The Truth About Adoption From Those It Has Touched
Photo by Michael Erhardsson How has adoption changed? Orphan trains were an attempt to decrease the population of poor children clogging the streets of big cities in the late 1800s and early 1900s. (1) Aid workers who were struck with the plight of these children thought that removing them from the dirty, dangerous city and... Continue Reading →
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood The orphan trains were an early experiment in American history in which well meaning adults in large East Coast cities put children that didn't appear to be in the care of an adult on a train heading west to be adopted by farm families . For some children this meant they... Continue Reading →
Photo by Julia M Cameron When I first heard about reactive attachment disorder it was in a paragraph sandwiched between food hoarding and developmental delays due to malnutrition. Training required for International adoption included a basic understanding of these unique conditions. This was a landscape of extremes that seemed as appropriate as the 15 hour... Continue Reading →
Photo by Miftah Rafli Hidayat JeNae Goodrich was adopted into her own family as a child. Growing up surrounded by adopted siblings helped prepare her for her life of social work, but she couldn’t have predicted that she would have gotten involved with one of the toughest, most stressful and even controversial sides of adoption.... Continue Reading →
Adoptees may be raised in families that love them fully. Often, however, a feeling that something is missing or they don’t quite belong still haunts them. The sooner we acknowledge this invisible burden and address it, the more healthy their lives can be.
Birth mothers are often the enigmatic part of an adoption who stays in the shadows. But adoption is something that never leaves her. She doesn’t forget the child she gave birth to and gifted to another family. What can we learn from a birth mother’s experience? Laura Orsini has been open about her journey as a birth mother and had a lot of advice to give to the rest of us.
What if, when a foster family does get successfully recruited, they have community support engulfing them to meet their needs and keep them encouraged in their efforts? Studies are starting to show that support groups can keep foster families in the game longer than those families who only have a busy licensing worker making a harried stop by a few times a year.
(Photo by nappy from Pexels) How Race Can Change The Experience of Everything From Adoptive Training to Adoptive Parenthood. A quick image search of adoptive families still pops up the popular picture of white parents hugging smiling children of a variety of racial backgrounds. A minority of those photos show something else. Black families also... Continue Reading →
Join in learning about where adoption has come from and where it might go within the life and experience of Jynger Pleasant. Jynger is the Executive Director of Dillon International Adoption Agency based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When she was young she witnessed families meeting their adoptive children at the airport in the early days of adoption. Over the years she has become involved in managing relations with orphanages, helping families adopt, and then encouraging those adoptive families over time. As we see international adoptions decline in America find out how Jynger views the future of adoptions and what is happening to the orphans who are no longer making their way into American families.
If you understand the importance of those people in your community who do choose to be foster parents, you can help. Whether you cook a meal, donate money to a local agency that supports foster families, or organize a collection of diapers, toys or clothes for foster families, you can make a difference to the foster families in your area.
Adoption Uncovered 