Prinka Kaur

Mrs. Greene
Capstone - 7
Track Reflection: Independent Study 09/13
After completing the first eight hours of my track independent study, I have really come
to understand the controversy surrounding international adoption quite well. I also really
understand that although heritage and culture are important, it is also very important that society
focuses on the human rights position: if a child needs a home, then it does not matter where on
the map that home really is. Getting a child to safety with parents who will love and take care of
the childs basic needs is really the most important aspect. I spent a little more than seven hours
reading parts of a book focused on international adoption and its history and debunking the
myths surrounding it. Right now, after finishing the first eight hours of my track research, my
biggest confusion is about understanding what I really want to do for my spring action plan. I
really wanted the opportunity to present in front of adults who would actually care for the cause,
but after talking to Rainbow of Love, the adoption agency I am currently working with, I dont
know what the purpose behind that presentation would be and how I would reach out to adults
who would care for the cause. Additionally, if I chose to present to high schoolers instead, how
could I make international adoption a topic that is actually relevant to them? After thinking about
this for a while, I decided that perhaps the best thing that I could really talk about is the debate of
international adoption and how important it is to keep it in our society. After reading the book
under Source Analysis A, I found out that countries are actually restricting the number of
children who can be taken out of their country due to the fear of abuse or loss of heritage.
Therefore, I could connect this to the controversy and explain how world affairs and policies are
also really important in this topic. Instead of focusing on the technical process of adoption, my
third subtopic could be world policies and their relation to international adoption. Additionally
the essay that I chose for Source Analysis B really goes into detail about policy implications.
One of the authors most important points in regards to governmental policies is that neither
adoption abuses nor concepts of heritage justify restrictive international adoption policies, incountry holding periods or the elimination of private adoption intermediaries. International
adoption appropriately recognizes children as citizens of a global community with basic human
rights entitlements. This really makes me want to research the policies that are restricting the
growth of international adoption and perhaps even make that the base of my entire spring action
presentation. Additionally, while completing my track hours I actually came across the contact
information of Elizabeth Bartholet, who wrote the essay about the human rights position and
emailed her requesting more information, a Skype video chat, or any other help she could give
me with this project. I am hoping to perhaps get some responses on her favorite resources or
references which I could use in the near future.
Source Analysis A
Source Number: A

 MLA Citation:
Marre, Diana, and Briggs Laura, eds. International Adoption: Global Inequalities and the
Circulation of Children. NYU, 2009. Web.
Source Validation: This book is published by NYU Press and is a collection of
seventeen essays written by scholars and edited by professors and the University of
Michigan with PhDs.
How did you find this source?: I looked up International Adoption in Google
Scholar and while searching through the references of an article I had read earlier, I found
this book.
Intended audience: Readers who wanted to weigh in on the controversy
surrounding adoption and potential adoptive parents
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source not only
discusses the basic process of international adoption, but also contains multiple true
stories and goes into detail about the different aspects: including the movement for
adoption and how it has evolved over the past two decades, the social temporalities of
adoption, and how the perspectives of the sending countries differs from the response by
the receiving countries. Additionally, this source has really gone into the causes and
beginning of international adoption which actually resulted from war and turmoil.
Connecting this book back to my subtopics, one of my main subtopics is the debate and
controversy over international adoption. Many people believe that if the child is a
different color or looks different when compared to the adoptive parents, it affects the
child mentally and additionally, the child loses touch with his/ her heritage. This book
addresses these concerns and even gives specific examples suggesting that this is just a
false notion.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
Older notions of racial characteristics lurk within some notions of
"culture", just as they do in popular conceptions of genetic heritage... the
possibility that adopted children might be stigmatized and marginalized as
immigrants is the underside of Spanish attitudes toward difference as it binds race
to culture.
From the parents point of view, it seems better to acknowledge,
or even emphasize, differences than attempt to deny it or never to speak about
something that is self evident and might be stigmatizing. Adoptive parents
devote considerable effort to highlighting the differences between themselves and
their children. But, at the same time, they feel that attachment transcends
difference confirming the value and importance of their task. Many parents with
adopted children who are visibly different from themselves learn the culture, or
even the customs, of their charge of their child's country of origin with child's
attitudes.
Adoption opens a window onto the relations between nations,
inequalities between rich and poor with the nations, the history of race and racial I

