Pregnancy and Adoption Resources

Author Linda Howard Urbach recounts the life of the young girl orphaned by Madame Bovary in a recently released book that will be introduced at several local book readings featuring actress E. Katherine Kerr.

The team at New Beginnings was recently interviewed by Mrs. Joy Lucius of American Family Association regarding its Haiti Adoption Program.  The interview was featured in the September 2011 edition of the AFA Journal and has been copied below for your enjoyment.

AJA Journal Article

New Beginnings Adoption and Family Services has partnered with another Christian, Hague accredited agency, licensed by the China Center for Adoption Affairs, to bring you the China Adoption Program. All initial client contact and coordination is maintained through New Beginnings. We are able to provide the home study/post-adoption, dossier prep and other adoption services.

As of March 15, 2011, the CCAA has begun accepting applications for single, female applicants for children listed on their Special Needs System. If you are a single female and you are interested in this program, please take note of the points mentioned below:

• Only one child can be adopted at a time, with an interval of at least one year between the adoptions if more than one child is desired
• Must be at least 30 years old and under 50; for applicants 50 years old and older, the age difference between the child requested and the applicant should not be more than 45 years
• Must be able to provide evidence of your civil status; non-homosexual, divorced, widowed
• Must be in good physical and mental health
• Must not have a criminal record
• Must have $10,000 of annual income per family member including prospective adoptee
• Must have $100,000 in net assets
• Must have adequate medical insurance
• Must have experience in child care, or be a child care professional such as a doctor, nurse, teacher, child psychologist, etc…; experience in caring for special needs children is best
• Must not have more that two children under the age of 18; the youngest child should not be younger than 6 years old

Other options…

New Beginnings is also able to offer adoptions from Haiti, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia*, Russia*, Uganda*, Zambia*, Ghana*, Taiwan* and more. For more information on any of these programs, please call the New Beginnings office (662.842.6752) or visit the website (www.NewBeginningsAdoptions.org).

*Programs offered through partner agencies.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 – The Red Thread: An Adoptive Family Forum by Andrea Poe

NEW YORK, N.Y. - UNICEF has undergone worldwide scrutiny in regard to its position on inter-country adoption.  And for good reason.   Its position that a child’s birthplace and culture is superior to a stable home in any other place or culture has had dire consequences on some adoptees around the world.

In recent months there’s been some effort on the part of UNICEF to temper some earlier pronouncements, but the fact remains that the organization is fundamentally misguided when it comes to inter-country adoption.

There’s a disconnect between UNICEF’s position and the welfare of children. (Photo: Andrea Poe)

UNICEF claims that international adoption robs children of their heritage and culture.  The organization’s has staked out a firm position: children must be given to birth parents, regardless of the circumstance.  In lieu of that, children should go to extended family.  Next, to his or her “community.”  Finally, domestic adoption should be explored.  Inter-country adoption is “one of a range of options” according to UNCEF and should be turned to as a last resort.  The organization goes so far as to claim that international adoption must be “subsidiary” to in-country adoption, at all costs.

UNICEF declares that inter-country adoption “is not as a good as being raised in their families of origin but better than staying in orphanages.”  That would make sense if the world was a perfect place and this Polly Anna viewpoint had any basis in reality.  But that’s not the world, nor is it the reality of millions of orphans around the world.  Shared DNA does not make for the best families, contrary to UNICEF’s claims.  Children wind up eligible for adoption for myriad reasons, ranging from poverty to abuse to neglect.

In some cases, UNICEF’s positions border on racist.  In a position paper on inter-country adoption the organization states, that every effort should be made to keep a child “within his ethnic group.”  Huh?  Some vague notion about cultural ties should trump the basic human rights of children?  For what end UNICEF does not say.

There’s a disconnect between UNICEF’s position and the welfare of children.  Somewhere along the way the behemoth organization lost track of advocating for children and began abstracting the issue.

You can even hear it in the language used in the organization’s Innocenti Digest entitled “Impact of International Legal Standards and the Safeguards of The Best interest of the Child in Domestic and Intercountry Adoption,” where “different stakeholders” in intercountry adoption are mentioned.   Stakeholders?  What about the children?

To promote its agenda, UNICEF points out that abuses have taken place with inter-country adoptions.  They are right.  They have.  Just as they have and do with domestic adoptions, which UNICEF advocates. The Hague Convention was developed to provide guidelines for inter-country adoption with the hope of reducing abuses of the system and reducing the risk for child trafficking and profiteering from orphans.  This issue so often raised by UNICEF is a canard.  C’mon.  Who isn’t against corruption and abuse?

What’s so disappointing about UNICEF’s position is that for years the organization has been a leader in child welfare around the world.  The work that they do to help feed and immunize children is unimpeachable.  And perhaps this is the problem.  The organization’s success in this area has jaundiced UNICEF’s view on adoption.

