1. Beautiful letter in the Wall Street Journal:

Jason L. Riley’s “The Left’s Unhealthy Interest in Amy Coney Barrett’s Adopted Kids” (Upward Mobility, Sept. 30) cites a part of our 2018 book that summarized the evidence on the effects of transracial adoption. Outcomes such as behavior, school performance, mental health, self esteem and adult racial-identity formation don’t statistically differ between black children adopted by white parents and those adopted by black parents. But, as Mr. Riley points out, the adoption of two Haitian children by Amy Coney Barrett has stimulated activists on the left, including Ibram X. Kendi, to speak, or tweet, in opposition to such adoptions.

We are white parents of two adult black sons who think of ourselves as liberals and striving antiracists. But given our research results we think leftist activists should focus, as we do, on such problems as the criminal-justice system, health care and voting rights, where racism is doing major harm, rather than on opposing transracial adoption.

2. Miami Herald: How Hillary Clinton and Haiti’s earthquake changed the life of Trump’s Supreme Court pick

3. Christian adoption agency in NY receives temporary protection from court

4. From BraveLove:

Over the years, I’ve learned to embrace adoption as a beautiful part of my life: I am a birth mom of one college-age daughter. I am a biological mom of three teen boys. I am an adoptive mom of one adventurous ten-year-old son….

5. Nurse gets certified for emergency foster care to care for her long time patient

6. South Dakota family’s journey results in joy, Angels in Adoption honor

7. Megan Birch-McMichael: How Many Children Do I Have? It’s Not So Simple

The primary goal, we were told in our foster care training classes through the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, or D.C.F., was to make every attempt to reunify the family. Children in foster care, they told us, should have a path toward either reunification or adoption. Foster families are meant to be a temporary safe space while the biological family creates their own safe space for the child to return.

Foster parents have to balance being the child’s de facto parents and loving the child with that totality, and giving themselves some emotional distance, knowing that at any moment the child could leave.

8. ‘More love to give:’ Adoptions from foster care increase in Georgia

The Jordan-Hill family is one of thousands who have adopted Georgia children from foster care, a trend that has surged in recent years, leading DFCS officials to request more than $5 million in next year’s budget to help with the increased caseload. That money will pay for the financial assistance families receive monthly from the state after adopting a child, said Chris Hemphling, the division’s deputy director and general counsel.

The number of adoptions through DFCS has nearly doubled in five years, from 799 in 2019 to 1,518 in 2019, according to agency statistics. And while the number of children in foster care has also grown, the rate at which they are being adopted has increased as well.

9. LAPD’s Missed Opportunity on Juvenile Diversion

10. Children of women prisoners in India struggle to get proper food and education despite guidelines

While a central jail like Delhi’s Tihar is described as a “model” prison and has a separate jail for women, India’s women inmates are often housed in just a separate enclosure within the same jail as male prisoners. Prisons have been largely designed “from the perspective of managing issues of male prisoners”, experts told IndiaSpend.

. . .

As a result, their children seldom have access to learning, and often lack social skills, having lived in a closed jail environment. After turning six, children are separated from their mothers and housed in state-run institutions until their mothers are released, or they are capable of earning a livelihood.

11. Empty Closet program aims to get foster children what they need and support foster parents

12. Children’s Bureau Offering Virtual Foster, Foster-Adopt Orientations

13.

“CASA Linda was just so supportive of me and my baby. She was just that extra person to check on me and make sure I was okay.” #ChangeAChildsStory #BeACASA https://t.co/nmlNlz2NQa pic.twitter.com/4fW02X2jP9

— CASA for Children (@CASA4Children) October 9, 2020

14.

Everything we do is for the sole purpose of helping kids feel safe, loved, and connected through family. Want to learn more? Join us for free at Family Changes Everything on Oct. 20. https://t.co/mTJayfjel8 https://t.co/lhGm3pOxIX

— Bethany (@Bethany) October 9, 2020

15. Today: How to Become a Foster Parent