Disappointing news today. Our adoption agency closed. Bummer, dude. So we need to find another one to pick up where we are and keep the ball rolling. We’re not sure what all this entails at the moment, but it is another bump on the very bumpy adoption road. We are learning that change is indeed the essence of adoption. The good news is that this wasn’t a surprise to God. Hold on, Zaza, we’re coming!
Bags for Zaza continues to amaze and raise…. with new styles, fabrics and bidders. A sincere thank you to all who have been involved in one way or another. We have raised over $1,900 so far and we’re still sewing. www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com The perfect bags for school!!!
AND for those who are Steven Curtis Chapman fans, his family is being interviewed on Good Morning America on Aug. 6th. At least that’s the last I heard. Check out your local stations. This is their first interview since SCC returned to the stage after the death of their little angel, Maria. Should prove tear-jerking. This family is especially dear to us because we received an adoption grant from their organization Shoahannah’s Hope. What a great family with heart for God and adoption. Don’t miss the show. They are also going to be on Larry King Live and on People magazine next week.
Peace out! Linda and the Crosbys
Tags: adopting, adoption, adoption agency, bags for zaza, CAII, Commonwealth Adoptions International, Commonwealth Adoptions International Inc., family, fundraiser, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, mom, motherhood, People Magazine, Steven Curtis Chapman, zaza
My Sister's Jar 
August 5, 2008 at 1:07 am |
The closing of the acency has to be a hard blow to take. It sounds you are pretty determined to keep pushing forward. Your dedication and diligence will hopefully be rewarded soon enough.
Hang in there.
August 5, 2008 at 6:40 am |
Thanks! We are hanging tough. This ball started rolling in Nov. 2006, so it’s got some momentum. Lots of phone calls tomorrow to be made. Thanks for the encouragement. SOMEDAY there will be a photo on this blog of Zaza. :o)
August 6, 2008 at 3:55 am |
the closing of Commonwealth was long over due. Check out guidestar.com – this is a free site to check the IRS 990 tax returns of “so-called non-profit” adoption agencies. Non-profit??? Ha Ha, nothing could be further from the truth. Some gross well over $1.5 million a year and pay huge bribes in countries.
In the past regulations were NEVER ENFORCED by the state or federal government. What happens in the country “stays” in the country. Meanwhile international adoptions tripled in the last 10 years fromm 7,000 a year to over 21,000 and WE HAVE OVER 103,000 OF OUR AMERICAN CHILDREN SITTING in Foster Care – paper ready and waiting for a home.
Adoption is a $6.5 billion dollar industry, riddled with fraud, bribes, and taking the rights of birth parents away from them…..simply because they are unfortunate enough to be born in a poor country.
The next time Mr. and Mr. White American decides to travel to Guatemala or Ethiopia for a Hispanic or African child…………..think about the Africian and Hispanic American children sitting in foster care that Canadians are adopting because our own citizens feel the need to pay $30,000 for another country’s child.
http://www.adoptuskids.org
website connected to the USA Health and Human services with PHOTO listing of American children throughout the USA available for adoption.
August 6, 2008 at 5:20 am |
Lisa, Thanks for commenting on the blog. You have some valid statements that come from the “dark side” of the adoption world. It is eye opening to see the numbers of children available here in the US. Any attention we can aim at bringing children home is GREAT!
How are you connected to adoption?
Mr. Brown and Mrs. White American :o)
August 11, 2008 at 7:19 am |
So sad about your adoption, but you sound so positive! I just wanted to add to the other poster, Lisa…Non profit doesn’t mean that a company cannot make money. So many people confuse this when they see the words ‘non profit’. Not only is it legal (there is no regulation or statute that forbids it) it is essential to an organization’s ability to perform its mission. I talk to organizations throughout the country that feel somehow that it is wrong to make money. It’s not, as long as the money goes back into the mission.
I know nothing of CAI, but pointing out how much someone makes is irrelevant. Non profits must make money too in order to keep their doors open and provide a service. And the people who run it are allowed to make a profit.
