Free Republic

I am an adopted son. I am a very lucky adopted son. And as an adopted son I want all adoptees like me to have the same wonderful adoptive parents I was lucky enough to have. My biological mother was an unmarried young woman from Ohio who had an affair with a married man. It was 1945 -- my biological father was in the Army and was shipped off to France to fight in the war while my mother went to California to give birth to me. My mother made the painful decision to put me up for adoption. Thankfully,...

A 48-year-old Florida businessman has legally adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend as his daughter in what one attorney is calling an attempt to shield assets in a wrongful death civil suit that has entered a "legal twilight zone," according to a judge. John Goodman, who founded the International Polo Club Beach in Wellington, legally adopted Heather Hutchins on Oct. 13 in Miami-Dade County, according to a court order by Circuit Court Judge Glenn Kelley. "The events which serve as the grounds for the relief sought by the Plaintiffs border on the surreal and take the Court into a legal twilight zone,"...

Planned Parenthood performed 400 times as many abortion ‘services’ as they did adoption referrals. That’s according to their newly released 2010 annual report, documenting they performed over 329,000 abortions or abortion related services, and a token 841 adoption referrals. This official release reveals a startling 83 percent drop in adoption referrals compared to their 2007 numbers, showing clearly how they live up to their street names of “Planned Barrenhood” and “Pro-death” because as their own statistics prove they are Pro-abortion,” “Anti-Life” and Anti-Adoption.” Planned Parenthood has a strong financial agenda to encourage abortion over adoption, and the planning of parenthood...

SAN CLEMENTE, CALIF.—For most of her 100 years, Minka Disbrow tried to find out what became of the precious baby girl she gave up for adoption after being raped as a teen. She hoped, but never imagined, she’d see her Betty Jane again. The cruel act of violence bore in Disbrow an enduring love for the child. She kept a black and white photograph of the baby bundled in blankets and tucked inside a basket. It was the last she saw of the girl — until the phone rang in her California apartment in 2006 with the voice of an...

For almost a century, Minka Disbrow tried to find out what became of the baby girl she gave up for adoption after being raped as a teenager. She hoped, but never imagined, that she would see her daughter Betty Jane again. Her only connection to the child was a black and white photograph of the baby bundled up in blankets shortly after she was born. Then in 2006, Mrs Disbrow, who turned 100 years old at the end of last month, received a call from Brian Lee who turned out to be her grandson. He then asked if she'd like...

After the Illinois state legislature passed a requirement that says adoption and foster-care agencies — to be eligible for state money — must consider same-sex couples as potential foster-care or adoptive parents, the Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois decided to shut down most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in the state. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened: Massachusetts and Washington D.C. both passed similar requirements — and many Catholic Charities affiliates closed down in those states, as well. The New York Times reports: For the nation’s Catholic bishops, the Illinois requirement is a prime example of...

Against the advice of the other animals, Mother Polar Bear adopts Baby Brown Bear when he arrives, alone and frightened, at City Zoo.PAGE 1One summer day, Baby Brown Bear arrived at City Zoo.All the animals gathered to see the new cub.(The animals and their children circle around the frightened little bear)PAGE 2The strange new faces frightened Baby Brown Bear.“Come here, Baby Brown Bear,” said Mama Polar Bear. “I’ll be your mother.”She scoops Baby Brown Bear into her arms, hugging him tight.PAGE 3“You?” the other animals gasped.“Of course,” said Mama Polar Bear. “All bears need love.”(The other animals frown/scowl)PAGE 4The giraffe...

Robert Gilligan of the Illinois Catholic Conference Belleville, Ill., Nov 11, 2011 / 07:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois announced that will it separate from the Belleville diocese and offer adoptions and foster-care services to same-sex couples.“What you're seeing at the state level in Illinois, what you're seeing at the national level in Washington, D.C., is a consistent promulgation of policies and laws that are making it very difficult for faith-based agencies that believe that marriage is between one man and one woman,” Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Illinois Catholic Conference, told CNA on...

For the first time in Senate history, a bill has been introduced to encourage agencies not to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples seeking to adopt. “As more and more LGBT couples are getting married and starting families, we have a great opportunity to place children without a family into happy homes,” said Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, New York Democrat and lead sponsor of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, Monday at the Huffington Post. The past year has seen many moves toward gay equality, and “the momentum is there to build on our progress,” she said,...

