Evelyn Bennett

For all our talk about adoption reform, what constitutes adequate counseling and instruction on the long-term consequences of placement for mother and child, appropriate contexts for consent to placement, the value of kinship care, and the NEED of an aparent to be able to say in truth to their adopted child that it couldn't have been another way,

we have an obligation to get educated about Evelyn Bennett's case. OriginsUSA is demanding her return to her grandparents and her mother. You can hear Evelyn's grandmother and Stephanie's lawyer on about the first half of the adoption show.

(My own sure-to-be-unpopular opinion is that the second-half discussion of the agency's ethics and their placement of children from foster care and disruptions with Sandy undercuts the strength of the first half of the show. Placement for disrupted children is a very important service to children, and far too much of the latter discussion is speculative.)

The most recent Seriouslyjustme post speaks to adopting parents in a way everyone needs to hear: Yes, we know what it is like to want a child. But we also want to be able to face that child as an adult and say "It couldn't have been another way."