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AdoptUSKids.org website has added some new tools for prospective families searching for adoption matches online. The site’s general questionnaire for prospective parents now asks: “Would you be willing to consider providing a home for an LGBTQ-identified youth?

“Don’t take me to the hospital. Don’t take me to the hospital!” That’s all Joel Urzua could think about when the police officer asked if he needed medical assistance. Uruza had just been rear-ended hard by a drunk driver on a Los Angeles freeway.

When I think about the “success stories” of the foster care system — and yes, I use air quotations over those two words — my mind doesn’t shift to the famous orphans-turned-millionaires and celebrities like Marilyn Monroe (who barely conquered the demons of her childhood) or Eddie Murphy.

C.S. Lewis wrote the following in his book, Mere Christianity: It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.

International adoptions numbers all over the world have drastically fallen in the past decade, and continue to fall. We often blame wealthy countries for over-regulating adoptions, poor countries for xenophobia, and the international community for creating treaties that dismantle the entire structure for adoptions while removing incentives to create new and effective ones.

Last month, Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz pulled the plug on his company’s in-store initiative that encouraged baristas to write “Race Together” on cups and talk about race relations with their customers.

Children enter foster care because they are in danger. A child’s safety should be the first priority in any child welfare system, shouldn’t it? As a lawyer, I’ve been examining the role the judicial system plays in making sure children remain safe once they have been removed from danger.

If someone would have told me 14 years ago that I would meet my soul mate on a silly little telephone dating service and we’d go on to have nine children I probably would have laughed out loud right before fainting from shock.

Disability Rights International (DRI) is a non-governmental organization that promotes human rights for people with disabilities. Children in institutional care, such as orphanages, quickly become disabled, so it is no surprise that DRI has announced that its newest project is the Worldwide Campaign to End the Institutionalization of Children.