Dacian since the end of slavery in Europe's colonies and the United States, and
relationships between indigenous and non- indigenous groups in the America
and Australia. Transnational adoption emerged out of war. I only recently has it
become, rather than an locational practice, a significant weight of forming a
family for those who cannot have children. Even this form of transnational
adoption has been marked by the geographies of unequal power, as children move
from poor countries and families to both your one and the forces that make a
country rich and powerful are above all historical. In this sense, transnational
adoption has been shaped by the forces of colonialism, the Cold War, and
globalization.
Additional Notes: I found a PDF version of this book online and read the
portions that I found most interesting and beneficial to my research. I read parts 1, 2, and
the introduction to part 3. I also skimmed through the chapter of part 3 which was quite
repetitive and similar to the research I did earlier. I have also ordered the book so that I
would be able to annotate it later on. In total, I spent about seven hours thoroughly
reading the introductions and parts 1 and 2 and skimming through the rest of the book.
Source Analysis B
Source Number: B
MLA Citation:
Bartholet, Elizabeth. "International adoption: The human rights position."Global Policy
1.1 (2010): 91-100.
Source Validation: This essay was written by the child advocacy program
director at Harvard Law School.
How did you find this source?: I looked up International Adoption
Controversy in Google Scholar.
Intended audience: Readers curious about the controversy surrounding
international adoption; Students at Harvard University
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: One of my subtopics is about
the debate surrounding international adoption and the other is governmental policies and
their implications. This source discusses the different aspects of the controversy:
including the new restrictions that some countries are putting on international adoption
and the risk of having abusive parents. Additionally, some people believe that taking the
child outside of his/ her culture is unfair and the child should get to grow up with people
of the same heritage. Bartholet defends her position against this negative opinion with
statistics and the simple human rights position. She believes that right now, the top
priority should be the children and if they need homes and cannot be provided for by their
own countries, international adoption can really secure their future.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
In many sending countries national pride has led to calls to stop
selling, or giving away, our most precious resources, and to claims that the

country should take care of our own. Receiving countries have been responsive
to these attacks (Bartholet, 2007b, p. 167). They have nothing to gain and much to
lose if they look as if they are taking children from unwilling countries.
Nor is there reason to think that denying children homes in
international adoption will help solve larger social problems. While there are no
good studies examining the results of recent moratoria, anecdotal evidence
indicates that they may simply cause more suffering. Reports show drastic
increases in the number of abandoned children and ongoing horrendous
conditions in orphanages in Vietnam, Guatemala and Romania in the wake of
their moratoria.
Neither adoption abuses nor concepts of heritage justify
restrictive international adoption policies, in-country holding periods or the
elimination of private adoption intermediaries. International adoption
appropriately recognizes children as citizens of a global community with basic
human rights entitlements.
Additional Notes: I spent about an hour reading and annotating this essay.

Track Hours Reflection #2: Internship/ Independent Study 10/03

After many failed attempts at finding a proper outside mentor, I finally contacted the
domestic adoption agency, Rainbow of Love. Upon confirming Mrs. Debbie Richards, the
director of the domestic adoption agency Rainbow of Love, as my mentor, she offered me the
position as an intern at the Missouri City and Fondren locations. I accepted the offer because it
would really give me a chance to learn more about adoption in general and participate in
upcoming projects associated with adoption. Additionally, I would also get to interact with