Arbitrary national borders on a map have become a greater priority to UNICEF than the complicated issues of placing children with safe, loving families wherever those families may be.

UNICEF has repeatedly stated that it prefers the expansion of social welfare programs for poor families within countries, so that children can stay in kinship groups.  The practical outcome has been that unparented children are being denied the best homes so that UNICEF can score cheap points in the international arena about the insufficient aid poor countries receive.  The pawns here are the children.

Harvard Law School’s Elizabeth Bartholet, an adoptive parent herself and a well-regarded child advocate, has publicly stated that “international adoption is under siege,” largely because of UNICEF’s unrelenting assault on inter-country adoption.

In Batholet’s paper International Adoption: The Human Rights Position she writes, “Preferences for what UNICEF calls permanent family or foster care [in country] are dangerous. UNICEF’s argument is that such care could preserve children’s birth and national heritage links. But foster care doesn’t exist as a meaningful option in most sending countries – unparented children are instead relegated to orphanages. UNICEF wants foster care expanded, but denying children adoptive homes now because in the future foster care might exist is unfair to existing children.”

The influence of UNICEF on the world community cannot be overstated.  It has used its reputation as a leader in children welfare to lobby countries, including the United States, to reduce the number of inter-country adoptions.  The results have had dire consequences for children around the world.  International adoptions have plummeted and most countries are now closed to American parents.

The dark and highly influential shadow that UNICEF has cast on intercountry adoption has left millions of children around the world stranded, without homes and without hope.

Link to article: click on the source line or the first two paragraphs of the article to link to the source article which was written by Andrea Poe.

1.      I’m thankful that Jesus Christ adopted me into His kingdom when I was nine years old.
2.      I’m thankful that I was raised in an intact, two-parent household by my natural parents. Part of my motivation and endurance as it relates to my work with New Beginnings comes from the belief that every child deserves to have what I had. Loving grandparents, loving parents, and a loving family. No…they weren’t perfect and I’ve never said they were. But, they were THERE.
3.      I’m thankful that Mom and Dad were married for over 51 years and that only death could separate them. Did they ever fight? You can’t imagine–and I smile when saying that. But, they taught us that you work things out and grow through the process.
4.      I’m thankful that Dad and Mom stood up for their three kids when we messed up. And, when we did, “it was our fault.” We were never allowed to blame someone else, ask for a handout from the government or whine about life being unfair.
5.     I’m thankful for two beautiful daughters and two wonderful grand-children…all the byproduct of adoption.
6.     I’m thankful for the pastors, men of God, who have stepped on my toes through the years. They’re simply doing their job.
7.     I’m thankful a great team of workers at New Beginnings. Everyone truly cares about birth mothers, babies and the value of human life.
8.     I’m thankful for the models of manhood that I witnessed in my grandfathers, father and uncles. They were/are honest, hard-working and God-fearing.
9.     I’m thankful that New Beginnings is supported by so many great people who care about the values of family, human life and caring for others.
10.     I’m thankful, in advance, for someone who is listening to God’s voice and who will help bless the adoption ministry of New Beginnings…and others like us in America.

Tom Velie, LMSW

President

We hear of adoptive couples who want to add to their families through international adoption.  And some of us think its great and a wonderful thing.  We encourage them and help them and then love their children once they come home.  And then some of us don’t think it’s such a good thing.  If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone ask the question, “Why do people adopt kids from overseas when there are so many kids here who need homes?”…then I’d be rich.  I see a need to tell people why.

There are children in the U.S. that need homes, true.  There are approximately 600,000 children in the U.S. foster care system currently, and by and large, most of these children aren’t readily available for adoption.  Most of the children that are adoptable are older and adopting an older child is not always the best option for some families (depending on the family dynamics).  As far as infants in the U.S., there are families upon families waiting to adopt an infant.  Internationally, there are approximately 143 million orphans in the world, a great number of which are in orphanages in third world countries.  For those children that aren’t adopted, the statistics for those that end up in prison, prostitution, committing suicide, etc. are pretty disheartening.  The fact of the matter is, there is a great need for adoptive families of children worldwide.  It is not a selfish thing to pursue adoption of a child internationally.  It’s a way to meet a desire for a family to have a child, as well as meeting a desperate need for a child.  In international adoption, there are millions of children waiting on families.  For most domestic adoptions (aside from foster care) there are families waiting on children.

One argument of those against international adoption is that we need to focus on our own country’s people and problems.  Yes, America has it’s own problems.  We have people living in poverty.  We have children in need.  Our government is not perfect.  And we are Americans, so we have the responsibility to be faithful to our country and to help our fellow citizens in any way possible.  But let us not forget that we are also humans.  And so is the rest of the world population.  Including the children sitting in orphanages right now who, apart from adoption, have a pretty bleak future.  America, as such a rich and blessed nation in comparison to so many others, is in a prime position to help these children.  There are 26,000 children who die each day from starvation or preventable diseases, many of which are orphans.  I can’t ignore that statistic.  I love my country very much and I love the children in my country and will do anything I can to ensure that they are being advocated for and cared for.  But I also love the human race…and I can’t ignore the need for adoption among so many children in other parts of the world.  And quite frankly, most of the people I hear downing those who adopt internationally instead of domestically aren’t doing anything to help the plight of children in need in America.