August 13, 2008 at 6:07 pm |
I was a memeber of CAI a few years back and I had a wonderful experience with them. I’m so sad to hear about the news that they’ve closed, and I’m also a little stunned. I just want to thank you for being so positive and for taking this obstacle and jumping over it. Zaza will be home soon, and I’ll think of your and your family often.
Jennifer
Ms. White America
September 11, 2008 at 5:04 pm |
Lisa,
You sound pretty synical about adoption. I am sorry for whatever pain you have experienced that has brought you to this negative place. Before you assume that Mr. & Mrs. White America are out there “buying up” children in other countries for the fun of it maybe you should try adopting from the US Foster Care System!
Although there are laws in place requiring that states cooperate with one another, in general they don’t, I know our state is a major proponent of reunification and so the kids get bounced back and forth between their abusive family and various foster homes, some good and some bad, and the state won’t take the kids from their families for good until so much damage has been done to them that the majority of them never recover to live happy successful lives, in addition to all this the classes, licensing and relicensing, interviews and inspections, and the basic sense of cluelessness and lack of interest of many of the workers in the foster care system all make this process pretty much impossible for many. We tried a few times before adopting internationally to adopt from the US.
We couldn’t find a child that wouldn’t put our daughter in danger. Mostly due to sexual abuse history. This isn’t just my opinion. It was the opinion of the case workers. One worker put it to us this way, “We got bed wetters and fire starters. If you’re looking for a normal kid forget it.”
Anyway, I’ve got to get back to work. I just had to say something. I have such a low tolerance for judgement and hatred.
Have a lovely day,
Cheri
May 6, 2009 at 9:11 pm |
Lisa, your post was quite angry about adoption. I wondered if you were in the foster care system yourself and did not get adopted. I am very sorry for your pain.
I wanted to let you know that many of the children adopted abroad are actually adopted by immigrant families (non-white) who want to adopt from their home countries and who want to adopt a child that will fit in with their families, especially considering that their parents/other relatives may be still residing in the home country and may have never been to the USA. These are the hidden adoptees who blend in as if not having been adopted because racially or ethnically they are from the same home country as their adoptive parents and family. For Asian immigrant families, there are very few children in the USA available for adoption who are of Asian ancestry and on top of this, the adoption pool for Asians is quite diverse ethnically and racially to include South Asians from the Indian Subcontinent in addition to what we might normally consider Asian. When thinking of international adoption, just remember non-whites are also adopting, especially immigrant families.
You might also find it of interest that American children are not only being adopted to Canada but to other countries. I recently noted that Oregon was toughening up their laws about international adoption after a child adopted to a Mexican family in Mexico had murdered their child and that the Netherlands had toughened up their laws about the adoption of children from the USA declaring that Americans needed to have first chance to adopt children before they were to be adopted to the Netherlands.
I also wanted to make you aware that domestic adoption can actually be more expensive than international adoption if one does a private adoption from a birth family as there are costs of prenatal care, delivery, and the care of the birth mother. It’s the foster care system that is the cheapest option.
The amount you quoted actually includes many other costs that the adoption agencies in the states and country where the child resides never sees… Think about costs such as travel to the country where the child resides to bring the child home, notary and apostilling fees, US immigration visa, foreign visas to travel, immunizations for travel, incidentals such as diapers and other items necessary for travel with a child, clothes for the child, a MSW or doctorate level social worker to do a home study evaluation on the family, doctor visits in the states for physicals of the adoptive families, background checks, fingerprinting, medical examination and vaccines for the child before the US will give the child an immigration visa, and so on… Those fees are separate from the adoption agencies’ fees and are included in the amount you quoted.
One thing that I noted is that it is way more expensive to raise a child than it is to adopt a child, so when one considers the fees to adopt, it is still a savings because in today’s world, it is rare to adopt a child under the age of two when adopting internationally. Think about the care and welfare of the child prior to adoption and how the adoptive family did not provide the monies and support for the child during those years. Just putting a child in daycare (estimated costs can be anywhere from 500-1000+ US dollars per month in the states) or going to a doctor for a medical checkup all adds up. If one of the parents stays home, there is the loss in income and benefits and the added costs of health insurance. Some of these children come home with serious medical issues and the adoption fee is just a drop in the bucket in the overall costs of raising a child.