October has been designated as Respect Life Month. As Pope Benedict XVI has so often reminded us, abortion is a violation of the social justice teaching of the Catholic Church — a lack of justice for the child who is killed; a lack of justice for the society deprived of that child’s contribution. Here is a real story about a woman who respected life, and her choice made a difference in virtually every one of our lives: In 1954, Joann Schiebel, a young, unmarried college student, discovered that she was pregnant. At the time, her options were very limited. She...

A lesbian couple in California who say their 11-year-old son Tommy may actually be a girl named Tammy are giving their child hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty -- so that he can have more time to decide exactly who he, or she, is. The couple’s supporters say the Hormone Blocking Therapy has only minor side effects and is appropriate for a child who is unsure of his gender. "This is definitely a changing landscape for transgender youth," said Joel Baum, director of education and training for Gender Spectrum, a California-based non-profit group. "This is about giving kids...

On a daily basis, I sit in awe at the amount of nonsense that pervades the world’s media. The latest is the preoccupation with the ethnicity of Steve Jobs’s biological father. Steve Jobs was adopted at birth. And until his untimely death last week, as far as almost anyone in the world knew, he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Jobs. In fact, as far as Steve Jobs himself was concerned, his only parents were Paul and Clara Jobs. As the New York Times reported nearly 15 years ago (“Creating Jobs,” Jan. 12, 1997): “Jobs holds a firm...

Steve Jobs' estranged father, who had given up his infant son for adoption, had been hoping that his grown son would call him. That hope died today. Abdulfattah John Jandali had emailed his son a few times in a tentative effort to make contact. The father never called the son because he feared Jobs would think the dad who had given him up was now after his fortune. And Jobs never responded to his father's emails. "I really don't have anything to say," Jandali, vice president at Boomtown Hotel Casino in Reno, Nev., told the International Business Times. Jandali, a...

Steve Jobs Changed the World: Adoption Changed His The news hit me in the gut. I couldn’t believe I was seeing those few numbers, communicating his passing, beneath his photo: 1955-2011. Steve Jobs has, literally, changed the world. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-changed-the-world-adoption-changed-his/

According to Wikipedia Steve Jobs biological father was a Syrian muslim and mother was a graduate student.

MADRID, September 22, 2011 – An American is thwarted by UNICEF as she attempts to bring her developmentally challenged daughter home. UNICEF’s response to a desperate grandmother, looking for help in bringing her grandchild Krystina home, confirms what many have long believed -- that UNICEF does not support inter-country adoption.

The amusing thing here is that they only care because the mother is 57. If this were a 70 year old father and a 27 year old mother, everyone would say to him "Congratulations, you old stud!"

NEW YORK, September 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A “fact sheet” released this month by Planned Parenthood reveals that the organization has dramatically decreased its adoption referral rate, while its abortion rate has steadily increased. The national abortion giant revealed that it had performed 332,278 abortions in 2009 and referred for 977 adoptions, for a ratio of one adoption referral to every 340 abortions.  These figures represent a 59% decrease in adoption referrals and a 2% increase in abortions since 2008, when the numbers came in at 2,405 adoptions and 324,008 abortions.  As an organization long at the center of public...

The Catholic church has no “recognized legal right” to a contract with the state, a judge said in ruling that Illinois officials can legally cancel contracts with Catholic Charities over the church agency’s refusal to place adoptive children with same-sex couples. A lawyer for the church, however, said he will seek a stay of the ruling, arguing that Circuit Judge John Schmidt, in his Aug. 18 ruling, did not address the heart of the church’s argument that Catholic Charities comes under exercise of religion protections. The state moved to cancel the contracts after an Illinois law permitting civil unions went...

Two names loom large in today’s news. Two names that ordinarily we wouldn’t think about together. But, in the great struggle now unfolding before us for our nation’s future, it seems to me these two quintessential Americans are worth thinking about in light of each other. One is Steve Jobs. The other is Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Jobs, of course, is in the headlines because of his decision to step down and retire from Apple, the company he co-founded, from which he later got fired, and to which he subsequently returned and resurrected. Dr. King is in the news...

An Illinois Circuit Court judge upheld the state's decision to drop adoption and foster care service contracts with Catholic Charities Thursday, ignoring the group’s claims that their contracts were discontinued because of its religion-inspired policies. Judge John Schmidt upheld the state Department of Children and Family Services decision to drop contracts with several state Catholic Charities chapters, stating the groups are not required by the state to perform adoption services. Catholic Charities has served the state of Illinois for 100 years and is currently providing for over 2,000 foster children. However, Schmidt asserted the entity does not have a "legally-protected...

