Free Republic

When Adam was born, his future was very grim. The baby boy was born in India with severe physical defects, and his birth parents abandoned him. Some people called him a curse. Even after hospital staffers, husband and wife Raja and Jessica Paulraj, adopted him, doctors predicted that Adam would not live long. But four years later, Adam is alive and strong, proving that his life and the lives of people with disabilities are worth fighting for, according to an update about the family at Live Action News. Adam was born with severe physical deformities, including a cleft lip and...

On Super Bowl Sunday, proud adoptive mom Leigh Anne Tuohy will watch her son play football for the second time in the biggest American sports game of the year. Tuohy’s son Michael Oher is the offensive lineman for the Carolina Panthers and formerly the Baltimore Ravens, who he helped to achieve victory in the 2013 Super Bowl. Oher’s life had a troubled beginning. When Oher was born, his mother was addicted to drugs and his father was in prison. He struggled in school, moved through homes in foster care and spent time homeless until he met Leigh Anne and her...

Democrats in the Arizona Legislature want a law that requires judges to give preferences to married heterosexual couples in adoption stricken from the books. The legislation introduced in both the Senate and House removes current language giving preferences to a husband and wife over others in adoptions. Backers say the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year legalizing same-sex marriage bans laws giving preferences to heterosexual couple over gay couples. Sen. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, also said single parents shouldn't be given second-tier status on adoptions so the proposal completely eliminates preferences for married couples. He said single parents are just as...

Last weekend my now deceased brother's daughter contacted the family. She was given up at birth, but her older brother never was. I am NOT happy about revisiting the circumstances or the results and demise of my brother, her father, with her. Giving a child up for adoption is almost like committing suicide. It is the last out...for the future. I have no way of candy coating her biological father. He was beyond evil in many ways. So far so, that he is the only reason I installed an alarm system on my house at the time. And he was...

Norwegian child services have begun the adoption process for five children who were seized from a Romanian Pentecostal family in November after concerns were expressed about the parents' Christian faith, the family says. As previously reported by The Christian Post, the five children of Ruth and Marius Bodnariu were seized by the Barnevernet (Norway's child services agency) on Nov. 16 after the principal of the middle school their two oldest daughters attend cited concerns about the children's religious upbringing and how the parents were teaching their kids that God punishes sin. Although the principal only asked the Barnevernet to offer...

If Everyone Read This, The Shelters Would Be Empty For anyone who has ever dropped off a pet at a local shelter, it's mostly a passing hell. There's some paperwork. Probably some tears. Occasionally, people from a local animal welfare group will camp out front, hoping to change your mind. No shelter, of course, can refuse an animal. But they can euthanize them — and often do, in a matter of days. Those days can be some of the most stressful, confusing and sad days of a dog's life. Do people who drop their pets off at high-intake shelters really...

In the 1994 Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, people are seen giving Mother Teresa of Calcutta a loud standing ovation. Of course, the cameras show Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as the Gores, sitting and almost frowning at the end of this 'rousing speech about the family'. Later, the Clintons tried to adopt a baby/child from Mother Teresa's Foundation. However, they could not as Mother Teresa had a strict policy not to give a child in adoption to a couple who had done things that prevented them from having children (contraception/abortion). Because of the timing of the Death of...

This is the heart-warming moment three young children found out they could stay with their family 'forever and ever' as they unwrapped their adoption papers on Christmas morning. The video shows American couple Michael and Sarah Perks giving their foster children the good news as they sit down to open the gifts piled underneath the tree. The eldest child, a boy, breaks down in tears when he opens a box and sees the adoption papers for him and his two biological siblings.

Thanksgiving is an outward act of inner gratitude. This holiday is more than pumpkins, turkeys, and commercially hyped Black Fridays. Thanking God for our blessings, giving selflessly and generously, and loving one another is at the heart of this day, which should be a daily occurrence. Being thankful is not always a natural response. People rescued from brokenness tend to have a better perspective on gratitude. I'm daily reminded of being saved from abortion. I was conceived in rape, yet given the incredible opportunity, through adoption, to love and be loved. Today, as an adoptive father, I have the awesome...

My little brother’s baby was taken away from him last night, 11-18-2015, here in Cache County Utah. I’m writing this for all of my friends, family and community, in hopes that this issue gets out to the public and into the open. It is heart breaking and has apparently already affected a number of families here in Utah, because of a more recently passed Utah law. A brief summary of the law is that a biological father, even listed as the father on the child’s birth certificate, does not have to sign and consent for his child to be adopted...