adoptive parents and see the technical parts of adoption being enacted. For my track hours, I
visited the orientation for new employees and potential adoptive parents on Saturday, September
24 in the morning and learned not only about the technical parts of domestic adoption and all of
the finances and paperwork involved, but also got to meet some potential adoptive parents and
learn about their back stories and reasons for adopting. It was quite inspirational, in fact, and
helped me see the mentality behind adoption that I want to share with people. In detail, in an
open, interactive session we discussed the different types of adoption: from closed to open to
some in between along with the reasons for putting children up for adoption. There were
currently three children who are either in foster care, or about to be born, who need homes and it
was amazing to see so many couples ready to adopt. Some were even adopting more than one
child despite the lack of excessive financial funds. I have really come to understand the different
technical parts of adoption well as Mrs. Richards and the rest of the staff also explained the exact
steps from the application, to the home study, to the amount of time processing paperwork would
take. We also discussed how there could be potential problems during the process and how those
would be overcomed. For example, if the father of the baby signs the birth certificate and is not
present to sign the baby up for adoption, it can pose a threat to the adoptive process because
signing it gives the father the same rights as the mother. Listening to this orientation, I realized
that I actually understood the concepts of adoption well, narrowing down my biggest concern to
the fact that right now, I really need to figure out how to use the internship I am about to start for
my research for international adoption as Rainbow of Love is a domestic adoption agency. I am
currently just waiting on my background check and history check to be complete so I can start.
Additionally, I want to start researching the differences and similarities (comparing and
contrasting) between domestic adoption and international adoption so that I can see how much
the information I got at the orientation and how much the internship will correlate with my
project and advocacy for international adoption. Additionally, I fully read the article which I had
only used partly in Source 6. It gave me a great understanding summing the entire technical
process along with the legal procedures of different countries.
Source Analysis C
Source Number: C
MLA Citation:
Strong, Stacie I. "Children's Rights in Intercountry Adoption: Towards a New Goal." BU
int'l LJ 13 (1995): 163.
Source Validation: This article is written by a law professor at the University of
Missouri School of Law who specializes in public and private international law,
comparative law, and jurisprudence.
How did you find this source?: I searched up International Adoption Rights in
Google Scholar in the effort to find an article about the rights of children through
international adoption.

 Intended audience: This source was directed towards readers of the University
of Michigan Scholarship Repository and students researching international adoption.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: The complete source not
only explained the technical aspects of international adoption, but went into detail about
the processes used in countries like the United States and the UK. It was informational
and related to the orientation I went to because it explained the concepts of the different
types of adoption and the need for international adoption. Additionally, the source ended
by discussing the importance of a childs right in his/ he adoption.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
In a number of cases, children have terminated parental rights, a
fact scenario which often increases the emotional tenor of the litigation and the
amount of subsequent publicity. In what has been touted as a landmark case,
Kingsley v. Kingsley involved a twelve year old boy who was "divorcing" his
biological mother in favor of his foster parents.
More countries should follow the lead of the United States and
the United Kingdom, and give children more of a voice in decisions which affect
them. Children should be allowed to terminate parental rights when necessary,
thus allowing them to be adopted by parents from their own country or from other
countries.
Observers have pointed to higher rates of contraception, abortion,
and single parenthood as reasons why there are fewer babies available in these
countries. On the other hand, a number of lesser developed countries have an
excess of orphans, due to the stigma of illegitimacy, absence of contraception and
abortion services, and governmental instability.

Track Hours Reflection #3: Independent Study 10/15

Originally, for my second subtopic, I was looking only into the technical process of
international adoption. Although it is a crucial aspect of my topic as a whole, the technical
process itself wont really lead to my advocacy- which is that international adoption should be
more prominent in our society. Instead, I want to focus on three different technical aspects of
international adoption: the Hague Convention, the actual process, and the difference between
domestic and international adoption. Together, they will be more beneficial to my advocacy. I
read four articles surrounding these three aspects to help prepare for my timed writing. Overall,
the first thing I learned about was the Hague Convention. The Hague Convention was essentially
a conference where many countries decided to make a protocol, or set of rules, to make
international adoption safer. At that time (late 1800s/ early 1900s), kidnappings, child abuse, and

