Let’s talk about Adoptee Rights

My getting sick all those years ago was the only reason why I obtained both my Original Birth Certificate and the Surrender Document of the day my mother went to court to surrender her parental right to me.

 

Talking about Adoptee Rights

I had an exchange with a friend the other day. A friend who is an ally of adoptees and believes in the adoptee’s right to the original birth certificate. But sometimes we forget to explain why a non-discriminatory bill should be the only end goal. I’m not an expert in this area. Nor have I done the hard work that is required to achieve that goal state by state. I haven’t been actively involved in the process, nor would I know when to fold your cards and try again another year. My only role is to encourage others to support clean adoptee rights bills, amplify their message, talk to people and urge them to contact their legislator in support of its passage.

 

#NAAM2020 – This Happened Four Years Ago

Four years ago Adam Crasper was deported back to South Korea. Mr. Crasper was adopted by US Citizens as a three year old from South Korea. Please watch the segment done on November 17th, 2016 telling his story on Seattle Station KIRO 7. Hear what happened to him.

You can lend your support in finally getting Citizenship for All Adoptees whose adoptive parents failed to get them naturalized before they turned 18. Please go to Citizenship For All Adoptees on FB.

 

 

 

Feeling Thankful And Hopeful

Yesterday was good, oh so good, historic, restoring. This morning I woke up thinking it’s a new dawn, new day.

Now hopefully good can happen, people can come together and change hearts and minds. And right now during National Adoption Awareness Month may the Adoptee Citizenship Act pass. I can’t think of anything more important in the adoption world than that.

 

Muddling two different adoption subjects into one?

No, Adoptee Rights Legislation passed in a particular state through the hard work of adoptees does not mean the state is an “open adoption state”. Is there no editor at adoption.com?

 

Get Involved, It’s Important

Adoptees for Justice is asking for your help. They are asking you contact your congressman and ask them to support HR2731 before it expires. HR2731 will fix the gaps left after the passage of the CCA of 2000 once and for all. (CCA = Child Citizenship Act).

It’s important to get this fixed, International adoptee’s have been deported and will be deported back to the countries they were adopted from, despite having legally entered the US with the proper paperwork with their adoptive parents. For whatever reason their parents never ensured they were naturalized before they turned 18. It’s a huge problem, it needs fixed. So please consider following the links, learn about what needs to be done and how you can help.

Please help, read the twitter thread linked below, or you can just go to Adoptees For Justice to help.

Have you been waiting for a sign from the universe🌎?☀️Take Action TODAY☀️ to pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act and bring us one step closer to citizenship for all #adoptees. With 3 months until #HR2731 expires, we have to act NOW!
Take action: https://t.co/rDjFPtadlu 1/3 pic.twitter.com/G0nWYdjzwx

— Adoptees For Justice (@Adoptees4Just) September 1, 2020

 

Happy for New York Adoptees

Adoptees from New York now have the right to their original birth certificates; in the first 48 hours 3600 online applications were made. There’s an estimated 650,000 adoptees from New York per this article: New York Adoptees Rush to Request Birth Certificates, After Years of Blocked Access. Adoptee Rights Law has details on how the new law works: Updated Info on New York’s New Law

Congratulations to everyone who has fought to change the law in the last 40 odd years and to all adoptees from New York. Now the challenge is to get the changes made to the NY Law known by adoptees from NY, seems easy but there are still adoptees from states who have changed the law regarding their original birth certificate, who have no idea they can order theirs.

 

From 2014: Good grief, this gets so tiring…

[2014] Earlier this week the Today Show included a segment on a daughter meeting her mother for the first time.  A daughter that resorted to using Facebook to try to find her by putting her personal information out on the internet (risky), but it paid off, and a reunion happened.  So what happens in the comments on the Today Facebook page after the segment aired?  (Be warned that I am using adoptive parents repeatedly throughout because that is what was used.)

 

National Adoption Awareness Month – Day Four Round-up

Been sitting back and watching the start of this month unfold. Loving the adoptees speaking up, refocusing people onto topics worthy of discussion, hopeful others in adoption get on board with just sitting back and letting the ones at the center of adoption have the podium, so to speak. This post is links to what you may have missed, but need to read, and an older post of mine that speaks to the concept of celebrating adoption that I remembered I’d written after reading the first post linked below.

 

Knowledge we all deserve

Snippet from a post written back in 2014

 

Difference between open adoption and open records

I read a question to an adoptee who was just venturing outside of her own adoption about her view on open records, as if, every adoptee comes complete with unlimited knowledge about all things adoption. The adoptee responded by talking about their feelings and concerns on open adoption. I’m not sure why some adoptive parents still need to ask every adoptee they meet about how they feel about ‘open records’, and of course, they didn’t clear up the confusion the adoptee had between the subject asked and the subject of her answer given, hence this post.

 

So thankful for other voices

Thankful for how willing adoptees are to not just talk about adoption, being adopted, but to also have the grace, strength and power inside them to tell their stories in ways that makes you feel them, instead of just reading them. Stories unique to each, and yet, weaving similar themes that run through their stories. It’s a gift for both prospective and adoptive parents that I hope they willingly accept, think deeply on, and challenge themselves to dig deep to understand.