Tag Archives: international adoption

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.

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.

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.

Finding Joy in the Midst of Grief and Confusion

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At a recent meeting of folks in the adoption community (adopted people. adoptive parents, birth parents), we got to talking intensely about some daunting issues, including grief and confusion among adoptees who are worried about citizenship and deportation, not necessarily for themselves but for others. They worry and pray for the adoptees who have been deported. The adoptees in this meeting all had proof of their U.S. citizenship and none had committed any crimes, so legally they weren’t among those who might end up in detention centers or worse.

Even so, many adoptees, especially Black or brown folks, including if not particularly those raised in predominantly white communities, are worried about being caught up in an ICE raid. They wonder if having been born in another country, whether Mexico or Korea or Russia or elsewhere, makes them vulnerable, or “less than,” or susceptible to dirty looks or worse. Even if they are not worried for themselves, they are worried about fellow adoptees, and about anyone who feels compelled to carry around their passport all the time, just in case.

Many adoptees wonder if their white parents and family and friends can truly understand what they are dealing with every time they read the news, or walk down a busy street, or consider traveling.

We closed our meeting by having everyone share one word about how they were feeling: words like rage, grief, exhaustion, fear, and overwhelmed were a theme.

Everyone also shared one thing that brought them joy. I really appreciated the chance to pause and think about that. I hope you will take a moment to focus on what brings you joy right now.

For many folks, it was a connection with nature: looking at the ocean, maybe seeing a whale, watching monarch butterflies feast on milkweed, seeing fabulous birds (this becomes more important with age, I grant you), and simply feeling a nice breeze while walking outside.

Photo by Maureen McCauley; Sunset off Blake Island, Washington state.

A couple of us also mentioned crafting (sewing, for example) and art. Here’s a collage I did recently, using a photo transparency.

I recently took a class in acrylic collage. I am finally feeling strong about making art for the sake of making art.

And of course, beloved friends and family often bring joy as well.

That’s me and Hamish, who is skeptical about something I’ve said.

Sometimes, finding joy within family is hard, when folks are far away (emotionally or geographically), or they are dealing with medical or mental health or financial or work issues. We all carry burdens and sorrows; I am not sure why we are not then more kind to each other these days.

That brings me back to the grief and confusion that we felt in the meeting, and that many folks are feeling now. It’s okay and understandable to feel those things. Maybe focus also on feeling joy, even in the midst of sadness or anger. We need to tip our hearts that way. Small steps and all that, meandering toward compassion and hope.

Research on Ethiopian Adoption: An Informal 9-Page List

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If you’ve ever wondered about research on Ethiopian adoptions, here is my informal, incomplete, unannotated list of academic theses, sociology and law journal articles, books, and reports. Much of the research here, though certainly not all, has been done by Ethiopian scholars.

I am especially interested in research on Ethiopian birth parents. I’ve included in my list the few theses and articles I am aware of, and would welcome more.

For years, and as recently as yesterday, I have railed about the astonishing lack of adoption services to international birth parents. Ethiopian Adoption Connection/Beteseb Felega has worked hard in the realm of search, reunion, and other services. Funding is a challenge; I am among the donors, and invite others to contribute as well.

I do not have a strong sense that the pre-adoption services are stellar; I’d love to read research on what services were and are provided to international birth families by adoption agencies prior to placement. Many countries no longer send children for international adoption. Pre-adoption services remain important, and I am uncertain about their current and past uniformity or utility: has there been any evaluation?

Post-adoption services for international birth families, including in Ethiopia where international adoptions ended in 2018, remain vital, and almost nonexistent. I understand, intellectually, the reasons: many birth families live in remote areas, they speak various languages so would need translators, many are illiterate, many move without any useable address, and so on. Adoption agencies theoretically don’t have the infrastructure to provide services. I believe nonetheless they have a fierce ethical responsibility to do so.

The likelihood that will happen in any meaningful way is heartbreakingly small.

Original photo by Maureen McCauley. Addis Ababa, 2018.

Maybe, however, there will be more research. It’s not a substitute for services (such as informing mothers that their children are alive; or helping them deal with grief or shame), but more information will keep those birth families somewhere on our radar.

For now, here is my list. The research and articles cover a range of information on Ethiopian adoption. If you have additions or corrections, please let me know.

Aselefech Evans, MSW–Clinician, Co-Editor “Lions Roaring,” Writer, Ethiopian Adoptee, More–Is Now on Substack

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Aselefech Evans, MSW, LSWAIC, has launched on Substack.

From her first post: “…I am Aselefech, proudly Oromo from the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Mother, Daughter, Auntie, Author (Lions Roaring Far from Home), family preservationist, and Black clinician—a title I hold with pride, as we make up only 4% of the field—and the owner of Stillness Therapy.”

Aselefech will be focusing on adoption, on neurodivergence, and on eating disorders and recovery. Her Substack is titled “From Stillness to Storytelling,” She will be writing primarily about three areas: adoption, eating disorders and recovery and neurodivergence. Aselefech has lived experience and extensive professional training in all three areas.

She notes “I’ve found deep connections with others whose paths to self-understanding have been anything but linear. I’ll share reflections, resources, and community voices that honor the diversity of our brains and experiences.”

Please read, subscribe to, share, and learn from this new Substack writer.

In full disclosure, Aselefech is my daughter. I could not be more proud of her. She brings a knowledgeable, compassionate heart to her writing and her work.