seen from Nepal
seen from China
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Costa Rica
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Dominican Republic
seen from United States
seen from Vietnam
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Canada
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seen from China
seen from Pakistan
Today their mom said Ms. 6’s sibling was not allowed to return to her/their home and she told CPS that she wanted to give up guardianship.
CPS found a safe place for him for the weekend, and will look for a long term placement for him on Monday.
Are you an intercountry/international adoptee 18+ years or older? Did you spend time (30 days or more) in foster care, group home, residential treatment, wilderness treatment camp, treatment ranch, or long-term hospitalization program before you turned 18 years old? Or did your adoptive parents kick you out of the house, leading you to couch-surf, stay in shelters or live without secure housing? Were you “re-homed” or placed in a formal or informal adoptive home with someone other than the parents to whom you were originally adopted? My name is JaeRan Kim, and I am an assistant professor at the University of Washington Tacoma. I am conducting a research study on intercountry adoptees who, after their adoption by U.S. parents, experienced an adoption disruption, dissolution or displacement. Participation in the study would include completing a survey and an interview. If you would like more information about this study, or would like to participate, please contact me at [email protected] for more information. This study has been approved by the University of Washington Institutional Review Board. Thank you for your consideration.
When you adopt a child, are you able to disrupt like in foster care? And if so what will happen to that child? Do they go back into care?
Yes and yes! We got a call just before we left for vacation asking us about a child we had a brief interaction with in 2016. Child is now 12, and the adoption has been disrupted. They are looking for a new placement and adoptive resource.
Ms. 6’s biological sibling was also adopted along with their sister. His adoption disrupted and now he is back living with their biological mom 13 years after his removal. It’s a nightmare, and he’s currently asking to be returned to foster care.
We got a call to do emergency weekend respite for the sibling of one of our kids (the adoption disruption). As much as I would have loved to have said yes, I just could not throw that on our child. “Hey, you haven’t seen your sibling in at least five years. Sibling will be arriving for the weekend in five hours. No idea when you’ll see sibling again after the weekend.”
We have told the county that we would be willing to talk to them about being a permanent option but not unless they sit down and have a real conversation with us and put everything they know on the table.
There have got to be a lot of challenges if the family is disrupting after this many years. If we were going to take placement, everything would need to be done in a slow, thoughtful manner.
We have been giving Pumpkin some breaks from her cone. Based on this photo, I think she likes them. I wish she would leave her stitches alone so we could just be done with the cone already. Oh well, one week down and one week to go.
DH reached out to HR today and left a message. He is hoping to return to work in about two weeks which is when I will be wrapping up my semester. He would have 4-5 weeks left in his. I am super nervous about it because his work environment just seems so hostile at this point. On the other hand, having his paycheck would be nice. I’ve really tried to pin him down as to whether he wants to go back or not. I want to make sure he keeps his insurance through the summer so not getting fired is ideal. Right now he has the option to stay on FMLA and only return to work for the final day of the semester in June. I feel like him returning will only create additional stress which none of us need.
I have been grieving E’s dyslexia diagnosis hard this week. I know it is something we can manage, but the school stuff is total dread. Her IEP meeting is scheduled for early May. I’m leaning hard towards unschool/homeschool next year. If that’s the case though, I told DH that I want more flexibility in our day to day lifestyle which means he has to find work elsewhere. I told him even if he got an hourly seasonal job out west where we could all ski (not me but the kids), that would be a plus. If we are not going to have school support, then I want our kids to learn via experiences and travel. We can’t afford expensive travel so we have to be creative in how we can experience new things while not breaking the bank.
The adoptive mom of the sibling whose adoption is being disrupted texted me this week. She told me that she was moving towards TPR and said I may get a call regarding placement. I told her I already had so I’m glad that door to communication has been cracked open a bit. I also talked to the foster care coordinator this week because I emailed and asked for a meeting again about the case. They put me off and said they are going to place him in a long term home and then let things settle before they meet with us. Sounds totally backwards and like poor case management if you ask me. No shocker. I did remind them that poor case management for these kids (“these kids” being the three siblings when they came into care) was particularly awful, but that seemed to fall on deaf ears. Not surprising, but very sad.
My Newsweek piece on the evangelical adoption movement.
This is one of the best pieces I've written all year for Newsweek. If you didn't see it in June, please read it now and remember the parents who are in impossible situations.
It’s been more than a year that I began work as Newsweek’s religion correspondent and in June, I got to post a story on the difficulties that the evangelical adoption movement has encountered. I thought up the headline: Evangelical Christian Adoption Movement Hit by “Tsunami” of Mentally Ill Children, because, well, it’s true. If you have not already, you can read the story here. It…
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Myka Stauffer: An Adoption Fantasy Unraveled
Myka Stauffer: An Adoption Fantasy Unraveled
As a Chinese adoptee, I am disheartened and angered by the Instagram and YoutTube “influencer,” Myka Stauffer, who rehomed her 4-year-old Chinese adopted son, Huxley. My heart breaks for this sweet, little boy who deserved so much more from his adoptive parents, and for young adoptees who are watching this news and questioning the permanency of their position in their own adoptive families.
A…
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Life Update + Rehoming Paper
Life Update + Rehoming Paper
Hello all,
Sorry I’ve been absent for a while. It’s been an extremely busy winter applying to graduate school and fellowships. I’m excited to announce that I was admitted to all nine of the universities to which I applied. I was also selected for a two-year, paid research fellowship in child maltreatment. I am thrilled to begin this next chapter of my academic journey and know that I’ll have new…
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