An Illinois judge ruled Thursday that the state can stop working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster care placements — something the state decided to do in July after the not-for-profit agency refused to recognize Illinois' new civil unions law. In his ruling, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt said that no one, including Catholic Charities, has a legal right to a contract with the state government. He did not address the more sensitive issue of whether a state contractor that refuses to serve gays and lesbians is violating the state's new civil unions law. The state Department of...

Figures from the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the U.S. show it facilitates very few adoptions compared with the number of abortions it does when pregnant women visit for assistance. Knowing that, Peter Saunders, the CEO of the Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organization with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members, and the director of the anti-euthanasia group Care Not Killing Alliance, wanted to know if the same sort of abortion versus adoption disparity was present in the United Kingdom. His survey found a shocking comparison.“All of which made me wonder what the comparative figures are like...

Return unused portion for refund. It’s the traditional safety net when a product fails to please or perform. But should returns be allowed for adopted children? The Tulsa World reports that parents Melissa and Tony Wescott want to return their 11 year-old adopted son to state custody because they say he had severe behavioral problems not disclosed prior to his 2007 adoption, including reactive detachment disorder, disruptive behavior disorder, major depressive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, and fetal alcohol syndrome. The Wescotts say that soon after the adoption, the boy attacked a neighbor child with a board, killed and injured...

A tiny kitten survived a harrowing ordeal on the Verrazano Bridge after it was thrown from a moving car, landing near the edge of the bridge before being rescued by a passing animal control officer. The officer was transporting animals to a Staten Island facility on Saturday and saw the gray kitten thrown out of the window, Animal Care & Control of NYC said Wednesday. The officer quickly pulled the vehicle over to try and rescue the kitten, which was found near the edge of the bridge. Passing truck drivers stopped to help block traffic while the rescue occurred, animal...

Jessica and Craig Porter of Somerset, Wis. have their newly adopted baby’s room all ready, but the shutdown is forcing their new son to sleep in a playpen across the river in Minnesota. The family is stuck at a hotel until lawmakers strike a budget deal and the state shutdown passes. “We’re just so happy to be with him. We’ll probably go through anything to bring him home,” said Jessica Porter. Her baby boy, Ezra, is only 5 days old. He and his parents are living in a Stillwater hotel room, because they can’t go home to Wisconsin until his...

President Obama’s father revealed plans to put him up for adoption in 1961, according to Sally Jacobs, the Boston Globe reporter whose biography on the elder Obama is due out next week. Jacobs wrote in the Globe on Thursday that the possibility was detailed as Obama’s father ran into trouble with immigration officials who thought he might have more than one wife. “Subject got his USC wife ‘Hapai’ [Hawaiian for pregnant] and although they were married they do not live together and Miss Dunham is making arrangements with the Salvation Army to give the baby away,” read a memo written...

Tim Tebow Book “Through My Eyes� Shares Family’s Pro-Life Story by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 6/6/11 11:47 AMTim Tebow has become a star within pro-life circles — and for good reason. The popular Denver Broncos quarterback and former college football superstar and his family have become leading pro-life spokespeople thanks to their story.By now, most people are familiar with Tebow — who made his Christian faith the basis for his football success and who has inspired a generation of young people with his morals and values. Those values came in part because of the story Americans know almost...

Unable to conceive, Patrick LoBrutto and Mary Greene chose to fill out their family the same way 12,000 Americans do each year by adopting a child from a foreign country. It's a dicey proposition, to be sure, especially when choosing a country like Russia, where the orphanages are filled with abused and neglected children. But LoBrutto and Greene were prepared. Or so they thought. They were well-educated, they did their homework, they took international adoption classes, they even had one of the world's leading international-adoption experts advising them. They were intent on having a son, to fill the hole that...

ROCKFORD, Illinois, May 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Diocese of Rockford, IL announced the closing of their adoption agencies last week, forced out of service due to new legislation that would oblige them to service homosexual couples. Catholic Charities of Illinois has been in business for more than 100 years, providing adoption and foster-care homes to hundreds of children.  Currently, the Diocese handles approximately 350 foster family and adoption cases in 11 counties in northern Illinois with a state budget of $7.5 million and 58 workers who will now no longer have jobs. The Diocese announced that the agency...

