FacePalm Friday

Welcome to this week’s edition of FacePalm Friday.

This is where your hosts will list their top picks for this week’s FacePalm moment—something they learned or read about this week that caused the FacePalm to happen (you know, the expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, shock, disgust or mixed humor as depicted in our Rally FacePalm smiley).

We invite you to add your FacePalm of the week to our comments. Go ahead and add a link, tell a personal story, or share something that triggered the FacePalm on the subject of child welfare or adoption.

Your Host Selections:

(1)Foster Parent Recruitment ad offers ridiculously high amount of money

The Hale Kipa, Inc. Therapeutic Foster Care Program is offering “Compensation: $1800 per month per youth placed” in a low-income area of Puna. This exceeds public assistance compensation. This amount does not include basic food costs covered by WIC.

When payment for out-of-home placement exceeds what it would take for families to be preserved and training and 24/7 support are offered to the out-of-home placement family instead of the original family, the program needs to be looked at again. Additionally, this increases the chances for people to become foster parents to as many as possible for the money only.

(2)Last week, we reported about Ukrainian waiting families . The facepalm included in that article was “We must overcome the fear of adopting older children”

Reformatina says ” Right, because adopting a 6-month-old takes just as much preparation and resources as adopting an 8-year-old”

(3) Beyond Consequences was offering a  National Adoption Month SALE to its email list. And things have been discounted even more for their 5 day sale. And they tell you “Congratulations…you’ve made it all this way! Happy Family! ” Except if you need their services, you really aren’t having a happy time, now are you? But hey, this is an opportunity to hock your goods, so go for it!

(4) Using false information about Steve jobs in bizarre attempt to “reduce stigmas” From this article, no, Steve Jobs did not have an open adoption as the author states.  He had a reunion with some family members as an adult. Not in the ballpark of open adoption.

“”They all deserve to land in an adoptive family as Jobs did, where his parents instilled in him the notion that he was wanted, and that they specifically chose him for their forever family” Actually, Steve was quite conflicted and his biological parents were both college-educated, so his genes had QUITE a bit to do with his success. His adoptive parents were NOT college-educated and they additionally originally LIED that they were college-educated in order to get matched. Only until they PROMISED to send him to college, did his biological mother allow the adoption to go through.

From there, the author tries to justify good outcomes in LGBT adoption.

(5) Answering a calling: Starkville family working to adopt child from Ethiopia. From the title of “Answering a calling” to the fundraising to inferring a rubberstamped homestudy “”I thought it’d be pretty nerve-wracking,” Meaghan said, “but they tell you up front that they want you to have a child. So they try to make the process pretty smooth. But of course, I wanted to make my house as clean as possible. Make sure all smoke detectors are working, things like that.” to a ridiculously long waitlist for a ethics-challenged country “”It’s kind of a countdown right now,” Wesley said. “As they place children with families, it might be 90 next month; it might be 50. It just depends.” to $40K for the adoption that they cannot afford to possible selling Boston Butts (a cut of meat, for our nonUS readers).

(6)The Christian Alliance for Orphans endorsed Orphan Sunday as seen in this article. While they mention Silsby and Katie from Uganda, the conclusion for this “burgeoning” movement is still “But against the odds and no matter the difficulties potential adoptive parents and individuals like Jodi Jackson Tucker, International Director for Orphan Care Sunday, are spurred on to adopt and encourage others to do so as well.

Tucker said, “Once you’ve realized your position as an orphan adopted by God you can’t look at the orphan situation in the world the same again.”

It is not about “odds” and “difficulties” but TRAFFICKING and CORRUPTION.

(7) This Iowa article shows that adoptive parents still are in shock that racism exists. Yes, it does and you and your child will need to continue to deal with it.

NCFA’s ” Chuck Johnson, the president of the National Council for Adoption, said the United States has a culture of adoption.”

Culture of adoption?

And it still is “all about me, the AP” “This summer, when I was taking Maya to camp, she asked me, ‘Mom, did you adopt me so I could have a better life?’ ” Warren said. “I said, ‘No, I adopted you so I could have a better life.‘ “

(8) NPR article here: This sob story about Ethiopia adoption doesn’t reveal until the end that the AP subject is the head of the Board of JCICS.