Marshall Islands Licenses Only One Adoption Agency
By approval of the Cabinet, the Central Adoption Authority of the Marshall Islands has announced that effective March 1, 2004, one U.S. adoption agency is licensed to facilitate international adoptions between the Marshall Islands and the United States.
This agency is Journeys of the Heart out of Hillsborough, Oregon. According to the RMI adoption advisor, the Journeys of the Heart agency and Susan Tompkins, executive director, have demonstrated a history of highest ethics, respect for the Marshallese culture, and utmost competence in dealing with complex international adoptions. It was the only agency among the applicants to be accredited under the Hague Convention.
U.S. families interested in adopting a Marshallese child are required to work through this agency only, under Adoption Act of 2002, P.L. 2002-64.
The news of the RMI decision of March 5, 2004, was released by Jini Roby of Brigham Young University. Roby, who is a lawyer and assistant professor of Social Work at BYU in Utah, has worked with the Marshall Islands government, helping to draft the adoption law which makes solicitation of birth moms and off-shore adoptions illegal.
Recent Marshall Islands Adoption News Articles:
Babies Betrayed: Illegal practices involving foreign moms complicate adoptions here and nationwide
The Marshallese baby who had been matched with the Frosts is now supposed to be placed with another former Southern Adoption client, according to Lach. That infant was born last week. The Frost case likely will create more buzz about an adoption practice that already is drawing the attention of authorities in several states, plus federal agencies such as the FBI, the State Department and Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.
Adoption practice draws concern
Marshallese women have their babies here, then put them up for adoption by Americans. A healthy Marshallese baby can cost the adopting family as much as $40,000. Although the number of adoptions each year is believed to be small, the practice has been widely condemned because it circumvents Marshallese law, and the birth mothers generally do not understand that they are giving up their children for good, according to federal authorities and other officials at a video conference called yesterday by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie to discuss the problem. A bill that would prohibit Hawaii courts from approving any Marshallese adoptions that have not received the go-ahead of that country's court system was passed yesterday by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It goes to the full Senate for a vote.
A costly fight to have a family of their own
After eight years of frustrating and unsuccessful fertility treatments, Joyce Frost and her husband, Richard, thought they had finally found a guaranteed way to bring a child into their family - the adoption of a newborn from the Marshall Islands. The Marietta, N.Y., couple paid a fee of $21,500 to Southern Adoption, a nonprofit agency based in Philadelphia, Miss., that promised them an infant in a short time with minimum problems, they said. The birth mother named Mera, they were told, was due March 16 and had already been flown to Hawaii to deliver her baby. Then things fell apart.
Marshallese, Hawaii join to control adoptions
Representatives from both sides met during a forum at the State Capitol this week to discuss ways to stop the illegal practice of flying Marshallese mothers to Hawaii to give birth and relinquish their babies for adoption. "This is about cleaning up the process, not shutting down adoptions," said Jini Roby, an attorney and social work professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, who spoke at the community forum Tuesday.
YOKWE ONLINE DOWNLOADS:
The Adoption Law Passed and Enacted - Nitijela Bill No. 92 N.D.
