International adoption is an extremely personal issue for perspective adoptive parents and children, and attacks like this create misconceptions and inflame prejudices that make it more difficult for families on all ends of the international adoption spectrum. The fact is, we have reached a crisis point in international adoptions, with numbers of successful adoptions falling from a peak of 22,884 in 2004 to just 9,320 last year. The people hurt most by these trends are the children themselves.

To attack any family offering a loving home to a child in need is wrong, and we must all come together to help strengthen the international adoption system. We call on Rep. Ron Paul to disavow this advertisement and urge he and the other presidential candidates to work towards positive outcomes for children and families.

Foster Friess, a visionary leader and loyal supporter of the campaign, made a $500,000 matching grant to Both Ends Burning to help more kids have a family. We are asking you to donate any amount you can to help us with the remaining costs to complete the film and to execute the successful placement and promotion of the film. Find out more…

By Craig Juntunen, special to the Communities

Scottsdale, AZ, August 30, 2011 –Although organizers changed the date of the Step Forward for Orphans March due to the storm, the spirit and passionate energy behind the march remains the same. The march, which will now take place in November of this year in Washington, D.C., is an initiative to bring awareness to the global crisis in international adoption.A safe, permanent, and loving family is every child’s most basic human right.  Today, a faulty adoption system and insufficient cooperation between governments is denying children of this right.Adoption serves as champion for human potential. However, today intercountry adoption is in freefall decline and runs a very real risk of extinction without immediate intervention. The number of children in need of a family continues to escalate, and the number of families that want to adopt grows each year. Both ends of the adoption spectrum are burning, and these unfulfilled unions represent a silent social tragedy.International adoption generates a wide range of distinctive and polarizing viewpoints. However, at the core of the conversation there is no controversy. We agree a child is better off in a family than in an institutional setting, or homeless.Various studies show support for international adoptions are significantly on the rise. In 1997, fifty-six percent of individuals polled responded very favorably to the idea of international adoption. In 2009, that number  dramatically climbed to 76-percent. Despite this significant increase in social acceptance, the actual numbers of global adoptions has fallen by more than 50-percent in the last five years.

During this time we have spent too much time and energy finger pointing and placing blame, and while we were doing so, children were suffering. The purpose of our march is to ask global leaders to redirect these energies and start working together to find and implement solutions.Enough is enough. The current system of international adoption is damaging children and discouraging families. Improvements within the system are well within reach, if we simply can find the motivation to reach for them.The first “step forward for orphans” is for all of us to take responsibility and deal with the issues that are preventing children from having a loving and permanent family.What is at stake are children’s lives.

Craig Juntunen is founder of the Both Ends Burning Campaign, an organization dedicated to reforming international adoption so orphans worldwide can find permanent homes.  His book Both Ends Burning: My Story of Adopting Three Children from Haiti details his journey to parenthood.

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 15, 2011 –- American parents of children stranded in orphanages around the world will take to the National Mall to march to the U.S Capitol on August 26.  Dubbed the Step Forward for Orphans, the march is designed to bring attention to the dire situation that’s affecting orphans around the world.

These families, many of whom have been waiting three years to bring their children home, have been caught in disheartening and mind-boggling limbo.  These Americans are known as “pipeline” families.  They were approved to adopt from foreign countries like Guatemala, Nepal and Vietnam and even paired with specific children, but they have been prevented from bringing their children home due to bureaucratic wrangling here and abroad.  In many cases, these families have been blocked from all contact with their children, prevented from visiting, calling or writing, leaving these children alone with only photos of their families and the promises they made.

The fate of the children of these American parents remains unknown as new adoption procedures are drafted, treaties brokered and high-level discussions continue.   This hasn’t been going on weeks, or even months.  A lack of urgency on the government’s part has stretched this separation of families into years.

Most of theses children are living in squalid conditions with no medical attention, poor nutrition, no education, without toys or books, and without any interaction with loving adults.  As years have dragged on, many of these children have become acutely ill and some have been hospitalized.

“The current system is damaging children.  A family is every child’s most basic human right. Our current system of adoption stands between kids joining families. At this march, we are coming together to make a statement that we must do a better job for millions of orphans around the world,” said Kelly Ensslin, a lawyer for several of the families.

Read more…

Addressing Issues in International Adoption

October 29 – 30, 2011
Radisson Hotel and Suites Austin-Town Lake, Austin, TX
Sign-in begins at 7:00AM

About BBC This year’s Beyond Borders Conference, as always, is committed to educating families and adoption professionals about the many facets of this journey and advocating for improved international adoption processes and humanitarian aid for children in need. We aim to inspire, educate and generate awareness for international adoption advocates so that we can all continue impacting positive change in the adoption

Representatives from around the world will be present to talk about adoptions in their respective nations and to raise awareness of the present situations and circumstances of their countries’ orphans. Previously known as the “East Meets West” conference, this annual conference was renamed “Beyond Borders” to better reflect the adoption and humanitarian aid needs of the more than 140 million orphans worldwide.

The Beyond Borders conference brings together a diverse delegation of United States and foreign government officials and adoption authorities, worldwide orphanage directors, humanitarian aid organizations and adoptive families. Foreign dignitaries from China, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico and Colombia have been invited to attend. Several of the invitees will be presenting information on the current and future state of international adoption and sharing stories of inter-country humanitarian aid work. Several educational tracks will also feature topics such as China’s Waiting Child Program, bonding and attachment issues, transracial adoption, and an adoptive family panel will also present.

To acknowledge and celebrate the 15th year of Great Wall of China Adoption/Children of All Nations work, this year’s conference will be held in our hometown of spectacular Austin, TX, with special emphasis on Waiting Child Programs (focused on older and special needs children) and different parts of the world to which we are expanding our reach to help children.

Find out more…

View the conference schedule and sessions!

Reserve your seat and learn about ways you can impact a child’s life.

Registration covers attendance of all sessions, two breakfasts and one plated lunch.

After a life-changing trip to Haiti, a successful businessman hopes to change the lives of millions of orphans around the world.

Craig Juntunen lived a life of leisure and all things grand with his wife, Kathi, in a lavish North Scottsdale home. Early on in life, he strived to have a successful business—which he did—and eventually retired by the time he was 43.

After years of the life he thought he wanted, Juntunen knew there had to be more than ski trips at the drop of a hat and hitting the greens all day long. It wasn’t until he was 51 years old—after he traveled to an orphanage in Haiti—that he found what was missing. By swearing off parenthood and having a vasectomy at 30 years old, no one expected what he was about to do—not even him.

Read more…