There I was in my Dad’s jeep, with my best friend, just after the August combines came and hauled my precious bricks of hay, that had once been the very stones of construction for my fort, my hide-out, my secret place. At six, you have to have those secrets.
So, as it were, I moved to find other secrets. Then, there they were, staring at us, glistening from the sun sizzling through the windshield; Dad’s cigarette butts in the ashtray. As we looked at each other, we didn’t say a word, but knew what each other was thinking. As I reached to push the cigarette lighter in, my friend said “What if they see us?” “They can’t see us, they’re in the house,” I said, most assuredly. Pulling one of the shriveled up butts from the tray, and straightening it out to a perfect two-inch stub, I raised it to my mouth and pulled the lighter out of its socket, lighting up my as it were to become. No one ever found out about that cigarette, and my friend never did tell.
Nine years, my parents divorce and eleven schools later, I found mysellf at Oregon City High school. Moving around so much had definitely left it’s social-emotional dent in my mind, but when you’re a high schooler you have to persevere if you want to be cool. Singing in every choir at the school, wearing out several sets of cheerleader pom-poms, playing basketball and performing in every play, was still not the answer. I still didn’t feel cool.
Then I met Romy. She and I became inseparable. She had her own car that we occasionally skipped school in, and she dressed in the coolest designer clothes. She had her own phone, a private entrance to her room and even her ownjob! But when I saw her pull out her cigarettes one day, I knew right then that she had to be the coolest girl on campus! I even got my ear pierced right in the cartilage, just like hers. It was my junior year, and I knew, that year was going to be different!
International Adoption
International Adoption
When a mission team from south Florida arrived in Camp Haitia, they saw what to them was the most poverty stricken land on earth. Some of the men were literally ill at the sight of the filth in the rivers, on the land, and covering the children. Because Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, families do not even have enough to provide for their children, and many of them are left to fend for themselves. The mission team witnessed them bathing in polluted waters and scrounging for non-existent food. I asked one member of this mission team if adoption was a possibility for any of these kids. His response was enthusiastic and emotional. I witnessed first hand for months his diligent efforts to rescue at least one Haitian child from a hopeless life. However, in his efforts, my father was faced with an issue aside from the finances and legalities of the adoption procedure. Many questioned if it was ethical for our family to adopt a child from a different culture. Our answer was simple. Yes, international adoption is logical and ethical.
Two main reasons why so many Americans are seeking foreign adoptions are humanitarianism and frustration with the laws and policies in domestic adoption (Kleiman). Critics of international adoption argue that Americans should not look elsewhere for children when there are so many needy ones right here in our country. However, there are more families seeking children than there are children who need homes. Over the past thirty years there has been a decline of domestic adoptions by 47 percent (Fulton 2). Some reasons that there are fewer children being placed for adoption are the early introduction of sex education in public schools and the easy ac…
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Works Cited
Brodzinsky, Dr. David M., and Marshall d. Schechter. The Psychology of Adoption. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Feigelman, William, and Arnold R. Silverman. Chosen Children. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1983.
Fulton, Kaye E., and Sharon Doyle Driedger, and Rae Corelli. “Bringing home Baby.” Maclean’s 21 August 1995 34-39.
“Give me your squalling masses: Coming to America.” The Economist 3 Feb. 1996: 22-23.
Hibbs, Dr. Euthymia D. Adoption International Perspectives. Madison Intemational Univ. Press, 1991.
Jeffreys, Darya P. “Intercountry adoption: a need for mandatory medical screening.” Journal of Law and Health Spring-Summer 1996: 243-270.
Kleiman, Erika Lynn. “Caring for our own why: American adoption law must change.” Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems Winter 1997: 30.