Rather than abort unwanted children, women in Sweden should give birth and put the children up for adoption, a Christian Democrat politician has argued, hoping the measure would reduce the number of abortions in Sweden. "Domestic adoption doesn't even exist. On the other hand, there are quite a number of Swedes who 'import' children from abroad; why can't we have some form of adoption centre in Sweden," Gunilla Gomér said to Sveriges Television (SVT). According to Gomér, creating a adoption centre that would make it easier for women to place children in Sweden would help lower the number of abortions...

TRENTON, N.J. — Adult adoptees in New Jersey who want to find their biological parents are hoping that a three-decade battle in the Legislature over giving them access to their birth records will end with a stroke of Gov. Chris Christie's pen. Awaiting the governor's signature is a bill that would open up state adoption records, marking a major shift for New Jersey, which has one of the most restrictive adoption records policies in the United States. The move has been fought by an unlikely alliance between legal groups who say it violates privacy concerns and anti-abortion advocates who fear...

EV Leads Effort to Reopen Rules Governing Adoption and Foster Care Agencies; Asks State Board to Suspend Rules Until Additional Comments Received At a press conference today, Equality Virginia released its letter written to the chair of the Virginia State Board of Social Services and the Commissioner of the Department asking that the recently adopted rules governing licensed child placing agencies be suspended pending further public comment. James Parrish, Equality Virginia's Executive Director, made the following statement about EV's action: Children in the child welfare system and prospective foster and adoptive parents have the right to be protected against discrimination....

Claims despite 'adoption' by Indonesian stepfather, it is U.S. 'law' that mattersA statement from Barack Obama's half-sister has at least cast a shadow of doubt on the legitimacy of the "Certificate of Live Birth" document that was released by the White House this week in an attempt to stifle questions about his eligibility, by referencing his apparent adoption by her father, Indonesian Lolo Soetoro. On a Facebook page, Maya Soetoro-Ng wrote to a woman who had met her in Hawaii after Madelyn Dunham, the mother of Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro and grandmother to both Maya and Barack, passed away...

A Roman Catholic charity has lost its latest appeal against equality laws which allow gay couples to use adoption services. Catholic Care, run by the Diocese of Leeds, argued it would have to give up its adoption service if it was not made exempt from the law.

If you are at all familiar with our story, you know that we have ten children. Yes...ten. Six I received in the delivery room; two I received at the altar; and two I received at the courthouse. Honestly, because this is the way the Lord has orchestrated my child-bearing, it's something I really don't think about all that much. I simply have ten children. But I think that, in order to really give God the glory, I should take a pause more often and seriously think about this family He has created...and how He has chosen to go about putting...

In the African-American community, the significance of hair cannot be underestimated, a source of either self-esteem or self-doubt. So for white parents of black children, making sure their youngsters are well-coiffed is as much a priority as good nutrition and potty training. This reality came into focus recently at a sold-out workshop, "Caring for Afro-textured Hair and Skin," at the Cradle, an Evanston-based adoption agency. "People are judged by the way they look," said Julien Drouet, a white father of Lily, 3, and 10-month-old Victor, whom he adopted with his partner, Brandon Walt. "I don't agree, but if we want...

There has definitely been a big celebrity baby boom going on. Yesterday Tina Fey announced on Orpah that she’s five months pregnant with her second child (after pretending to be pregnant on an episode of “30 Rock” not all that long ago), while Mariska Hargitay revealed that she has adopted a baby girl named Amaya Josephine. Unfortunately, the baby boom is lacking celebrities willing to adopt like Mariska. In fact, looking back over the celebrity adoption news over the last two years, it seems that Mariska Hargitay, Katherine Heigl, and Sandra Bullock are two of the only celebrities that have...

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21) One of these days, I'm going to embrace that truth with both arms and get it right on the first try! I look forward to that. See, I'm pretty good with planning, if I do say so myself. For example, there's just not much I enjoy more than plotting out the homeschool year...unless it's planning a trip! Oh, yeah...that's where I'm a Viking! I've organized some pretty sweet chore charts in my day too...and sticker-graphs for kids who need to remember to...

SMITHFIELD, N.C. (CNNMoney) -- The Wards couldn't believethe news when their tax preparer called to tell them they're getting a $54,000 refund this year. Thelma Ward was speechless. She had to hand the phone to her husband so she could dance around the living room floor in shock. "I was thanking God like never before," she said. "We're just overwhelmed -- that amount was so huge it was unbelievable." Even their tax preparer said she had to check the math -- 10 to 15 times. "We couldn't believe it when we totaled everything up. We were like, that can't be...