child labor were quite prominent in the name of international adoption. The convention helped
make international adoption safer by putting many international rules and regulations in place
and made the countries involved impose domestic laws surrounding adoption as well. The
convention was quite successful but it also made international adoption a lot harder. This kind of
led me to the second aspect of my track work: focusing on the differences between domestic and
international adoption. Based on my research, the Hague Convention made international
adoption a lot harder than domestic adoption because not only are there two countries involved,
but also international rules which must be followed. It requires the cooperation of multiple
systems of governments. I briefly went over the technical process of international adoption in my
first presentation, but I will focus on in more depth in this timed writing. It starts off with a
general information session in which potential adoptive parents can learn about international
adoption and the process if they want to continue. Then, a home study happens in which officials
come and interview all family members and make sure the environment is safe for a new child.
After that adoptive parents must attend group training sessions or PRIDE training (if they are
adopting a child older than five) and start Dossier paperwork from the donor country. If this gets
approved, then the parents get to visit the child and both parties make up their mind and see if
they approve of each other and the parents can bring the child home to their country. Lastly,
government officials will supervise the child for a while (around six months) and then the
adoptive parents can officially adopt the child who wont be monitored anymore. The adoptive
parents will have all of the rights the birth parents had. The process is long, but it is hard to
acknowledge the actual process without talking about the Hague Convention and how the
differences between domestic and international adoption have shaped the process. My research
and sources helped build my knowledge on the contribution of the lengthy adoption process to
the results which point out the decreasing ratio of international adoptions to domestic ones.

Source Analysis D
Source Number: D
MLA Citation:
Worthington, Rebecca. "Road to Parentless Children is Paved with Good Intentions: How
the Hague Convention and Recent Intercountry Adoption Rules are Affecting
Potential Parents and the Best Interests of Children, The."Duke J. Comp. & Int'l
L. 19 (2008): 559.
Source Validation: This article is written by Rebecca Worthington, who is the
Articles Editor of the Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law.
How did you find this source?: I found it when I was looking at Source A and
clicked on Related Articles on Google Scholar.
Intended audience: This source was written for students studying law at Duke
and for those interested in learning about the Hague Convention.

 What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source discusses how
the Hague Convention has positively and negatively impacted not only potential adoptive
parents and children, but also the whole international adoption process. By attempting to
decrease corruption in the process and child abuse, the rules set up by the convention also
unintentionally discouraged international adoption and gave an advantage to domestic
adoption which now seems a lot easier. Additionally, this source goes over the history and
development of international adoption and actual case studies relating to it.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
Besides the adoption of children who in the past were often not
adopted, the Hague Convention has the potential to end the abuse and exploitation
of trafficked children. But in the short term it is likely that children will feel
detrimental effects of countries trying to comply with the Hague Convention or
trying to shed their reputation as a country that has a black market in babies
The Hague Convention seeks to protect children by creating
procedural safeguards that will ensure that children will be moved through the
adoption process in a lawful manner. It was designed to encourage adoption at
home rather than abroad. . . to end the international baby trade and to restore
order, transparency and decency to the adoption process. Still, the Hague
Convention does not reject intercountry adoption. It does, however, prize
domestic adoption over intercountry adoption, noting that intercountry adoption
may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable
family cannot be found in his or her State of origin.
Although restrictions on intercountry adoptions aim to curb illegal
trafficking of children, some couples want children so badly that they buy
children on the black market where they are readily available. In these black
markets, baby brokers commonly exist, charging fees to birth mothers
*This source took me two hours because it was 30 pages and there were many concepts I had to
look up to fully understand.*
Source Analysis E
Source Number: E
MLA Citation:
Carlson, Richard R. "Emerging Law of Introductory Adoptions: An Analysis of the
Hague Conference on Intercountry Adoption, The." Tulsa LJ 30 (1994): 243.
Source Validation: This article is written by a law professor who writes for the
Tulsa Law Journal.
How did you find this source?: I looked up Hague Convention in Google
Scholar to find an article which would connect it to the technical process.
Intended audience: This article was written for law students and people
interested in learning about the Hague Convention and its effects.

