Karen's Adoption Links Blog

Is your adopted child a citizen? Can you prove it? Can your adult child prove it when you are gone? (Adoptees - read this and replace “your child” with “you”). In order to have citizenship on record with each of these agencies, you must have 3 things: a Certificate of Citizenship or Certificate of Naturalization (for USCIS), a US Passport (for DoS), and a proof of citizenship status update at Social Security Administration or using a proof of citizenship document (the CoC/CoN or Passport) simply having a SS number is not enough. Non-US citizens also have SSN in order to work and pay taxes. This could be vitally important to your child in the future, especially if they are ever arrested (and it does happen) even for something very minor. There are many examples for instance see: http://fpif.org/deporting_adult_adoptees/ Deportations of Adoptees began due to amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) which were contained in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immi...

Read this powerful post by  Gretchen Schmelzer   ~~   The biggest work you can do is expand your heart and your mind to see yourself and see your family as part of a much bigger community  that can have a massive— hugely massive —impact on the lives of other people So what is our work? Yes, you need to wash your hands and stay home. But the biggest work you can do is expand your heart and your mind to see yourself and see your family as part of a much bigger community that can have a massive— hugely massive —impact on the lives of other people. I remember the feeling of helplessness after 9/11 and after Hurricane Sandy. I remember how much people wanted to help. I remember how much generosity of spirit there was about wanting to give, wanting to be helpful, wanting to save lives. And many of you have had experiences since then—whether it was a mass shooting, or the wildfires, or floods. There have been times you have looked on and wondered how you could hel...