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<title>Jeff&#x27;s Adoption Blog RSS Feed</title><link>http://www.Listeningtoparents.org/index.html</link><description>Adoption and Foster Care Reform</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>Jeff@listeningtoparents.org</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2009 Jeff Katz</dc:rights><dc:date>2010-09-17T13:31:55-04:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:57:44 -0400</lastBuildDate><item><title>From Nia Vardalos</title><dc:creator>Jeff@listeningtoparents.org</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-09-17T13:31:55-04:00</dc:date><link>http://www.Listeningtoparents.org/Jeff_files/703cc87feae2d47d9fd0f01d1aeda478-3.php#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.Listeningtoparents.org/Jeff_files/703cc87feae2d47d9fd0f01d1aeda478-3.php#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Nia Vardalos is the actress and writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the number one romantic comedy and one of the highest-grossing independent feature films in history. 

...My husband and I were matched with our daughter through American Foster Care.   There are 129,000 legally freed children in foster care, just waiting for a home. 

...The best way to achieve that goal is to change the adoption system and make it more welcoming to the very parents who are trying to adopt these children. 


...But because, after ten years of banging my head against the brick wall of infertility, I accepted there was another plan for me. 

...A common misconception is that to get a kid you just have to go to another country and be as pretty as Angelina Jolie. 

...But we do have 500,000 kids in foster care. 129,000 are legally freed for adoption and waiting for a family. 

...In fact, they were abrupt and off-putting and said it would take quite a while before a child was placed in my home. ...  I was told there was a process and that I had to be patient through the legal system.   I explained I thought I would be connected with a child who was waiting for a home. 

...At this point, it had been years of trying so many routes, of waiting on so many lists. 

...The experience of transitioning this child was astonishing and well, just too personal to go into now. 

...Then, as the holidays approached, my husband and I thought about all those kids in foster care waiting for a family. ...  I am the National Adoption Day spokesperson because there are so many perfect kids out there, like our daughter, who are just waiting for a home.


...Because I know, from first hand experience, that too many parents find the process of adopting from foster care to be illogical and unnecessarily difficult.   I&rsquo;ve met many parents who either weren&rsquo;t properly informed of how easy it is, or gave up on the system, and adopted infants or went abroad. ...  There are 129,000 American kids waiting in foster care. 

...I believe in the mission of Listening to Parents- to remove the unnecessary barriers that keep kids in foster care. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Welcome to Listening to Parents </title><dc:creator>Jeff@listeningtoparents.org</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-12-19T17:39:56-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.Listeningtoparents.org/Jeff_files/77c3ec765eb4924e241a7beda5dd9c09-2.php#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.Listeningtoparents.org/Jeff_files/77c3ec765eb4924e241a7beda5dd9c09-2.php#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[For ten years, I was the Executive Director of an organization called Adoption Rhode Island.   My agency&rsquo;s mission was to recruit families to adopt children in the care of Rhode Island&rsquo;s Department for Children Youth and Families (DCYF). 

...We got thousands of calls each year from families that were interested in adopting.   Some of them were only interested in adopting a newborn, but each year hundreds of people called us with genuine interest in providing a family to a child in need.   The most striking aspect of my time as executive director of Adoption Rhode Island was the genuine concern people had for the children they saw on Tuesday's Child. 


...Ten years of recruiting families to adopt children from foster care taught me one thing: every single child in foster care, without exception, has the potential to be adopted and to become part of a family.


...I began to see the many ways in which the child welfare system made children wait because of the way it treated prospective adoptive parents.


...Over the course of 10 years, I spoke with over five thousand people going through the process, from that first tentative information call to the adoption finalization ceremony in the Family Court.   The longer I worked in the system, the more troubled I became by the huge numbers of people who did not make it through the system. ...  While some parents did make it through the process and adopted a child, it was my experience that far more people left the system shaking their head in frustration than ever adopted a child. 


...At Harvard, I organized a national research project that studied how families adopting from foster care experience the process.   Working with the Urban Institute, we estimated that 240,000 Americans called an agency each year to inquire about adopting a child from foster care. ...  We even witnessed an information meeting that began with an announcement that all attendees had to line up to be fingerprinted in the front of the room. 


Later, research and analysis showed that 600,000 American women are actively trying to adopt a child and most were open to adopting the kinds of children in foster care.   Analysis of federal data revealed the near impossibility of adopting a foster child across state lines (71 children in the entire country adopted across state lines by someone they did not already have a relationship with). 


...We want to change the incentives in the child welfare system so that the barriers fall and every single child in foster care can have the benefit of a loving family. 


...We need to change the perception from &ldquo;kids wait because they are unwanted&rdquo; to &ldquo;kids wait because systemic barriers prevent good parents from adopting.&rdquo; 

...There are many reasons why children wait in this country, but don&rsquo;t ever, ever, let anyone tell you that these children wait because no one wants them. ]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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