Kerry and Niels' blog

Now that autumn has started, the Congressional Angels in  Adoption have been awarded and National Adoption Awareness months is not far from the horizon, it is time for us to start the nominations for Pound Pup Legacy's Annual Demons of Adoption Awards.

Over the years, our readers have rightfully pointed out the wrongdoings and condemned the practices of such agencies like: Bethany Christian Services, LDS Family Services, Adoption by Gentle Care, adoption attorneys like Raymond W Godwin, such trade associations of adoption service providers like the National Council for Adoption and the Joint Council on International Children's Services,

With such an impressive line-up of villains, comes a daunting task to come up with an equally deserving candidate for 2015.

We invite our readers to nominate and decide who eventually has the dubious honor of actually receiving PPL's 2015 Demons of Adoption Award.

Back in 2009, this website leaked an internal proposal of the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS), detailing their dismal financial status and the credibility problems the organization was facing.

JCICS wasn't pleased we leaked their proposal and contacted us with a request for removal, which we understandably didn't honor. Instead we wrote a more thorough analysis of said document.

The financial situation JCICS faced back in 2009 was apparently not as dire as it seemed at the time, since the organization stayed afloat for at least another six years.

The credibility issue JCICS faced, they never overcame. Even though the organization was well aware how they were perceived and how true that perception was, they couldn't change who they were.

In 2007, Laurie C. Miller, Wilma Chan, Robert A. Reece, Linda Grey Tirella and Adam Pertman published Child Abuse Fatalities Among Internationally Adopted Children., This study was prompted by the realization that a number of children adopted from abroad had been killed by members of their vetted "forever family".

The study, although very thin on substance, and inaccurate in its counting of lethal abuse cases, was quick to point out “Postadoption depression” and severe disturbance of the adopted children as a contributing factors when it comes to abuse cases in the adoptive home.

There is no analysis of the cases upon which this conclusion is based. It's simply an assumption on the part of the authors that in these cases, the disturbance of the children was too overwhelming for the adoptive parents, and that too little support for the adoptive families was available.

Earlier this month, the US Department of State, published its annual report on inter-country adoption, and for the 10th year in succession, the number of children adopted from abroad dropped.

Much has been written in the last decade, about this decrease in inter-country adoption, and while it is a real phenomenon that can be observed in all receiving countries, there is more to the story than just a decline within the last decade.

When American mainstream media reports news about the decline in inter-country adoption, they usually use 2004 as a starting point, when the US alone received 22,972 children from abroad.

Any recent figure will pale in comparison to this figure. For instance, the 6,441 children adopted from abroad in 2014 is less than one third of the number reached in 2004.

January 3, 2014 marked the departure of Mary Landrieu from the national political scene and with that, her 18 year tenure as leader of the adoption lobby within congress.

During her years in the Senate, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption (CCA) grew out from a caucus that promoted adoption from foster care, to a full fledged lobbying arm of the adoption industry.

Most notable in that regard, was the foundation of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), in 2001. This tax exempt, charitable organization, went far beyond the original intent of the adoption caucus, and became a front office for the adoption industry and religious organizations,.

CCAI's first executive director Kerry Marks-Hasenbalg, may have run the organization initially from  her kitchen table, the organization itself was registered at 6723 Whittier Ave, McLean, VA 22101. The very address of adoption agency America World Adoption Association.

The most high-profile case in Adoptionland lately, has certainly been that of Justin and Marsha Harris.

The State Representative, and owner of Growing God's Kingdom, a Christian preschool in Westfork, Arkansas, has been in the news ever since the Arkansas Times started an investigation into the sexual abuse of one of the girls adopted by Rep. Harris.

That abuse came to light in April 2014, when Eric Cameron Francis, a head teacher, and former employee of Harris, was arrested for the sexual abuse of a girl in his care.

Harris, at the time was questioned about the case and responded: he was "devastated and sickened" by the news, and was quick to point out that nothing had happened to the children at Growing God's Kingdom, thanks to a continuously operating camera that generated a permanent record.

For eighth year in a rows, Pound Pup Legacy has asked its readers to choose the worst person or organization in Adoptionland as the

recipient of the Demons of Adoption Award. Today we announce this year's recipient.

We started the Demons of Adoption Awards, back in 2007, as a parody of the Congressional Angel in Adoption Award , annually awarded by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI). Although humorous in form, it was serious in intent.

At the time, little attention was given to serious issues like abuse in adoptive families, child trafficking, coerced relinquishment and re-homing., while at the same time, Members of Congress were busy praising adoption attorney's and executive directors of adoption agencies, by honoring them a Congressional award.

Now that autumn has started, the Congressional Angels in  Adoption have been awarded and National Adoption Awareness months is not far from the horizon, it is time for us to start the nominations for Pound Pup Legacy's Annual Demons of Adoption Awards.

Over the years, our readers have rightfully pointed out the wrongdoings and condemned the practices of such agencies like: Bethany Christian Services, LDS Family Services, adoption attorneys like Raymond W Godwin, such trade associations of adoption service providers like the National Council for Adoption and the Joint Council on International Children's Services, and even showed our utmost contempt for the United States Congress. All worthy recipients of the Demons of Adoption Awards.

With such an impressive line-up of villains, comes a daunting task to come up with an equally deserving candidate for 2014.

We invite our readers to nominate and decide who eventually has the dubious honor of actually receiving PPL's 2014 Demons of Adoption Award.

Earlier this year, the US Department of State published its annual statistics on inter-country adoption. Again a significant decline in the number of children adopted from abroad could be noted. The year 2012 had already been a low-water mark with 8668 inter-country adoptions. In 2013, the number went down even further, to 7094.

The decline in inter-country adoption is not equally distributed, as can be seen in the following table. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria have seen sharp increases in the number of adoptions, while traditional adoption countries such as South Korea and The Russian Federation have seen adoption drop to unprecedented low levels. The number of adoptions from South Korea haven't been this low since 1955.

Much has been written about the decline of inter-country adoption over the last couple of years. Trade association like the National Council for Adoption and the Joint Council on International Children's Services decry the decline, while children's rights organizations generally welcome the trend.

Many articles about the decline of inter-country adoption, show graphs like the one below (often cutting off the years before 2004 for dramatic effect), to demonstrate the decline in inter-country adoption

It has been less than three years ago that Pound Pup Legacy's Demons of Adoption Award was given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for their dubious adoption practices.

Over the years the church and its daughter organization LDS Family Services had been involved in various dubious adoptions, showing a lack of respect for the rights or unmarried  parents. On top of that, LDS Family Services has been the least transparent adoption agency in the world. Unlike other adoption agencies, it is registered as a church and therefore it is not required to submit any financial information to the Internal Revenue Service.

LDS Family Services resembled the type of hush-hush operation one would have expected during the 1950s and 1960s, an anachronistic organization out of touch with the societal make-up of the 21 century.

Last week, LDS Family Services announced it will step out of the adoption business after seeing the numbers of adoption placement see plummet over the last decade.