By Mirah Riben Michael Allen Potter and his brother and sister were taken from their schizophrenic mother and adopted separately. He writes in “Le Roi Inconnu”: “I stare at people more than I should on the subway. …. One of my greatest fears is to be two seats behind my brother or my sister and not realize it until they’ve stepped onto the platform and the doors are closing behind…
By Laura Marie Scoggins One cannot annul the fact that one was given up by one clan and taken in by another; one can only see the consequences of that fact in a new light that illuminates what happened in a healing way. Betty Jean Lifton, Journey of the Adopted Self One of the most common questions asked of adoptees is why they search for their biological family. Our response…
By Cassi So, between taking my sweet Granddaughter to Disney World and getting into our family place at the lake, I’ve spent most of September barely on social media. I’d pick up a little bit here and there when I’d log in but not enough to know what was going on. Seeing the tags for#shoutyouradoption here and there had me curious, but not enough, I admit, to do further research…
By Mirah Riben What is the debate concerning international child adoption? That depends on who you ask. Forty-four experts representing a variety of disciplines including law, medicine and health, social work, anthropology, religion, sociology and history have their say inThe Intercountry Adoption Debate, edited by Robert L. Ballard, Naomi H. Goodno, Robert F. Cochran and Jay A. Millbrandt. The formidable 737-page, hard cover volume contains twenty-seven essays in…
By Mirah Riben Two years after Reuters’ five-part report on the rehoming of adopted children in the U.S., the U.S. Government Office of Accountability (GOA) has released a report entitled “Steps Have Been Taken to Address Unregulated Custody Transfers of Adopted Children” (GAO-15-733: Published: Sep 16, 2015. Publicly Released: Sep 16, 2015). “GAO examined (1) the reasons adoptive families consider unregulated child custody transfers, and services that exist to support…
By Laura Marie Scoggins One of the most common questions adoptees are asked when they tell people they are searching for their biological family or have been reunited is “why would you even want to search?” The insensitivity of this question makes my blood boil. I have to pause and count to ten before replying. Sometimes when that doesn’t work and the blood boiling makes my head feel like it’s…
By Mirah Riben National Suicide Prevention Month is an appropriate time to talk about something that puts adolescents at increased risk for suicide: adoption. Attempted suicide is more common among adolescents who live with adoptive parents than among adolescents who live with biological parents. The association persists after adjusting for depression and aggression and is not explained by impulsivity as measured by a self-reported tendency to make decisions quickly. (Slap,…
By Susie One of the biggest hurdles I have had to overcome in the six+ years since being reunited with Christopher has been the claiming of my motherhood ~ from my very first pregnancy, not just from the birth of the children I raised. For I never allowed myself to consider that Christopher was my child, therefore I was not “really” a mother to him. He was always “the baby…
By Mirah Riben In 1989, my first book The Dark Side of Adoption was published. That same year I organized a speak-out at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC at the culmination of a walk of adoptees and mothers who had lost children to adoption that began in New York City. Also, that year, at the AAC national conference in NYC, I organized a “red tape” event that garnered media…
By Laura Marie Scoggins Kim Davis is the County Clerk from Rowan, Kentucky who has refused to issue same sex marriage licenses because of her religious beliefs. This post is not about same sex marriage or Kim Davis. This post is about why adoptees in the adoption reform and adoption search and reunion community are outraged over this situation. It’s because every single adoptee in the United States of America…
By Mirah Riben What is a Birth Certificate? A birth certificate is issued to legally register every birth. It is a vital record documenting the facts of a birth. It memorializes the arrival of each and every human being – setting the date, time, and location of that auspicious and unique event. Every person has just one original certified birth certificate (OBC) which serves to verify their age and citizenship…