 What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This article really goes into
detail about the Hague Convention and all of the improvisions and rules it created.
Additionally, it puts the conference in a negative viewpoint which I had not considered as
I was looking into the positive aspects of it. Lastly, the article discusses the consequences
of this convention on the US: the decrease of international adoption.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
For those who adopt foreign-born children, however, the process
is needlessly complex, risky, and uncertain for a transaction in which so much is
at stake. Moreover, intercountry adoption by Americans has actually declined
recently, as some sending nations have acted to discourage out-of-country
placement. Unfortunately, periodic crises and scandals in these countries have
fanned the debate whether intercountry adoption serves the best interests of
adoptable children or the national interests of their birth lands.
The Convention's most important features may be the
endorsement of intercountry adoption and establishment of duties to cooperate,
facilitate, and expedite intercountry adoption. These aspects of the Convention are
discussed at greater length below. To resolve procedural problems in intercountry
adoption, the Convention offers a logical allocation of responsibility between
nations of origin and receiving nations.
In some sending nations, customary safeguards may be
nonexistent, and the international movement of children tends to compound
opportunities for corruption and circumvention of the law. Even without these
problems, sending nations deserve, and increasingly want, assurance that their
children are not cast into an unchannelled stream of commerce but are guarded by
law and competent authorities.
*I spent three hours on this source because of the length of it (65 pages) and the technicality of it
(written for a law student).
Source Analysis F
Source Number: F
MLA Citation:
Smolin, David M. "Child laundering as exploitation: applying anti-trafficking norms to
intercountry adoption under the coming Hague regime." Vt. L. Rev.32 (2007): 1.
Source Validation: This article is written by a law professor at the Cumberland
School of Law in Samford University.
How did you find this source?: I searched up International Adoption Hague
Convention in Google Scholar.
Intended audience: This source is directed towards law students at Samford
University.

 What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source goes into
extreme detail about the Hague Convention and how it relates to and has changed the
technical process of international adoption. It points out the negative aspects along with
the few positive aspects of international adoption. Lastly, it gives examples of how the
convention has changed systems in developing countries.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
Adoptive parents are unlike birth relationships in the following
ways. First, birth parents who have custody of their children are not inherently
competitive or comparative with another set of parents. They therefore benefit
from a kind of natural exclusivity as parents, at least under current societal
conditions, so long as both parents live with one another and their joint children.
By comparison, adoptive parents are implicitly viewed as only one of two sets of
parents, and therefore lack any natural exclusivity as parents.
The first approach is illustrated by both the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption,
which name both the sale of children and child trafficking as rights deprivations
without providing any clear definitions or differentiating between them.
In countries like Cambodia and India, such scandals have usually
involved individuals who intentionally profited from obtaining children from birth
families by kidnapping or buying the children.
*I spent three hours on this article because of the length.
Track Hours Reflection #4: Internship & Independent Study 10/31
I have currently been interning for Rainbow of Love Adoption Agency under my mentor
Ms. Debbie Richards. I go there every Friday to the Fondren location from 3 to 5 and now,
starting from tomorrow, I will be going there after school on Tuesdays as well from 3 to 5 in
order to participate in and complete the parenting wisely program. So far, I have been to the
internship for the past two Fridays making it a total of 4 hours and in those 4 hours, I have really
gotten the chance to work with the receptionist, Adrianna, and see how the adoption agency
actually works. I was working with Adrianna on updating the resource book and I personally got
the chance to call nearby adoption agencies and learn exactly what they do and how they operate
in order to verify the information in our resource book. It is a lot more official than I had
expected and I really am glad that it is. I have gotten business cards ordered for me and am
getting an official email soon as well. Additionally, Ms. Richards has looked over all of the work
I have done and in an effort to help me further understand the process of adoption, she has
offered to take me to the Courthouse with her on National Adoption Day, November 19, in order
to see some of that hard work in progress. Also, I have also gotten the chance to speak to some
potential parents and it has developed my understanding of the reasons behind adoption. Even
though Rainbow of Love does not deal with adoption internationally, many of the steps involved
and the entire process is a simplified example of what international adoption looks like. It is
really interesting to see the amount of effort parents go through as while I was interning, there
were also parenting classes going on and Ms. Richards, my mentor, was at the Courthouse both