Maria Messina (nee Maria Rosanna DiDia) was born in Italy on July 5, 1983. Her mother was Laura DiDia. When Maria was born, Laura had been separated from her husband for ten months and Maria's father was someone other than Laura's husband. On July 14, 1983, Laura petitioned a local Italian judge to issue a passport to Maria to enable her to migrate to the United States with Stefano and Caterina, who had traveled from the United States to Italy for this purpose. In this petition, Laura stated that she was giving "permanent custody" to Stefano and Caterina who "have...

VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES PROPOSES REGS ON HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION -- COMMENTS DUE TODAY, APRIL 1, 2011 Please forward to your own lists. We were informed today that the Virginia Department of Social Services has proposed regulations to require state licensed adoption agencies, including private church-run adoption agencies, to not refuse to process adoption of children based on sexual orientation. If these regs are adopted, even private, church-run agencies would be required to process adoption applications by same-sex couples. Here is an excerpt from the regulation found at http://legis.state.va.us/codecomm/register/vol27/iss11/v27i11.pdf , Part IV, Program Statement, 22VAC40-131-170. B. The licensee shall prohibit...

They are our reversal babies. (Sweet Jimmy B really thought I should have taken the picture of the backs of their heads. Get it? Reversal babies!) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you might want to take a peek at the Pregnant Pause posts. While I'm certain that there are no shortage of folks who are relieved, no one has ever come out and asked me why we haven't been back to the delivery room in over six years. I mean, really...we made that trip three times in 3 1/2 years, after all, so it would actually...

It had been a long and challenging trip. Working for the family business meant a lot of sacrifices, but it was well worth it. After such a long journey, it was so good to finally be home. His wife greeted as he entered. They held each other with a closeness that took forty-three years to fully ripen. She had been the delight of his life. The early days were tough, but as the years passed their love reached heights that he never knew were humanly possible. He often wished she were at his side during his recent travels. There were...

I know this doesn't look like your typical anniversary picture. That's because today's not your typical anniversary! (Silly!) On February 24, 2009, we adopted our daughter Mercy and our son Sam. This picture shows us with the judge right after the ceremony. In the picture with us are our eight birth children, one son-in-law, one granddaughter, and a sweet little guy who has since become our grandson through adoption! You know...I really wish I had been keeping a diary of our adoption journey as it unfolded, because it was like a cruise to the Bahamas that ended up being a...

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. - An American woman who sent her adopted son back to Russia has been hit with a child support claim by an adoption agency, but her attorney asked a Tennessee juvenile court to throw the claim out. Torry Hansen, who had been living in Shelbyville, sent the 8-year-old boy on a plane to Moscow by himself last April with a note saying that she didn't want to be his mother anymore because the child had psychological problems. The incident created an international uproar. According to documents obtained by the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, Hansen's attorney filed a motion to dismiss...

Men fought the state's 30-year-old gay adoption ban and won A homosexual Miami couple has officially adopted two brothers in a case that overturned Florida's three-decade ban on gay adoptions. Martin Gill and his partner were the boys' foster parents for six years before the adoption was finalized Wednesday. Gill and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state, calling the ban unconstitutional. The 3rd District Court of Appeal agreed in a ruling last year. The state decided not to appeal. Gill said he is thrilled they are "officially a family in the eyes of the law."...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The state of Louisiana is asking a federal appeals court to let it list just one of two adoptive gay parents' names on their child's birth certificate. A full panel of 16 judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in the case of parents Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith. They now live in Florida and adopted their son after he was born in Shreveport in 2005.

What makes a good parent? Many things, of course. But an obvious prerequisite is someone whose parenting goals have less to do with what he or she wants and more to do with what children need. Sadly, this attitude no longer prevails in mainstream American society. Elton John and Eva Longoria (Neil Patrick Harris, too) are the latest to jump on the Me first, Child last bandwagon. Longoria is in the process of divorcing husband Tony Parker (like most women in Hollywood eventually do), but she has no intention of letting a small thing like that stop her from being...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Los Angeles firefighters received an unusual Christmas delivery at a downtown station this year - a baby. With a small bundle in her arms, a woman went to a station near the city's Exposition Park on Friday afternoon, telling firefighters she wanted to give the child up for adoption