[wadesmama]

Just read this article and really got mad at the implications. Is it me being overly sensitive or are honest PAPS like us being attacked?

The Lie We Love | RHRealityCheck.org

[kellum5]

WOW I find that article to be terribly offensive.
It suggests that as adoptive parents we, in full knowledge of the situation, adopted stolen babies.
UNICEF needs to stop talking!

[humanpitchpipe]

I only had time to skim through this, but I didn't like reading that I "exported" my son from Guatemala.

[SKL]

What could be the motive for publishing such an article, other than sensationalism or hurting decent people?

I know for a fact that some of the key "facts" they cite are absolutely untrue. I personally support orphanages in developing countries - I have visited some of them - and believe me, there are healthy babies and wee children in orphanages - many of them. Adoption isn't a comfortable part of many cultures.

There is no sense whatsoever that the author of that article cares a whit about any child or birth parent. That's all I have to say.

[mommytoEli]

i started to read the article, and then one of my five stolen children needed me, so i had to go be a mom. articles like that are not worth my time. some short-sided people will never approve of how i have chosen to help children and create a family and that is just too bad.

[ej-momtobe]

I didn't completely read the article, but I read enough. The author (or someone quoted from UNICEF) says that almost no healthy babies are 'orphans', but does not even vaguely reference the reality of life for a single poor woman raising children in Guatemala, and why she might voluntarily make the choice to relinquish. An article cannot be credible without balance and perspective, and this article has neither.

[coachmom]

what about those of us who adopt special needs kids? WE are helping them because their system can't.
I find this article very disturbing...
I know there is a lot of reform that needs to happen, but it assumes that all adoptions are "in Question".
Geez...
Coachmom

[JillnChris]

Originally Posted by mommytoEli

i started to read the article, and then one of my five stolen children needed me, so i had to go be a mom. articles like that are not worth my time. some short-sided people will never approve of how i have chosen to help children and create a family and that is just too bad.

Love it! I read the first two lines and decided it was not worth my time.

[Luvhannah]

That is so untrue. I just had to type a comment on this page after reading this article. I could not believe someone would be so heartless.

[iccsd]

That was repulsive, but look at where it's coming from - the abortion industry. They see adoption as competition. They view adoption as "an industry" which prevents them from making money from their "industry" - abortion. They don't understand the complexity of adoption and see the only solution to an unplanned pregnancy is abortion.

I should not have read that before bed. It makes me so angry. I'll never get to sleep now!

[SKL]

Originally Posted by iccsd

That was repulsive, but look at where it's coming from - the abortion industry. They see adoption as competition. They view adoption as "an industry" which prevents them from making money from their "industry" - abortion. They don't understand the complexity of adoption and see the only solution to an unplanned pregnancy is abortion.

I was thinking the same thing - I'm glad someone came out and said it.

[krafmatic]

I confess, I didn't read it all, but it seems to make it's case on two main points, neither true.

1. Only true orphans (ie both parents dead) are in need of families. Yeah, right. If a mother can't feed her child and thus abandons him/her then that child doesn't need/deserve a family.
This is total UNICEF. There thought is that children should always stay with their parents. great idea in a perfect world where hunger and poverty don't exist.

2. All international adoptions involving healthy infants are corrupt. Once again, pure UNICEF.

It does point our one fact that I agree with and that is that there are many, many older/disabled/sick children that need families and that are never adopted. Sad, but true.

[busterleroy]

I have never understood why the pro-abortion crowd is so anti-adoption. Never considered competition as a motive...interesting.

Actually, maybe the words I am looking for are sick and selfish.

[robandjulie]

This is actually an older article, I remember reading it last fall. It's from here: Foreign Policy: The Lie We Love And the author, EJ Graff, is out of Brandeis university (The Front Page | Schuster Institute | Brandeis University)

She's got a major issue with international adoption. Another of her articles: The problem with saving the world's 'orphans' - The Boston Globe

I agree with her to a point: If we had given the thousands and thousands of $$ we paid agencies and attorneys and doctors and foster mothers directly to our son's mother, she may have been able to raise him; and the idea that money or the lack thereof determines a family is sickening. How many of us can even wrap our brains around the idea of being so poor you would have to place your child simply out of poverty? That's not the case for all adopted children (social stigmas, lifestyle, illness, relationships, life in general all present their own motivations and I don't want to debate those), but I do believe that if a parent wants to raise their child but lacks the financial or physical resources to do so then I would want all efforts made to enable that family to stay together. And people wanting to help should consider ways to enable those families to stay together and thrive.

However, my son was no less in need of a family simply because his birthmother (an educated, professional young woman) made a choice to place him for adoption. His need for a permanent safe home is not diminished by some seemingly more desperate cases. Yes, an older or special needs child might be more in need (as this article claims), but my family is NOT the right family for that child at this time; we ARE the right family for our son.

[papasmith]

UNICEF and anyone else that buys into this crap - Not all children that are placed for adoption is because their poor loving mother couldn't feed them.

There are birth mothers that are abusive, drug addicts, prostitutes, gang members, people who shouldn't be raising children.

Not all children that are placed for adoption is because their poor loving mother couldn't feed them. Like in any country, people are people, there are all kinds and unfortunately many have babies when they shouldn't.

Or what about the mother that is physically or mentally not capable of caring for the child. Money has nothing to do with it.

Thankfully there are plenty of loving families that want to adopt these children.

I am so sick of reading these blanket articles knowing that our birthmom was abusive addict.