2009 - A Year in Review

By Carrie Craft, About.com Guide

• November brought us National Adoption Month which focuses on adoption from the foster care system.

• National Adoption Day, November 21, 2009, and RegDay, November were celebrated as part of National Adoption Month.

• We wondered if Angelina Jolie was really adopting again. She hasn't added to her family through adoption since completing the adoption of little Pax from Vietnam in 2007. And she hasn't given birth since the twins joined the Jolie-Pitt crew in July 12, 2008. This time Angelina Jolie is rumored to be looking to adopt a little girl from the Asian country of Syria.

• The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released the results of a new study regarding interracial adoption. Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption was very clear on what helped a child find their cultural identity and what was nice, but not as helpful.

• Some in the adoption community was unhappy when ABC premiered Find My Family. Again the wording in the trailer made many adoptive parents upset. "Let's find your family" is one sentence that grated on the Center for Adoption Policy (CAP) nerves. They stated that while they support adoption reunion, they feel that the producers of Find My Family have forgotten that adoptees already have families - adoptive families.

• Speaking of adoption reunions, one adoptee found that Charles Manson was his biological father. I wonder how Find My Family would have handled that adoption reunion?

• Many prospective adoptive parents are excited about the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) announcement that the Guatemalan National Adoption Council is working towards the opening of a new adoption pilot program in Guatemala. Adoptions from Guatemala were suspended January 1, 2008, due to concern with the country's adoption process and corruption including, unregulated foster care, conflicts of interest, and lack of government oversight.