When you are referred a child, you will want to have the child's condition evaluated. Nightlight provides an extensive list of health care providers who can evaluate your child and those who provide services once your child is home. If your child has clubfoot, you may want a specialist in this area to evaluate a child's file so that you can be very well-prepared for the types of treatment the child may need.

The treatment of a child with clubfoot is usually very standard, but it takes diligence. Also care does not have to be expensive. Through the Shriners Hospital your child can receive excellent care at no cost to you.

This is part one in a 4-part series on clubfoot. Many of the more than 2,000 children who are on the China special needs list have clubfoot. In general, it is condition that can be readily treated and treatment may begin while the child is still in China.

Overall, children from China do very well. In one study in looking at children adopted into Canada from China,in which the children on average were 13 months old when they arrived home, they were doing as well as other children in Canada at three years old.(Incidentally, these children arrived home about 10/11 years ago, when […]

Your child's nutritional status while in an orphanage can affect your child's overall growth and development. Learn how the lack of certain nutrients can affect your child and what you can do.

On November 30, 2010, President Obama signed the International Adoption Simplification Act.  This Act provides the same waiver for  required vaccination documentation for Hague Convention adoptions as is available for non-Hague adoptions.  Effective immediately, I-800 families can follow the same procedure as used by I-600 families to apply for a vaccination waiver by completing a […]

Next week, our China facilitator Sabrina Chang and Russia coordinator Kate Zyubenko will be in South Carolina at two adoption seminars, one in Lake Wylie (Nov. 18) and the other in Moore (Nov. 20). These are very special events featuring the China Special Needs Program, the Russia program, and the Ukraine/Hosting Program. In addition to […]

Reported by AP on February 25, 2009. (I can't find the actual recommendation online -- if you do, please let me know, and I'll post it.) ATLANTA (AP) - A federal advisory panel is recommending hepatitis A vaccinations for everyone who has close contact with children adopted from countries where hepatitis A is common. That […]

Joint Council and others in our field have great concern regarding the one-time renewal of I-600A approvals and the impact on Potential Adoptive Parents (PAPs). It is very clear that the authors of the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 intended to ‘grandfather’ all I-600A petitions filed prior to the date on which the Hague Convention went into force in the United States (April 1, 2007). At the time the legislation was drafted, the authors did not foresee the lengthy processing time now associated with adoptions from countries such as China and Haiti.

Two days ago I posted about an adoption interview/debate on Al Jazeera's English network. This post is about the second half of that interview with Tom DiFilipo, President and CEO of the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS), and Louise Melville, a Care and Protection Adviser for Save The Children. You can watch the […]