in June 2013–must ensure that their internationally adopted children are citizens of the United States. It is an ethical outrage that this is even necessary to discuss (again and again, still). Read here for more information.

2. Access to Original Birth Certificate. All adoptive parents should make every effort for their children to have access to their original birth certificate. Whether a child is adopted within the US or internationally, they should have access to their original birth certificates. I realize that this is difficult (if not impossible) for genuinely abandoned children. Some children don’t arrive in the US with birth certificates because their birth was not recorded in any official way. Many children however do have birth certificates.  Still. All of them deserve access to this basic, too-often-taken-for-granted legal information: the birth certificate that non-adopted people have, that provides them with basic, vital information about who they are.  It’s a human right.

3. DNA Testing.  All adoptive parents should be aware of options regarding DNA testing, and offer these options to their children. DNA testing is relatively cheap these days, and provides an astonishing amount of information. Most non-adopted people have a decent medical history, a good sense for what runs in the family. Adoptees often do not. DNA testing would fill in some of those missing blanks at the doctor’s office. DNA testing can also connect adopted people to their birth family, or to more distant relatives.  DNA testing also can let people know if they are Sudanese, Irish, German, Colombian, or a combination thereof.

4. Role Models/Mentors.  All adoptive parents should make every effort for their adopted children to have role models around them who look like them, as well as mentors and friends who are adoptees. Real people, real friends, folks who are over to the house for coffee, parties, barbecues. Ideally, these people are in the adoptive parents’ lives and community prior to adoption. Access to role models and to adoptees as mentors can be especially important when kids become teenagers; it’d be great to have them while they’re still in elementary school.

The last two items from my PowerPoint slide above, Guidelines for Connections with First Families and Consideration of New Paradigms in International Adoption, will be the subject of an upcoming post. I will also add additional Standards of Practice.

Hangouts, Insights, and Possibilities

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Many thanks to the insightful, thoughtful Angela Tucker and Aselefech Evans for their time and conversation at last night’s Google + Hangout.

What we talked about: growing up in diverse/non-diverse places as transracial adoptees; thinking about first families; deciding when/how/why to search; how searching affects parents, siblings, others; how we fit in (or don’t) with the culture to which we were born.

Wonderful discussion of the weight and power of the words “mom” and “birth mom” and “first mom.”

Affirmation of the incredible value of conversations among adopted adults and adoptive parents. We need to keep doing this. Birth parents/first parents were there with us in words/mind/heart/spirit. They have a place at the table, no doubt–just need to keep working on getting them there.

Great stuff.

What needs work: My use and understanding of the Hangout process. We were not able to record this, and had some glitches in the live streaming. I spent a few hours last night after the Hangout reviewing what went well and how next time is going to be a seamless web of audio and video heaven.

Next steps: More Hangouts.  While it will never be possible to schedule them at a globally mutually convenient time, the next ones will be live-streamed and recorded.

Topics: So many possibilities, and I welcome more. Whose search is it anyway? Can international adoptees really reclaim their culture? What is “fair” in adoption? What does it mean to be comfortable in one’s skin? Is fraud really new in adoption, or are we just more aware of it now–and how do we reduce/eliminate it? How to deal with differing perspectives on search in the same family, or differing amounts of available information about birth families. What issues arise for adoptees working at adoption agencies? How can we work together to ensure that all adoptees have their original birth certificates?

So let’s keep talking.

Angela Tucker and Aselefech Evans On Transracial Adoption, Search, and Reunion

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Angela Tucker, featured in the new documentary Closure, and Aselefech Evans will talk about transracial adoption, search, and reunion on Tuesday, June 4 at 7 p.m. PDT. You can watch their conversation live on Google+ Hangouts On Air here, or later on a YouTube page I’ll link to after the conversation.

Angela was adopted as a baby from Chattanooga, TN, and grew up in Bellingham, Washington.  Aselefech was 6 years old when she and her twin sister arrived from Ethiopia to join their US family in Maryland. Both Angela and Aselefech have searched for and reunited with their birth families. Each now in their 20’s, Angela and Aselefech will talk about race, hair, identity, loss, grief, and love, hosted by yours truly, Maureen McCauley Evans.

Update, Previews, and Teasers

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It’s good to be back.  In the last few weeks, I’ve gone from Seattle to Vancouver and back, and then from Washington State to Maryland to New York City to Maryland to Washington State.

Update:

During these 3 weeks: One of my daughters ran her first 5k, and finished in the top 20. My other daughter made the honor roll for her college semester, and was asked to be a teaching assistant this fall in the psychology department. One of my sons received the certification for sanitation at the Culinary School he’s attending. My other son closed on several real estate/rental contracts.

I attended my granddaughter’s dance recital in Maryland.  She has since had two tee ball games, Field Day in kindergarten, and her piano recital.

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In New York City, I saw the play “The Call,” about a white married couple considering adopting a child from Africa. I also attended the annual conference of the Joint Council on International Children Services. I presented a session on “Standards of Practice for Adoptive Parents: Ethics, Economics, and Responsibilities,” as well as a lightning talk (20 PowerPoint slides in 5 minutes) on The Art of Adoption, featuring poems, paintings, and plays by adoptees.

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And each Friday, whatever time zone I was in, I skyped with my dad in Massachusetts. He’s in amazing physical health for an 83 year old.  He lives in the Harbor unit of an assisted living facility, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  He’s delightful to talk with, often asks if any of my kids are getting married. No word on that yet, Dad.

I’ve had lots to reflect on in terms of family, adoption, being in the moment, the futility of art-directing others people’s lives, and more.

Previews and Teasers

Tomorrow night (Tuesday June 4), 7 pm pdt/10pm edt: Angela Tucker (of Closure) and Aselefech Evans via Google + Hangout. The conversation will be about transracial adoption (US and Ethiopia), hair, race, diversity, search: how perception and understanding of adoption changes over time for adoptees, how our definition of “family” can be so complex.

In the next week or so, I will be posting my JCICS workshop information about Standards of Practice for Adoptive Parents.  (Teaser: The basics are citizenship, DNA testing, and role models/mentors who are adult adoptees.  The more controversial: Insisting on equitable pre-adopt and post-adopt services for birth families.)

I’m thrilled to be soon getting an advance review copy of The Declassified Adoptee‘s soon-to-be-published book. It’s going to be wonderful, powerful, provocative, insightful. A tremendous benefit to the adoption community.

Washington State has also provided two items of fodder recently for writing and commenting. For one, a less than adequate “compromise” bill on access to OBC’s. The second item is still not having a trial for Hana Alemu, more than two years after she was found dead in her adoptive parents’ back yard. A hearing is scheduled this week.

So.  There’s lots going on. Lots to write about, think about, reflect on. It’s good for us to be here.