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The Australian Intercountry Adoption Network (AICAN) is the national network of 0 non-government organisations (NGOs) involved in international adoption. Many of these NGOs have been operating since the mid 1970s, although AICAN was founded in 1990.
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May 2012
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Should you ever spank your child?
www.parentmagic.com
It’s about time people face up to reality: more often than not spankings are the result of parental temper tantrums. They are in no way attempts to train or educate a child. They are simply the angry outburst of a parent who has lost control, but doesn’t know what to do next. Parents who have big problems with self‐control and anger management try to justify and rationalize spanking by saying things like, “You have to set limits,” “It’s for their own good,” and Having to hit kids hurts me more than it does them.” But research tells us that physical discipline like this tends to generate anxiety in children, lower their self‐esteem and make the kids more likely to become aggressive themselves.
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Kids Won’t Listen? Try This!
www.parentmagic.com
If you're a parent living with small children, you may often feel like you're invisible to your kids. After spending a day cajoling, reasoning, threatening and even screaming in an attempt to get your kids to behave, you may feel as if they never listen to you, much less respond. But all that talking is precisely the problem. If you feel like you're invisible, you're probably way too audible. When it comes to discipline, silence often speaks louder than words.
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Bulgaria: Capuchin friar condemns the uncritical adoption of western trends
members4.boardhost.com
"Many people in Bulgaria uncritically adopt trends from the west." - This was criticised by Capuchin friar Elko Terziyski, who works in Bulgaria's capital city, Sofia, in a meeting with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
In the communist period, the Bulgarians were accustomed to receiving and carrying out instructions from the USSR. As a result of this, suggestions and tendencies coming from the European Union, of which Bulgaria has been a member since 2007, tend to be perceived as “commands” and are carried out uncritically.
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United Church archives ground zero in search for evidence of forced adoptions
news.nationalpost.com
The 4,500-square-foot vault is a temperature-controlled former television studio, maintained at a precise 18 C with a relative humidity of 30%. The shelved boxes, all 23,000 of them, are made of acid-free cardboard and contain information that dates at least as early as 1792. These glassed-in premises on the main floor of a Toronto office tower are ground zero for what is believed to be Canada’s first major probe into allegations that women were coerced or forced into surrendering their children for adoption decades ago because they were not married.
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State to have monitoring agency to streamline adoption soon
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
A state-level monitoring agency called State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) will be constituted to streamline and check illegal adoptions in Kerala. It will function on the basis of the guidelines of the Central Adoption and Resource Agency ( CARA). "The number of prospective parents waiting for adoption is over 600, while the children available for adoption in the state are not more than 100. Probably, the lesser number of children for adoption could be due to illegal adoptions through unrecognized agencies and unwed mothers abortion," Kerala Voluntary Adoption Coordinating Agency (VACA) coordinator Meena Kuruvila told TOI on Sunday.
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Adopted kids meet to celebrate with families
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Three years ago, Gayathri wept the whole night when she learnt that she was an adopted child. She is now 15 years old. On Sunday she came with her parents for the annual adoptive families' meet of southern region which was jointly organized by the Kerala adoptive families organization ( KAFO) and social welfare department. Sitting beside her parents, Gayathri Bhuvanendran said she is the luckiest child on earth. "I vividly remember that night. The next day at school, I told my friend Amrita that I was an adopted child. She hugged me hard and told me I was lucky to have a wonderful family," beamed Gayathri.
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March 2012
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What's Your Parenting Style?
www.parentmagic.com
Promoting the self-discipline and self-esteem of one's children often requires an emotional juggling act by parents. It is not easy to be firm and demanding one minute, then warm and affectionate the next. In addition, some adults naturally have personalities or temperaments that predispose them toward one parenting style or the other:
1) AUTHORITARIAN PARENTING?
2) PERMISSIVE PARENTING?
3) THE AUTHORITATIVE PARENTING MODEL?
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Should Race Be a Factor in Adoption?
www.theroot.com
In the United States in 2010, black children left the care system at a rate of 24 percent, while white children left at a rate of 43 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the UK, where I live, a black child is three times less likely to be adopted from care than a white child. And until recently, UK guidelines on adoption have made it difficult to adopt between races.