of the days I interned. Since this internship really helped reinforce my understanding of the two
subtopics I had chosen for my first two timed writings, I wanted to choose something completely
different for my third timed writing which I perhaps could not experience through this internship.
Therefore, I chose particular host countries and the effect of international adoption on host
countries. The internship probably would not develop my understanding of adoption outside of
the US, so the two sources that I read as a part of my independent study helped cover this area as
well. The first source, Intercountry Adoption as a Migratory Practice was 44 pages of
informative material covering everything from international adoption in general to how it has
impacted many different countries individually. It was a great source, but because of how
detailed it was I almost had to piece together the information myself. I spent about 2.5 hours on
this source. The second source I read was called Intercountry adoption in the new millennium
and although it was only 23 pages, it was really complex as instead of just presenting
information like other sources, it was an entirely new concept I had never read about so I spent
about 1.5 hours on that.
Source Analysis G
Source Number: G
MLA Citation:
Lovelock, Kirsten. "Intercountry adoption as a migratory practice: A comparative
analysis of intercountry adoption and immigration policy and practice in the
United States, Canada and New Zealand in the post WW II period." International
Migration Review (2000): 907-949.
Source Validation: Lovelock is a senior research fellow and professor at the
University of Otago.
How did you find this source?: I found this source on Google Scholar.
Intended audience: This source seems to be written for the students from the
University of Otago and for those studying the history of international adoption.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source discusses the
relationship between host countries and receiving countries like the last article, but
instead of providing a bunch of statistics and evidence, it has more explanations and
causes. Additionally, it compares international adoption in the United States, New
Zealand, and Canada in the World War II period where international adoption really came
into the scene. Lastly, the article also discusses the importance of international adoption
for the host countries like Ethiopia and Romania where children suffer without resources
or care.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
However, only a decade later, in the United States the motivations
for adopting children from abroad began to change. The adoption of children from
Europe occurred at a time when domestically there were plenty of children
available for adoption. By the 1950s, the demand for children, specifically healthy
Caucasian infants, began to exceed the numbers of infants available
domestically.
The Refugee Act of 1953 addressed individuals fleeing Eastern
Bloc countries and provided for the first time a nonrestrictive intercountry
adoption immigration policy that could be used by all prospective parents in the
United States.

 With the outbreak of World War II, Canada, as with other British
colonies, responded to the needs of children evacuees from Britain. In total, 4,000
children came to Canada from Britain during the period of the war.
Source Analysis H
Source Number: H
MLA Citation:
Selman, Peter. "Intercountry adoption in the new millennium; the``quiet
migration''revisited." Population research and policy review 21.3 (2002): 205225.
Source Validation: This article is written by a professor in the Department of
Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.
How did you find this source?: I found it on Google Scholar.
Intended audience: This article was written for students at the University of
Newcastle and for those interested in the new perspective on international adoption.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source discusses the
many statistics involves in the different aspects of international adoption. It reveals why
the sending or host countries send so many children into the international adoption space,
like Romania where there is not a set domestic adoption structure and also reveals why
developed countries take in as many children as they do. The article uses many statistics
to back up their stances which makes it a difficult read, but overall it was quite helpful to
understanding the relation between receiving and sending countries.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
Most of the children were not placed in families and many were
subsequently subjected to exploitation and abuse. But the placements were
arranged by reputable childcare agencies and at the time were seen as in the best
interests of the child. Commenting on this, the House of Commons Health
Committee Report concluded that child migration was a bad and, in human
terms, a costly mistake and urged extreme caution when considering
applications for intercountry adoption.
Weil shows that in the early post-war years the main countries of
origin were those defeated in the war Greece, Italy, Germany and Japan but
that from the mid 1950s the main source of children to the United States became
Korea, which accounted for the largest number in total over the period 1948 62.
Between 1963 and 1975, Korea became even more dominant, accounting for
nearly 15,000 out of a total of 34,568. The next six years (19761981) saw 19,283
children moving from Korea to the United States out of a total of 35,229.
Ecuador, Colombia, Philippines and India followed, with the numbers from
Europe falling to very low levels.
The most commonly cited causes of ICA are the crises of war,
famine and disease which make it impossible for poor countries to provide for all
their children. ICA continues to be largely a move of children from poor to rich
countries (Selman 1998). A Malthusian interpretation would see these crises as
demographic in origin! It is, however, evident that the major sources have not

