Has the global push for adoption exploited mothers worldwide? Adoption History 101 summarizes the inception and expansion of the adoption industry, focusing on its roots and consequences kept from public awareness. For years, adoption agencies have denied adult adoptees access to documents that could lead them back to their families. In defense of the rights of adopted people, a true Ethiopian orphan briefly speaks her mind about adoption. Then, going back in time, the attention shifts from African adoptions (what's trending now), to the 1954 Evangelical Baby "Swoop" Era, to the 1854 Orphan Train Movement, and finally to the European Child Migration Schemes. This research supports those who have ever felt isolated due to the industry's privacy and lack of transparency.Taken children--now adults--are critiquing a global man-made market. This "orphan's" perspective is meant to inform vulnerable communities against a fierce industry that professes God is on their side. It is only natural for Mother-Nature to recover itself.This research is motivated by a Haitian adoptee who died of heart failure in his early thirties after learning that he had been trafficked to France for international adoption but was never able to acquire justice due to the public's love affair with the practice. This short book definitely does not cover the entire global adoption practice, but it does give more information than what has been publically accessible in the past. It also deconstructs the industry and acknowledges the families left behind--something never done before by the lobbyists. International and domestic adoptees from all over the world have banned together for "truth and transparency." This is the first history book to discuss the crisis of adoption trafficking "by the people, of the people, and for the people."

Need to protect vulnerable families from the crisis of adoption trafficking? This investigational look is crucial.Has the global push for adoption exploited mothers worldwide? Adoption History 101 summarizes the inception and expansion of the adoption industry, focusing on its roots and consequences kept from public awareness. For years, facilitators have denied adoptees access to documents that could lead them back to their families. In defense of the rights of adopted people, a true Ethiopian orphan briefly speaks her mind about adoption. Then, going back in time, the attention shifts from African adoptions (what's been trending) to the 1954 Evangelical Baby "Swoop" Era, to the 1854 Orphan Train Movement, and finally to the European Child Migration Schemes. This research supports those who have ever felt isolated due to the industry's privacy and lack of transparency. Taken children-now adults-are critiquing a global human-made market. This orphan's perspective is meant to inform vulnerable communities against a fierce industry that professes God is on their side. It is only natural for Mother-Nature to recover itself. This research is motivated by a Haitian adoptee who died of heart failure after learning that he had been trafficked to France for overseas adoption but was never able to acquire justice due to the public's love affair with the practice. This short book deconstructs the industry and acknowledges the families left behind. The first history book to point out the crisis of adoption trafficking.

This book covers adoption today, yesterday, and around the world, giving voice to those who experienced the orphan ships, planes, trains, and even adoption trafficking, ultimately unveiling the industry's tricks of the trade. "Imagine, you're about to have a little one. The love that you have for that little one. Then imagine somebody outside of your family you don't even know, making claims of your little one. They don't like the way you live. They're going to take your little one by force. Imagine what the loss is. When this is not just your family but your entire community--this is its children." Gkisedtanamoogk, University of Maine From The "First Light" Upstander Project

"Includes research on adoption documents rarely open to historians . . . an important addition to the literature on adoption." ---Choice "Sheds new light on the roots of this complex and fascinating institution." ---Library Journal "Well-written and accessible . . . showcases the wide-ranging scholarship underway on the history of adoption." ---Adoptive Families "[T]his volume is a significant contribution to the literature and can serve as a catalyst for further research." ---Social Service Review Adoption affects an estimated 60 percent of Americans, but despite its pervasiveness, this social institution has been little examined and poorly understood. Adoption in America gathers essays on the history of adoptions and orphanages in the United States. Offering provocative interpretations of a variety of issues, including antebellum adoption and orphanages; changing conceptions of adoption in late-nineteenth-century novels; Progressive Era reform and adoptive mothers; the politics of "matching" adoptive parents with children; the radical effect of World War II on adoption practices; religion and the reform of adoption; and the construction of birth mother and adoptee identities, the essays in Adoption in America will be debated for many years to come.

Adoption and foster care is a new and burgeoning area of historical and interdisciplinary research. Too often, however, birth parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, social workers, and the children themselves have either been ignored or demonized. This comprehensive introductory resource provides an authoritative, yet accessible, examination of adoption and foster care as it has been practiced in the United States. Within the pages of this volume, the reader will find a complete view of the many individuals and groups involved, as well as a thorough understanding of the various social and economic forces that have contributed to the perceptions of what children are in need of care. Also discussed is the role of orphanages, once the primary institution for children without parents as well as a stopgap measure for poor children needing temporary care. Divided into three major sections, original essays review the practice of adoption, orphanage placement and foster care from the colonial period to the present day. Selected primary documents, including materials by children, as well as an in-depth bibliographic section, provide crucial information and insight for high school and college students. Social workers, journalists, and others will also find much value in this historical overview and guide. Contributors include Elizabeth Bartholet, Marilyn Irvin Holt, Martha Satz, and Claudia Nelson. Adoption and foster care is a new and burgeoning area of historical and interdisciplinary research. Too often, however, birth parents, adoptive parents and foster parents, social workers, and the children themselves have been either ignored or demonized. This authoritative and accessible work is the first comprehensive introductory resource that gives a fuller portrait of the many individuals and groups that have contributed to the perceptions of what children are in need of care. Also discussed is the role of orphanages, the primary institution for children without parents as well as a stopgap measure for poor children needing temporary care. Divided into three sections, original essays review the practice of adoption, orphanage placement, and foster care from the colonial period to the present day. Selected primary documents, including materials by children, as well as an in-depth bibliography section, provide crucial information and insight for high school and college students. Social workers, journalists, and others will also find much value in this historical overview and guide. Star contributors include Elizabeth Bartholet, Marilyn Irvin Holt, Martha Satz, and Claudia Nelson.

What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans’ answer to this question over the past century, Kinship by Design provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption’s history. Beginning in the early 1900s, when children were still transferred between households by a variety of unregulated private arrangements, Ellen Herman details efforts by the U.S. Children’s Bureau and the Child Welfare League of America to establish adoption standards in law and practice. She goes on to trace Americans’ shifting ideas about matching children with physically or intellectually similar parents, revealing how research in developmental science and technology shaped adoption as it navigated the nature-nurture debate. Concluding with an insightful analysis of the revolution that ushered in special needs, transracial, and international adoptions, Kinship by Design ultimately situates the practice as both a different way to make a family and a universal story about love, loss, identity, and belonging. In doing so, this volume provides a new vantage point from which to view twentieth-century America, revealing as much about social welfare, statecraft, and science as it does about childhood, family, and private life.

Can't travel yet? Let's go to Korea! In this contemporary tale detailing a two-week trip that explores intercountry adoption from South Korea, twin sisters naively travel to their birth city of Seoul in search of their Korean family. Little incidents along the way serve as a catalyst, leading them into a worldwide modern-day adoptee-rights movement seeking truth and transparency. The intent of this book is to inspire and uplift anyone who has been removed from their birth family to know that there is a community of like-minded individuals who've experienced the same circumstances.