I’m an advocate for adoption and children.  I love both.  And I think that it’s imperative that people be aware of the facts about both.  I encourage people to do their research before making blanket statements about why people should adopt domestically instead of internationally.  If you’d like to live in ignorance of the needs of children, not only in America, but worldwide, then go ahead and pretend the problems don’t exist.  Pretend that 26,000 lives aren’t lost daily…lives that had barely begun to live and lives that could have been saved.  Pretend that you’re only American and not human, so its okay to only help Americans and not the rest of the human race.  Pretend that a child is less worthy of love and care just because he or she was born in a third world country instead of America.  Pretend that if we ignore these problems that they’ll go away.  Or better yet, say they’re someone else’s problems.  If you don’t want to be a part of the solution, then that’s your choice.  But whatever you do, please don’t belittle those people who are choosing to be a part of the solution by, not just supporting orphans financially or praying for them or visiting them, but who are taking them into their homes to love and cherish as their own child.  And not simply for the sake of rescuing them in and of itself, but because they want these children…they want them.  If a child is born in Tennessee or Tanzania, Mississippi or Mongolia, a child is a child is a child.  Please don’t speak out against those who want these orphans.  Speak out on behalf of the orphan instead.

Families who have been matched with children in Nepal (approximately 80) are waiting indefinitely for the Embassy to process their cases in hopes that their children will be able to be united with them soon.  However, there is no guarantee this will happen for these families, and sadly, for these children.  For many of the children, adoption might be their big chance to escape the life of growing up in an orphanage and then having to learn to care for and provide for themselves once they become too old to live in the orphanage (mid-teenage age).  We are asking for prayer on behalf of these children and adoptive families.  What is impossible with man is possible with God.

     A very young child is abandoned by his or her parents. Why? Perhaps they have several other children and there is no room for one more child in their home. Perhaps a young mother living in poverty believes that by sacrificing her own emotions, her baby will at least receive food and protection…and will not become another statistic on the street.

     The child is placed into an orphanage that sustains itself on small donations and the goodness of others. The donors feel good about their giving, and the young child is fed, clothed and cared for with “the hope” that something better will happen in life.

     What is the end result when individuals, systems and governments forget that a child’s sense of time is so much different than an adults sense of time? To a seven year old child, seven years is a lifetime. What does it feel like to reach the age of fourteen and to have never met your parents? What does it feel like to reach those teenage years…the years when social relationships, soccer games, and parties are the norm to some of us…and to know that you’ll soon be living on the street and begging…or selling yourself…to live? Can you imagine the feelings? I can’t.

     International adoption offers hope to the children. Yes, there area handful of tragic stories related to international adoption that instantly become fodder for news organizations. Yet all the while, the same organizations ignore the hundreds of thousands of children whose lives have been forever changed for the good by international adoption. These children have more than hope…they have success…they have moms and dads…they have children of their own…they have fulfilling jobs…and some return the favor to the children who are left behind.

     But why are they left behind? When there are hundreds of thousands (actually, the number is estimated at 139 million) orphans in the world, and when birth parents are not searching for them, and when no one really cares about them, then why do the systems and governments seem so determined to forever incarcerate the children in the grave of hopelessness? Is is so someone can continue raising funds to “support the homeless?” Is it so some huge, worldwide non-profit organization can portray itself as the savior of the masses of children from trafficking. Yes, trafficking is the word sometimes used to portray adoption agencies and adoptive parents as the vultures who will swoop in to prey on the innocent.

    But who is actually “preying” on the innocent? Who is shutting down the systems and providing nothing but a future of hopelessness to orphans around the world.

     Please call your U.S. Senators and Representatives and ask “Why are the numbers of children being adopted internationally dropping so rapidly? And…what are you going to do about it?”

     The link (very short article) highlights the long-term problem with children being left in orphanages in Nepal. Nepali children “age out” of the orphanages around 14 years of age and many are prostituted in some form. I haven’t heard the 20,000 figure related to the number of girls involved in the sex trade in Kathmandu, but I do know that the men on our last trip to Nepal were offered that type of thing many times each day.

http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2010/09/06/sex-trafficking-in-nepal-drags-in-more-victims/

     According to UNICEF, there are 990,000 orphaned children in Nepal. But, for the two N.B. adoptive families who are in Nepal and praying to come home with the precious children, only two children “count” today. Thank you for praying for all of the American families who are in Nepal, who have been matched with orphaned children, and those who “unmatched” continue to believe that God called them to adopt from Nepal.