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Plan for quicker adoption system in Wales
www.bbc.co.uk
Would-be parents should not have to wait so long to be approved as adopters, the Welsh government has said. Ministers say creating a national adoption service will help eliminate waiting lists for prospective adopters. It is designed to get rid of delays in the time it takes to place children with families. Deputy social service minister Gwenda Thomas heard one family's experience of the adoption system on Thursday.
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Forced adoptions a sorry business in Australia
bikyamasr.com
Hardly any children are put up for adoption in Australia these days. If you want a child, you have to look abroad. It was not like that in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when each year thousands of unwed mothers were pressured by well-meaning midwives and social workers into giving up their babies to turn childless couples into families. Some of these women, often teenage mums, were sedated while giving birth and woke up to find their babies gone to new homes, sometimes through the forging of signatures.
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Hollywood's Secret Adoptions
www.etonline.com
Unbeknownst to the world, Charlize Theron went through an arduous adoption process that reportedly completed on March 15. Even tougher than the actual act of adopting may have been keeping the task under wraps. In an interview with ET over the weekend, the actress credited her "good friends" for keeping a lid on the baby news. Click through to see a few more stars that run with a trustworthy circle who can clearly keep a secret.
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Parents cleared of killing son with methadone, eight years after death
www.smh.com.au
"They were found responsible for their son's death, had another child subsequently taken from them and were publicly shamed. But Rochelle Dunlop and her husband John Schreckenberg did not give up there. Yesterday, after a six-year fight to clear their names, a coroner found they did not give their six-month-old son a lethal dose of methadone."
This case was a hot topic in the online child care, fostering and adoption community, where many people jumped to conclusions and got it badly wrong.
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Six years on, baby's death is officially a mystery
www.smh.com.au
"The death of a six-month-old boy in 2003 will remain a mystery after a coroner overturned an earlier finding this morning that he may have died after he was deliberately given methadone by his drug dependent mother."
This case caused a lot of commotion in Sydney back in 2003. It now seems as if it wasn't as clear cut as the media wanted to make out.
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Secular Humanistic Parenting: Lessons From the Foxhole
parentingbeyondbelief.com
As children gradually turn into teenagers and young adults, they encounter situations where they have to make complex decisions; their innate human ability to distinguish right from wrong may not always provide the guidance that they need. As a parent I find it helpful to give them a path, or at least a suggestion of a path. Teenagers may decide to stray from that path at times, and that’s okay. I’m not advocating a set of strict rules, only a reminder of what they already know.
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Your Child's Self-Esteem: Are You Helping or Hurting?
www.parentmagic.com
What does it take to raise competent, good‐natured children who can feel a healthy respect for themselves? Research has shown over and over that good parenting involves two basic components. One will not surprise you, but the other one may catch you off guard.
Healthy self-esteem is based on four elements:
1. Good relationships with other people
2. Competence in work and self-management
3. Physical skills and caring for one's body
4. Character: courage, effort, following the rules and concern for others
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February 2012
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Memories of Korea
www.memoriesofkorea.blogspot.com.au
As we came to the end of our time in Korea we still had one last thing we needed to do. We had to travel from Seoul to Iksan on the KTX to see some Pastors who were planning a trip to Australia. This was very exciting for me because a few years before I had spent time with Pastors in Iksan and Gunsan so it was a bit of a reunion but it was also exciting to be part of the planning for the team going from Korea to Australia.
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Seoul Searching
www.time.com
After 11 years and 6,000 miles, we still hadn't met our daughter's mother. We had come only this close: staked out in a van across from a tiny Seoul coffee shop, the mother inside with a Korean interpreter, afraid to come out, afraid of being discovered, afraid to meet her own flesh.
Inside the van, Rae, our 11-year-old Korean adopted daughter, was trying to make sense of it. How could we have flown the entire family 6,000 miles from Denver to meet a woman who was afraid to walk 20 yds. across the street to meet us? Why had we come this far if she was only going to reject Rae again?