A few items I found when my Michigan legislative update arrived this morning. The liberal attack on religion is not going to ease up and democrats will force religious based adoption agencies to provide victims to homosexuals. House Bill 4840: Mandate faith-based adoption agencies participate in placements with homosexuals Introduced by Rep. Robert Wittenberg (D) on August 20, 2015, to essentially repeal the 2015 law that prohibits requiring adoption agencies to participate in child placements that violate their moral convictions (which essentially means faith-based agencies and placements with homosexuals). http://www.michiganvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=170106 House Bill 4841: Mandate faith-based adoption agencies participate in placements...

A judge on Friday allowed two Glastonbury men, accused two years ago of sexually assaulting two of their nine adopted boys, to withdraw their no-contest pleas and take their cases to trial. The unusual action came during what was to be a sentencing hearing for George Harasz and Douglas Wirth, who entered pleas in January to one felony count each of risk of injury to a minor. They agreed to suspended prison sentences. The only issue for Friday’s hearing was to be whether each would be required to register as sex offenders...

Is the idea implausible that this same Obama administration that orders IRS attacks, then orders destruction of key evidence, would stop at nothing to save Obama’s signature achievement? Is it impossible to believe that Obama and his socialist cabal that learned from Saul Alinsky that “the ends justify the means” would hold something over a Supreme Court justice’s head? It’s time to ask the question loudly and boldly because something is clearly wrong in Washington, D.C. Is that the purpose of government agencies like the IRS and the NSA that are abusing our rights – to listen to us, to...

Verda Byrd spent the past seven decades of her life as a black woman, but at age 70, she discovered a shocking family secret her parents took to their grave that she's recently made peace with -- she was born white. Byrd, now 72, was adopted as a baby in 1943 by her black parents, who never told her that her biological parents were actually white, she said, explaining that she only uncovered the truth in 2013 about her birth after she went on a search for her biological parents' history.

Michigan has moved to protect the religious freedom of adoption agencies. Both houses of the Michigan legislature passed the bill in recent days and Gov. Rick Snyder signed it into law Thursday. Gary Glenn, a state representative and head of the American Family Association of Michigan, says the law protects faith-based adoption agencies so they can continue to provide adoption referral services to the state and to local governments without violating their religious convictions.

Bucking the trend of states that have caved on religious liberty due to fear of reprisals from gay activists, Michigan passed a law Thursday offering protections to religious adoption agencies from being forced to place children in the homes of same-sex couples. The law had broad support in the Republican controlled legislature and was signed on Thursday by Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican. Snyder has voiced opposition to a broader religious liberty bill statewide that mirrors the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by former President Bill Clinton. RFRA protections, once non-controversial and bipartisan now face the ire of gay...

LANSING, MI — Private faith-based adoption agencies that receive state funding but choose to deny service to gay parents on religious grounds have won the blessing of Michigan's Republican-led Legislature. The state Senate, in an unexpected and unannounced move, took up religious objection adoption legislation on Wednesday, approving the three-bill package in a series of 26-12 votes.

“I thought I was a broken person.” That’s what I explained to my husband just after I told him my story.My mom married my stepfather while she was still pregnant with me, so it wasn’t until years later that I found out he was not my biological father.  I never knew my biological father — it was a family secret, and to this day, I still don’t know him.  This family secret was not the only one, but secrets can become normal for someone unless they are revealed.Growing up was “normal” for me, I thought.  I have three younger brothers  —...

Adopted 'Father' and 'Son' to Marry Pennsylvania couple Bill Novak and Norman MacArthur are legally adopted father and son, but soon they will marry. The couple of more than 50 years registered as domestic partners in 1994, but were told after moving from New York City to Pennsylvania that “hell would freeze over before Pennsylvania approves same sex marriage.” Since they needed to do estate planning, a lawyer advised them that the only way to become legally related was through adoption. This year, however, a federal district court declared the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, so the couple petitioned to...

In 1928, 16-year-old Minka Disbrow was on a picnic in the woods when she was assaulted and raped. Suddenly, this innocent farm girl was pregnant and terrified. The baby was secretly born, named Betty Jane, and placed for adoption. For decades, Minka wrote letters trying to receive updates on her daughter. She kept loving and praying for Betty Jane, even though she never thought they’d meet again. Nearly 80 years later, Minka whispered a prayer: “Lord, I’d like to see Betty Jane before I die. I promise I won’t bother her or interrupt her life. I just want to lay...