Redeeming Orphans

Written for Haiti:

On January 24th, one of the pastors at my church preached a sermon titled Adoption Mirrors Divine Adoption for the launch of our new orphan care ministry, Rosalynn’s Hope.  I highly recommend  it.
Listen here

Abba Fund:
For the year 2010, the maximum adoption tax credit will be $12,170. The IRS updated this figure as part of their annual update for several inflation-indexed figures as released in Revenue Procedure 2009-50.
The adoption credit is scheduled to sunset at the end of the year 2010, and revert back to its pre-2001 dollar limit [...]

Urban Servant:
One of the saddest gaps I have seen in adoption in recent years is the lack of support for younger couples who have adopted sibling groups and find their families in serious crisis six months to a year later. Paperwork completed, bills paid, and travel behind them, all of a sudden these parents wake [...]

The Hope for Orphans blog has been running a series titled, The Children of Foster Care:  A Call to Prayer.  Take a look -
Part 1, 2, and 3

There is a heartbreaking article in the Miami Herald about the common request that Americans are being asked by Haitian parents right now:  to take their children to America.
“Herald reporter Kathleen McGrory walks into a sprawling, filthy, stinking survivor camp this past week, not far from the Port-au-Prince airport. In a place where hope has [...]

Anthony Bradley has written an article addressing the fact that African-American children are far less likely to be adopted than non-African-American kids.  He writes:
  “Increasing the number of black adoptive parents will require more education, cooperation, and partnerships among the roughly 46,000 black congregations in America. Evangelicals are growing in their awareness of the implications [...]

The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) is an amazing collaboration of disaster response experts and U.S. based orphan care and advocacy organizations. The goal of HORT is to identify, train and resource Haitian churches to be the direct rescue and care mechanism for Haiti’s hundreds of thousands of orphans. This is truly the most effective [...]

Christianity Today has an article on the Idaho Christian group arrested for taking orphans out of Haiti without authorization.

Spirit of Adoption:
NY Times columnist praises the help that has been given to Haiti and urges for the same help and generosity to the Congolese whose war has claimed at least 30x as many lives as the Haitian earthquake.
In Orphaned, Raped, and Ignored he shares the story of Chance, an orphaned and raped little girl, [...]

Rainbow Kids:
Adopting several children from China has been a joy-filled, faith-building, abundant adventure. We have four biological children and feel as though we are experienced parents. However, sometimes even experienced parents can find that they are not adequately prepared for some issues.
During November of 2006, we decided that we would pursue a special needs child [...]

A Promise from Ethiopia (now inactive):
I know that I, like many people adopting African or African American children, panicked at the very thought of caring for the hair and skin of these beautiful children. After considerable trial and error, and some great advice from other women, we have hit on some things that work for [...]

Ethica:
The first thing you should do when considering an agency is to call the state licensing office for each state in which the agency is licensed. Many agencies carry multiple state licenses. It is vital that you call each state. Ask the state licensing office if the agency has a current license; how long they [...]

This should be my last anti-UNICEF article for a little while, but read this post in which the director of a Haitian orphanage writes about his experience with UNICEF.