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Forever Families Adoption Playgroup in South Australia
www.aican.org
The Northern Adoption Playgroup has now grown into Forever Families Playgroup.We meet every Wednesday 12.30-2.30 at Playgroup SA Playroom, Prospect Rd, Prospect. We encourage all families formed through adoption to come along and play and have a coffee. Fee will be $3 and bring a piece of fruit to share
Our very first session will be held Wednesday February 8th 12.30 - 2.30.
Forever Families Playgroup Flyer
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Take back our children, say angry foster parents
www.smh.com.au
Helen and Brian MacDonald believe the children they have raised for the past 6½ years are the ''best two foster kids in Australia.''
But they have decided they will not look after them any more because the state government has cut payments to foster carers of 16- and 17-year-olds, from January 1. In most cases households will be $214 a fortnight worse off.
''It's a shocking thing to do,'' says Mrs MacDonald of the couple's decision. ''But we feel we are being emotionally blackmailed by a minister [Pru Goward] that doesn't care about the children in her care, only about money. They're betting on carers just keeping the children.''
The MacDonalds have refused to sign a placement agreement for Sheila* who is 17 and doing her HSC because it requires them to agree to the new payment. When Declan* turns 16 in May they will decline to care for him, too.
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January 2012
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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
www.facebook.com
Every person deserves the right to live a healty, productive life. We work to address the world's largest inequalities, with focus on global health, global development, and U.S. education reform.
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Loving families look for permanent solution, not temporary fix
www.smh.com.au
As Australia recorded its lowest number of adoptions ever in 2010-11, Julie and Carl Hall were celebrating the adoption of Codie, the third sibling to be legally embraced by the family in recent years. Inter-country adoptions are on a six-year decline and the number of Australian babies available for adoption has dwindled. But in NSW, the number of children adopted by their foster carers is on the rise, from 18 in 2005-6 to 45 last year.
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December 2011
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National Council For Adoption: Continued Decline in Intercountry Adoptions
www.adoptioncouncil.org
November 17, 2011 – Alexandria, VA – The U.S. Department of State has just released the intercountry adoption numbers for FY 2011, published at
http://adoption.state.gov/content/pdf/fy2011_annual_report.pdf. In 2011, U.S. citizens adopted 9,320 children from foreign countries. This represents a 15% decrease in the number of intercountry adoptions from FY 2010. The number of intercountry adoptions peaked in 2004, when American families adopted more than 22,000 foreign-born children. Since then, however, the number of children adopted each year via intercountry adoption has steadily declined." This trend is not right, and it is not good for children. Given the increasing number of orphaned children worldwide, the continued decline in intercountry adoptions means that children's most basic needs and rights are being denied", says Chuck Johnson, president and CEO of the National Council For Adoption (NCFA). "As intercountry adoption programs close or decrease in number, more and more children remain in institutions and temporary care situations, aging out without ever securing their basic right to a permanent loving family of their own."
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Raising Children with Thankful Hearts
www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com
Don't confuse gratitude with indebtedness. Sure, you may feel obliged to return a favor, but that's not gratitude, at least not the way psychologists define it. Indebtedness is more of a negative feeling and doesn't yield the same benefits as gratitude, which inclines you to be nice to anyone, not just a benefactor.
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Self-Esteem: The Bottom Line
www.parentmagic.com
Positive self-esteem is primarily the RESULT of two things: real world success and a fair internal "Evaluator". "Success" is a multifaceted affair and for most children, fortunately, the range of acceptable performance is fairly broad. Success or lack of it occurs in the dimensions of interpersonal relationships, competence, physical attributes and character. Self-esteem, therefore, will sometimes be based on things that are under an individual's control, but at other times it will be based on things that are not. Sometimes it will be based on things that people consider admirable and almost noble, such as effort and self‐sacrifice, while at other times it will involve things that people consider superficial, such as looks and physical possessions. Because self‐esteem is multifaceted, in any one person it changes some from time to time, in some people varying tremendously, while in others remaining consistently high, medium or low across the various dimensions. Self-esteem may most often depend upon what children are doing at the moment, but as they get older they develop more and more of an ability to "sum themselves up" in their minds.
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An Infertile Adoptive Mom
www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com
Is there really such a thing as "closure"? People like to use that word when talking about experiencing a loss. For example, when you and your boyfriend break up, you may feel like you need answers as to why it happened so you can get "closure" on your relationship. Or someone close to you dies. People allow you to grieve, but eventually they feel as if you need to move on and get "closure."
