Adoption.com's Adoption Week e-magazine (which is free and full of great stuff) had a great article in it this week about teens in Missouri helping orphans in Uganda find loving adoptive homes in the United States.

The story comes out of Kansas City, Missouri and is titled "Teens Help Ugandan Kids Find U.S. Homes".

The article is about Bethany Hartzler and her friend and college classmate, Amy Wolf, who helped navigate the international adoption process in Uganda for eight orphaned Ugandan children, including... more

A recent news story out of Zambia is bad news for families using the U.S. adoption agency Faithful Adoption. The Namibian ran a story on August 13 titled "Zambia Smashes Adoption Scam."

The article states that the Zambia government has uncovered and ended an adoption scam that involved flying children out of Zambia with adoptive parents, without proper adoption procedures being followed. As a result of these findings, the article claims, three children have been "withdrawn" from the American families that were planning on adopting them.

The... more

(Continued from here)

Monday, June 21

I started off the day today by going to the ALERT hospital for lepers. Some of the missionaries took me out there. It was really amazing and touching to see how many people are still affected by leprosy. As soon as they diagnose it, they get treatment and are no longer contagious, but much of the time, the damage continues. It affects nerves and in fact, the first sign many times is an area of skin that has no feeling. Kind of like with diabetes, it can really affect the feet and hands, with loss of sensation, then subsequent damage, potential gangrene... more

(Continued from here)

Saturday, 19 June 2004

After I talked to dh, I typed some more, fed the baby and got her to sleep, then left her with Lee Jr (not too close, though – she can't afford to get sick) and I took the other three kids out shopping. We went to get some money off the credit card, but I couldn't find it again. It must be the stress, because it's the second time in 48 hours that I have “lost” it and it takes Lee about 15 seconds to find it when he looks – in the same spot I already looked a half a dozen times.

Anyway, we went to the “Piazza” and found... more

(Continued from here)

Saturday, 19 June 2004

When Greg called this morning, we talked a little about the details, etc, then I told him I think I might have seen a kidnapping yesterday. I would never have even thought of that if it were not for the young man at church. He is about 20 and speaks pretty good English. He translated for the Sunday school teacher 2 weeks ago. Of course, I noticed he was blind – there seem to be a lot of blind people here. Anyway, he told his story. He was kidnapped when he was 10 or 12, taken to Djibouti where acid was poured into his eyes, blinding him.... more

(Continued from here)

Saturday, June 19, 2004

I'm starting to lose track of days over here. Today is one month since we left home. How sad for all of us except the four newest Richardson's. I talked to Greg first thing this morning and everyone is really struggling. Greg said that Rebecca and Ammon just cry all the time – it's the first time that either have been left for any significant period of time (well, since Ammon joined our family – he was “left” for over a year as a baby.) I suggested that he go buy a copy of “Return of the King” and let... more

(Continued from here)

Friday, 18 June 2004

After spending the morning at the Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we went to lunch without Aaron. After we were done, we returned the the hotel, picked him up and took him to a clinic. He got a liter of IV fluid and a shot for nausea – it took forever, but then we finally got the OK to leave. We picked up his prescriptions – antibiotics and pain reliever, plus multi-vitamins. The total clinic visit, including the IV and all, was 96 birr and the meds were around 50, or about $17 total. Beats a trip to the ER in the States. I hope... more

(Continued from here)

Friday, 18 June, 2004

I mentioned I could kick some behinds of parents who seem to think that adoption is a temporary thing and they can end it by returning the kids to Ethiopia. This consular officer does one better, though. She gets on the phone to the FBI, their local DCFS and someone else – the Dept of State? She tells the parents that they are committing federal offenses and they WILL be responsible for these children, or they will go to jail.

She said one family said to her “Don't go all 'moral' on us” while they gave all their 'moral' justifications for... more

(Continued from here)

Friday, 18 June 2007

Since the visa approval process took so much time (1 ½ hours), the consular officer visited with me quite a bit. She told me that the terror alert here was “critical” and if I felt in any way threatened or at risk, to “get the hell out of Dodge” (her quote). Part of me was thinking “I've been here a month and you're telling me this now?!” and the other part was glad I didn't know it was as bad as that. I can't leave without the kids though.

She also said – especially now that Greg is gone – not to go outside after dark, that rape is a national sport... more

(Continued from here)

Friday, June 18

The darn roller coaster ride continues. I got up after a sleepless night. I had a really bad headache last night and debated about taking an Excedrin Migraine, as I knew it would affect my sleep. But, I also knew the headache was bad enough to adversely affect my sleep, so I took the medicine. I slept from 10 pm to midnight, then was awake until around 6, then slept for one more hour.

I went to the Embassy at 9:30 and waited at least an hour with a whole flock? Herd? Gaggle? of butterflies in my stomach. I finally got called to the window... more