been the poorest or highest birth rate countries, that patterns persist long past the
crisis and that demand for children is as also a key factor.

Track Hours Reflection #5: Internship & Independent Study 11/08

I am still attending my internship every Tuesday and Friday after school from 3pm to
5pm. Since it was my birthday on November 4th, I was excused from my internship that day, but
I did attend on November 1st for a total of 2 hours. On November 1st, I got the chance to
complete the Parenting Wisely Program which was an interesting experience for me because I
got to take the same course that parents take prior to adopting children and that the adoption
agency employees had to take prior to joining. I even got a certificate for it and I found it to put
things in perspective for parents who might be short tempered or who may find it harder to treat
both the adopted child and their normal children, if he/she has any, in the same manner without
upsetting one or the other. There were quizzes that I got to take to get the certificate as I watched
the videos- a total of eight videos lasting 1.5 hours- and although the videos were put together
quite well, I dont think that this program is a good substitute for experience and patience. It
seems like it would only have a limited effect so in the context of adoption, although there are
many other procedures which make the process complex, I personally feel that perhaps that level
of complexity might not be enough. Additionally, on Saturday, November 5, I got the chance to
visit an Adoption Festival in Pearland. The entire festival was from 10 to 2, but I only got the
chance to visit for an hour. There were multiple representatives there from different adoption
agencies along with adoptive parents and adopted children. Cindy, an employee at Rainbow of
Love, and I got the chance to interact with these representatives and parents and I got the chance
to learn a lot about how adoption has impacted the lives of everyone individually. For example,
one parent was speaking about how he never hid the fact that his child was adopted. He wanted
his daughter to know the truth so that discovering the truth in the future would not hurt her and
cause trust issues. Despite this, they were both very happy with each other and his daughter
didnt seem to treat her father any differently. The entire festival was well arranged and when I
spoke to the representatives from Gladney Foundation, they were more than willing to help me if

I needed anything. As of now, I think that my internship has already put a lot on my plate, but if
needed, I have other contacts which I can interview or get advice from as well. Additionally, my
mentor has offered me the opportunity to attend a National Adoption Day celebration at the Fort
Bend Courthouse, where many children are supposed to find a home, on November 18. It will
last about 1.5 to 2 hours and I am hoping to gain a lot from that experience too as this is my
mentors main job as well. Ms. Richards works quite a lot in the Courthouse even as the director
of an adoption agency so it will be great to see this in progress. Along with my internship and
attending the Pearland Adoption Fair, I also read two articles as a part of my independent study
to go back and fix some of my timed writings and strengthen my understanding and evidence.
The article from Source Analysis I took me about three hours to read and pick out things to fix
my second timed writing. The article from Source Analysis J took me two hours to read because
it contained multiple pieces of evidence which I attempted to add to my timed writings to
strengthen them.
Source Analysis I
Source Number: I
MLA Citation:
Carlberg, Lindsay K. "Agreement between the United States and Vietnam Regarding
Cooperation on the Adoption of Children: A More Effective and Efficient Solution
to the Implementation of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption or Just
another Road to Nowhere Paved with Good Intentions, The." Ind. Int'l & Comp.
L. Rev. 17 (2007): 119.
Source Validation: Carlberg was the JD Candidate of the Indiana University of
Law and wrote many articles for the University.
How did you find this source?: I found this article through Google Scholar.
Intended audience: This source is for students in the law program at Indiana
University and for scholars researching the Hague Convention.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source is quite useful to
my second timed writing, which is about the Hague Convention, because it covers not
only what is wrong with the Hague Convention and the whole international adoptions
scene, but also methods through which the negative aspects of it all can be improved. I
focused my paper on the exact same things, so by adding these alternative methods to my
paper as well, I can highly improve the quality and evidence included in my second timed
writing. Additionally, this source also discussed the basic aspects of international
adoption which I can use to further develop my understanding.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
Children are the most precious resource we have for the future.4
Tragically, however, natural disasters, such as war, disease, and changing
governmental regimes, have left children throughout the world with neither
family to turn to nor resources to utilize. With approximately 9.5 million children
now confined to orphanages around the world, intercountry adoption has become
an attractive alternative for many Americans that have always dreamed about
adopting.
The inadequacy of current adoption regulations is both
detrimental to countries that have the resources and desire to adopt children to
countries that have an overabundance of children... In response to these ensuing