The word itself suggests closing something. Like shutting a door to keep the bad thing away. Or lowering the lid on a chest that holds your hurt feelings. If people expect you to find "closure" in order to be happy, then you must unhappy if you leave the door or lid open. Right?
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November 2011
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Overseas Adoption in Australia Report
www.ag.gov.au
Following the release of the 2003-2004 Annual Report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services conducted an inquiry into the adoption of children from overseas. On 28 November 2005, the Committee’s Report, Overseas Adoption in Australia was released.
The Report included 27 recommendations designed to improve the system of intercountry adoption in Australia. The Government has already implemented many of these recommendations, including the creation of the Intercountry Adoption Branch of the Attorney-General's Department to manage Australia’s overseas adoption programs, the establishment of the National Intercountry Adoption Advisory Group (formerly National Peak Overseas Adoption Support Group) and the passing of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, which provides another option for children whose adoption has been finalised under full and permanent Hague Convention arrangements to obtain Australian citizenship.
The Government is working to implement all of the remaining accepted recommendations, most of which are ongoing, to ensure the best outcomes for children in need of intercountry adoption and for Australian families.
Further information will be available in due course.
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Intercountry Adoption Harmonisation Working Group
www.ag.gov.au
Clause 20 of the Commonwealth–State Agreement for the Continued Operation of Australia’s Intercountry Adoption Program provides for the establishment of an inter‑governmental working group to progress the greater harmonisation of intercountry adoption legislation, fees and administrative procedures, to achieve best practice and not to achieve uniformity as an end in itself. Greater harmonisation was recommended by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services in its Overseas Adoption in Australia Report.
A Working Group has been established for this purpose, consisting of representatives from the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department and the relevant State and Territory authorities. The first meeting of the Group was held on 5 November 2008 in Canberra.
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Aged adoption plan stirs parenting debate
www.perthnow.com.au
Seniors will be able to adopt a child in WA under new laws that have reignited debate about how old is too old to become a parent. It will also become easier for couples to adopt a child as the State Government moves to slash red tape and abolish the controversial process of making women who want to adopt take regular pregnancy tests. Currently, would-be parents can be no more than 50 years older than the child they want to adopt. But The Sunday Times has learned Child Protection Minister Robyn McSweeney has taken new laws to Cabinet to scrap that rule, allowing seniors and retirees to become parents. It drew heavy criticism yesterday from WA's peak adoption advocacy group, which says allowing older people to adopt would mean children would be left to care for geriatric parents later in life.
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Victorian adoption process likened to criminal investigation
www.heraldsun.com.au
Couples desperate to become parents are frustrated by the Victorian adoption process, likening it to a "criminal investigation". A new report found the adoption system could be "inhumane'', "traumatic'', "disrespectful'' and it forced parents to navigate unnecessary hurdles. University of Melbourne health ethics lecturer Dr Giuliana Fuscaldo interviewed 36 couples applying to adopt a child in Victoria either locally or overseas. The length of time it took to complete an application through the Department of Human Services was one of the biggest criticisms. "Participants referred to long delays between each stage and suggested that these delays were due in part to a shortage of government resources,'' Dr Fuscaldo said. Some received contradictory and inaccurate information.
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Surviving, Learning, Laughing: Winning the Lottery of Life
holtinternational.org
A message from Jane Ballback, post adoption guest blogger: My daughter Stacee is guest blogging today! This post is a priceless gift to me from Stacee and was a complete surprise. Thank you for sharing this gift with me by reading on….
Whenever anybody asks me to explain how my last name is Ballback, why I can’t speak a word of Korean, or how I have two very Caucasian parents when I am very clearly Asian, my answer is always the same, “I was adopted.” The keyword here is “was.”
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Mothers Mission to Korea Blog
mothersmission2011.blogspot.com
Since 2008 a group of Queensland Ladies have travelled to South Korea on a Mothers Mission to help ESWS provide care and support for children in orphanages and single mothers. All the ladies are paying their own expenses so every dollar raised goes to help ESWS with the wonderful work they do. This year Community Aid Network is assisting with helping organise funding raise so please get behind the ladies and help where you can. you can follow the ladies on facebook as well.
