NYHOMESTUDY BLOG

January 23, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
By BETH NONTE RUSSELL

ACCORDING to a State Department report released this week, American citizens adopted 6,493 children from China in 2006, a decline of 18 percent from the previous year’s total of 7,906. And yet, just over a month ago, this newspaper reported that China had prepared strict new criteria for foreign adoption applications because the country claimed it lacked “available” babies to meet the “spike” in demand.

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By
JIM YARDLEY

January 15, 2007
Guangzhou Journal

GUANGZHOU, China, Jan. 11 – Guangzhou, the chaotic export capital in southern China, appeared to hit a major Chinese milestone this month, becoming the country’s first city to reach a per capita income of $10,000 – more than
five times the nationwide figure and a rough threshold for becoming a “developed” country.

But in a measure of just how problematic prosperity can be here, the city will institute a ban on motorcycles and motorized bicycles on Monday, hoping to quell a crime wave that has been building to more than 100,000 offenses a year.

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Families who are trying to beat the May 1st deadline in China, should be aware that new New York State rules concerning their criminal clearances went into effect on January 11th. Fingerprint cards that were not processed by that date will be returned to your home study agency along with a duplicate fingerprint card that the state will be submitting to the FBI.
New York State criminal clearances will no longer be complete without an FBI clearance as well. At present, New York State estimates that it will take six to ten weeks for the FBI clearances to be completed. When new technology arrives, in approximately two months, the FBI clearances will take only 72 hours. Because dossiers will have to arrive in China at the beginning of April in order to be logged in by the CCAA by May 1, this new New York State regulation may negatively affect you. Please be in touch with your home study provider.

By LYNETTE CLEMETSON
Published: August 31, 2006

ATIE LEDBETTER, who is expecting a baby girl late this year, has delighted in the fawning of baby-obsessed colleagues, the cooing commentary on the joys of parenthood and the feigned laments over the loss of social life and sleep.

But because she is adopting instead of giving birth, Ms. Ledbetter, who works for Standard Register, a document services company based in Ohio, was initially told she was not entitled to the six to eight weeks of paid leave offered to pregnant employees.

Then in January, an ebullient manager told Ms. Ledbetter to check her e-mail. Effective this year, a memo to the company’s 3,500 employees read, Standard Register would offer adoptive parents four weeks of paid leave and up to $4,000 in financial assistance. Ms. Ledbetter, her manager told her, would be the first recipient. “It was like a gift from God,” said Ms. Ledbetter, 45, a customer service specialist in the company’s Charlotte, N.C., office. “When you are in this adoption mode, you just come to expect obstacles. I was so very, very touched to know my company backed us.”
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csmonitor.com – The Christian Science Monitor Online
from the October 27, 2004 edition -

African-American babies are going to parents overseas even as US couples
adopt children from other countries

By Dawn Davenport | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Adrian Stokkeland, a 2-year-old in Canada, dances with his mom to the music of Elvis and sleeps with his most treasured possession, a box of toy cars. Emma Sonnenschein, an energetic 19-month-old in Germany, loves to “help” her mom
around the house. Elisa van Meurs, a 5-year-old in the Netherlands, is a real girly-girl. Her favorite outfit is a Minnie Mouse dress, paired with a Snow White tiara and pink Barbie shoes.
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