"By Michael Glover - michael.glover@examiner.net
The Examiner
Posted Sep 22, 2008 @ 10:09 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independence, MO — Independence police are looking for four children
abducted by their non-custodial mother who had a scheduled custody
hearing for today.

Police issued an Amber Alert on Saturday for Kelley L. Riggs, 10,
Raven Riggs,12, Rhiannon Riggs, 7, and Spencer Riggs, 14.

The mother, Shirley A. Riggs, 39, took the children, who were in
Department of Family Services custody, after given an unsupervised
overnight visitation. She was supposed to return the children at 2
p.m. Saturday, according to police.

The mother feared losing her custodial rights and a custody hearing
was supposed to be held today, police said.

Shirley Riggs may be driving a maroon 1992 Dodge Caravan with Missouri
license MB6 C8M. She possibly could be heading to Denver or to
Oklahoma.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2008/09/23/hlifeclass123...

Lifeclass: do fathers have the right to know about their children?
This week Lesley Garner helps one woman decide whether to tell her ex-
boyfriend that he is the father of her son
23/09/2008

Dear Lesley,

I think I am really making a mess of managing things for my baby boy.
When I fell pregnant by an ex-boyfriend, I decided I was not going to
tell the father, as I thought no good would come of it. He wouldn't
have been pleased about the pregnancy, and he already has a daughter
from a previous relationship.

But now I am not sure what to do. I could phone up my baby's father
and come clean, but I wonder if this is necessary. Would my child have
just as happy a childhood without a father in his life? He has so many
people who love him already; does he even need a father?

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/122041.php

Internationally Adopted Children Hit Puberty Earlier
Date: 21 Sep 2008 - 1:00 PDT

Experts claim that internationally adopted children can undergo
puberty at an early age making them more susceptible to a variety of
health risks as adults: abdominal obesity, hypertension, diabetes,
cardiovascular disease and even certain cancers.

But are internationally adopted children really more at risk?

"It depends on their country of origin and on their living conditions
up until their adoption," says Hélène Delisle, a professor at the
Université de Montréal's Department of Nutrition.

"Many factors are at play, but a low birth weight that isn't
recuperated between the ages zero and two, combined with an
accelerated weight gain during childhood, would increase the risk of
early puberty and chronic disease in adulthood."

In Quebec, half of the 900 children who are internationally adopted
every year are from China. Some girls begin puberty as early as eight
and boys as early as 10-years-old.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-china-orphans_slider_9-14sep21...

Relatives hold on tight to China quake orphans
Many hoping to adopt children are stymied

McClatchy/Chicago Tribune Newspapers
11:29 PM CDT, September 20, 2008
By Tim Johnson

MIANZHU, China — Four months after a massive earthquake upended this
region of Sichuan province, child welfare officers scurry to sort out
the fate of 532 orphan children.

Countless couples have stepped forward to adopt a "quake orphan" as
part of the huge wellspring of charitable concern that the disaster
untapped among ordinary Chinese citizens.

So far, only one quake orphan has been adopted into a new home. The
rest of the orphans are not tangled in bureaucratic red tape. Rather,
they remain in the tight embrace of grandparents and aunts and uncles
who refuse to let them go.

Long, but very interesting: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3757/is_200201/ai_n9059035

"Real" mothers for abandoned children
Law & Society Review, 2002
By O'Donovan, Katherine

Drawing on the laws and practices of three countries-England, France,
and Germany-this article examines the constructions of narratives of
abandoned children. Although the three countries share the values...

A new Bastardette has arrived:

Jessica Scovil Update: Under the cover of anonymity the welfare state
does its dirty work

http://bastardette.blogspot.com

Comments welcome

Marley

http://www.reporter.bz/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3039&Itemid=2

Mom says adoptive parents abused her 2-year-old daughter
Friday, 19 September 2008
By Adolph Lucas Jr. - Staff Reporter

A mother from the village of Hopkins is complaining that her two-year-
old daughter, who was given up for adoption three months ago, has been
physically abused by her new parents.

The adopted parents are presently under investigation for abusing the
child but police have declined to release their names.

Elaine Ventura, 35, made her report to the police on Friday September
12, saying that three months ago, a social worker from the Human
Development Department took away her two-year-old daughter, Stephanie.

Ventura later found out that her child was given in adoption to a
couple at Mile 21 on Stann Creek Valley Road.

She said she expected that while in the hands of the care-givers, her
child would have been well cared for. She learned however, that on
Friday September 5th, Stephanie was admitted to the Karl Huesener
Memorial Hospital suffering from a fractured skull after being beaten
by her new parents.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/breaking_news/story/601065.html

Fri, Sep. 19, 2008

Mother will get chance to reclaim abandoned child

A mother who left her child at Waccamaw Community Hospital can
possibly reclaim the child during an October hearing in family court,
said Marilyn Matheus, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Social
Services.

The baby, who was left at the hospital Monday night after the mother
gave birth, is in good health, Matheus said.

The mother will not be charged if she reappears, she said. The baby
was left in the hospital, which is legal under the state's Safe Haven
Act.

A permanency planning hearing will be held Oct. 22. DSS will ask the
court to approve a plan for termination of parental rights and
adoption.

Any person wishing to assert parental rights regarding the infant must
do so at the hearing, Matheus said.

The baby is the first infant abandoned in recent years in Georgetown
County. Another child was left at a drug store in Horry County.

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/issues/2008.09.18/locallife2.html

Trans-racial adoption is not a panacea for one’s self-image
by BETSY SELF ELIJAH

PART TWO At a small, predominantly white liberal arts college in the
early 1990s, I interacted with a handful of African-American and Asian-
American students. None was a close friend, but I noticed an
acceptance of difference for the first time. I didn’t realize
something was missing until it became part of my experience,
especially living around people whose faces, like mine, could be seen
as not fitting in. I thought the school was diverse because it hosted
a few minorities.

I wish I had known to inquire about diversity beyond statistics, to
ask about teachers, policies, the history of complaints and gender/
racial bias. I still dated blond white boys. I still had trouble...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08263/913306-42.stm

Film Notes: Pitt to host adoption film preview
Friday, September 19, 2008

"Mad Men" fans have seen what happened when a junior copywriter,
played by Elisabeth Moss, became pregnant out of wedlock in the 1960s.
Her none-too-happy sister is now raising the baby on the hit AMC
series.

Her story is fictional, but more than 1.5 million real women gave up
their children for adoption between the end of World War II and 1973's
Roe vs. Wade decision.

Ann Fessler, who wrote the book "The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden
History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades
Before Roe v. Wade," is making a movie about the subject and will
preview it next week.

Fessler, herself an adoptee, will talk about the film and show a work
in progress Monday at 8 p.m. in the University of Pittsburgh's Frick
Fine Arts Auditorium, 650 Schenley Drive, Oakland. The event is free
and open to the public.