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Mothers Mission to Korea Facebook
www.facebook.com
The last three Mothers Misions were a great sucess ths year we are planning more for the mothers, be a part of the mission by joining the mothers in Korea, or be a supporter by helping with the Auction night and collecting of Bazaar items for Korea
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The Weekly's adoption breakfast
aww.ninemsn.com.au
Deborra-lee Furness headed a star-studded guest list at a breakfast launching National Adoption Awareness week in Sydney on Monday.
She was joined by Rebecca Gibney, Sandra Sully, Layne Beachley, Professor Kerryn Phelps and MP Bronwyn Bishop, as well as actor Jack Thompson, who gave a passionate speech about the opportunities and love he was given by his adopted family.
Deborra-lee talked about the live-changing nature of adoption, and asked the Australian government to take the issue more seriously.
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Woman on a mission
au.tv.yahoo.com
Deborra-Lee Furness is a woman on a mission, campaigning for adoption reform in Australia.
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Recruitment Model Proves Success in Substantially Increasing Adoption Rates from Foster Care
www.marketwatch.com
Rigorous five-year study finds child-focused recruitment results in up to three-fold increase in adoption among youth in foster care. The most comprehensive evaluation ever conducted on family recruitment practices for children in foster care was released today from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA). The five-year study, led by Child Trends, found children served by a child-focused recruitment model experienced substantially higher rates of adoption than children not served by this model.
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Wendy's Wonderful Kids to Increase Foster Adoptions
www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA) released findings of a five-year study which focused on family recruitment practices for children in foster care. Specifically, the study followed the success of a program called, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids (WWK). It provided local adoption agencies with grants to hire dedicated adoption recruiters who spend 100 percent of their job focused on finding waiting children forever homes.
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Ethiopia In Our Hearts... and In Our Lives
www.adoptivefamiliescircle.com
I recently shared my family's adoption experiences during our agency's weekend for parents in the early stages of adopting. I attended long ago and returned once with my family. That return visit led to some interesting and challenging questions for all of us.
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Why I support gay marriage
www.eurekastreet.com.au
As a legislator, I have voted for and promoted legislation that accords rights, such as adoption, to homosexual people. I have publicly stated that I don't agree with the Church's teaching on homosexuality. How did such a good Catholic girl arrive at what appears to be a non-Catholic position on this issue?
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October 2011
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Adoptive Families - Teased over Adoption - Standing Up to Bullies
www.adoptivefamilies.com
How can you respond to bullying or protect your teen from becoming a target?
Parents will always be troubled if their children are bullied, but incidents become especially hurtful during the middle and high school years. Adoptees may be vulnerable to comments about how "different" they are from their families or from peers. And when those comments cross the line from nosiness to cruelty, they can wound a teen's evolving identity. How should you respond when your child is being bullied? What can you do to prevent it?
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Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute E-Newsletter 2011-09 (September)
www.adoptioninstitute.org
Congress passed this month, and the President is expected to sign, the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (HR 2883).
A Sept. 27 State Department Guatemala Notice, "CNA Processing Framework for U.S. Cases Under Its Authority," outlines aspects of Guatemalan Central Adoption Authority's (CNA) procedures for a small number of U.S. adoption cases pending since that country suspended adoptions in 2007 after fraud allegations.
"The Journey to Adopt a Child Who Has Special Needs: Parents' Perspectives" by Ramona Denby, Keith Alford and Jessica Ayala – in the September issue of Children and Youth Services Review (Volume 33, Issue 9) – provides a qualitative study of nine families going through the foster care adoption process; three of them dropped out.
and more ...
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Victorian Family Fun Day in the Park 2011
Families of both local & intercountry adoption along with donor concieved families in Victoria are invited to connect with one another for National Adoption Awareness Week 2011.
When: Saturday 12th November 2011 @ 2.00-4.00pm
Where: Carlton Gardens Nth, Melbourne
Rathdowne street - Playground, north of Museum
Mel Ref: 14 C16
No RSVP Required
Contact enquiries: Meredith on (0407) 047607
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