In 1998 my husband David and I adopted a sibling
group of two older girls from India.
Within six weeks of their arrival, our new daughters, who were severely
emotionally traumatized, told us they had been stolen from their
birthfamily.
For six long and difficult years, our agency, though asked to do so
repeatedly, failed to investigate our daughters allegations.
Finally, on our own with the help of an Indian activist for the poor, we
found our daughters' birthfamily and confirmed their disturbing story.
Despite all this there has yet to be so much as an apology from our agency,
and certainly no justice. Not for our daughters. Not for our daughters' first
parents. Not for ourselves.
It seems that NO ONE CARES about this crime.
Our US agency--which has not disputed the facts of the case--says that it
bears no legal responsibility even if, like we say, they helped place stolen
children in our home.
Our pleas to both the Indian and US governments have fallen on what appears
to be deaf ears, and therefore, we assume, uncaring ears. The state office which
licenses our agency has a phone machine for complaints; apparently they do not
return phone calls--at least ours was never returned.
Meanwhile, the Indian orphanage director has been jailed three times on child
trafficking related charges. He is currently trying to be relicensed yet
again.
We have been left to ask the questions:
1) How could this have happened? Was our case simply a rare happenstance or
could there be specific flaws--specific or systemic--in the system that have
allowed/caused it to happen?
2) Why is it that no one cares about this kind of crime?
This blog represents some of the answers we've found to these questions. It
also is shares the ongoing answers as we continue to learn.
Flea bites are simply individual incidents of exposing the reality of
international adoption practices--one example, one practice, one analysis, one
real-life experience, one proposed remedy, and one "big picture" at a time.
If our insignificant flea bites can save other families the extreme pain that
our daughters, our daughters' first family, and our own family have endured,
these flea bites will not be in vain.
To find out more about Desiree's family's adoption follow the
following link. NPR's"
Adoption in America Series: An Adoption Gone Wrong, July 24, 2007
Their advice: Tell Bad Stories
http://fleasbiting.blogspot.com/2007/02/corruption-item-17-tell-bad-stories.html
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