concerns regarding the lack of consistent, worldwide regulations, the Hague

Conference completed the Convention on Protection of Children and CoOperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption in May 1993. This Convention
represents the most recent step taken to normalize and systemize the process of
intercountry adoption. The Convention distinguishes itself by setting out the
importance of children as a nation's first priority and focuses on the fact that "a
child's only opportunity for a permanent family life" might be through
intercountry adoption.
A bilateral treaty has the potential to address more appropriately
the specific issues of individual nations and create a more efficient process than
the Hague Convention. It can do so by avoiding the vague definitions and lack of
enforcement and accountability mechanisms that will likely render the Hague
Convention another failed attempt at establishing uniform intercountry 42
adoption.
Source Analysis J
Source Number: J
MLA Citation:
Wallace, Sara R. "International adoption: The most logical solution to the disparity
between the numbers of orphaned and abandoned children in some countries and
families and individuals wishing to adopt in others." Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 20
(2003): 689.
Source Validation: This article is written by the J.D. Candidate at the University
of Arizona (James E. Rogers College of Law) and she has a Master of Science in Family
Studies and Human Development.
How did you find this source?: I found this source on Google Scholar.
Intended audience: This source seems to be written for law students at the
University of Arizona and students studying international adoption or social work.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: This source discusses the
advantages and disadvantages of international adoption and therefore is quite beneficial
to my first and third timed writings. Additionally, this source is actually the most
beneficial to my third timed writing, which I could not find that many sources for,
because it discusses the situations of the host, or sending, countries and the reasons why
international adoption is necessary for them. For example, there are plenty of children,
especially girls, in China to adopt because of the one child policy where some families
gave up girls so that they could raise boys (which would help them in their old age or for
jobs requiring labor). Lastly, this article also goes over the technical and legal aspects of
international adoption which I can use to develop the first paragraph of my second timed
writing.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to
be helpful in future writing:
In China, for instance, the One-Child Policy, coupled with
Chinese cultures preference for male children, leads families to abandon or give
up for adoption thousands of first-born female children. The Korean War left
thousands of children in that country homeless. Confucian beliefs that emphasize
continuance of the family through an unbroken bloodline dissuaded Koreans from
adopting children unrelated to them. Under the Ceausescu regime in Romania,

women were forced to have five children for the State. This mandate resulted in
healthy children being placed in crowded state-run orphanages while physicallyor mentally disabled children were placed in state-run asylums where they
received inhumane care.
In industrialized countries such as the United States and other
Western nations, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to adopt. The number
of families and individuals in these countries who are looking to adopt, due to
infertility or other reasons, are greater than the number of babies given up for
adoption. Greater contraceptive use, the legalization of abortion, and societys
increased acceptance of single-parent-families have resulted in the decreased
numbers of children.
International adoption has been considered in many different
lights; including: the best interests of the child; cross-cultural concerns; trade;
East-West relations; and in medical and developmental terms. More significantly,
many sending countries have begun to reduce the number of international
adoptions in response to various pressures.