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By Kent Larsen
LDS Adoptions Go Online
PROVO, UTAH -- Coverage of this past weekend's Families Supporting Adoption
conference at BYU reveals that the LDS Church's Family Services has been
participating in adoption websites in a pilot program since 1999, trying to
assist couples that want to adopt. The agency screens communications between
birth mothers and interested couples.
According to program specialist Lori Throckmorton, LDS Family Services has
placed 12 children under the pilot program. "Our role is to keep things safe
for both parties," she said. "The site is just hosting the information,
nothing more. And couples have to remember they are a part of the
decision-making process if they are faced with a request from the birth
mother."
Under the program, LDS Family Services posts pictures of couples and other
information (but nothing that would identify the couple) on adoption
websites such as the popular
http://www.adoption.com. LDS Family
Services doesn't itself have a website for adoptions.
At the conference Saturday, Richard and Carrie Williams of Sandy, Utah told
one session about their experiences adopting over the Internet, "With the
Internet, you can respond to letters from birth mothers all over the world,"
Richard Williams said. "We also felt it exposed us to a different variety of
birth mothers." The couple had been trying to adopt for 18 months before
they went to the Internet. Three months later they were able to adopt a son.
The conference attracted some 500 people who attended workshops on topics
like transracial adoption and telling adopted children about their adoption.
Families Supporting Adoption is an adoption support group sponsored by the
LDS Church. The Church's LDS Family Services, its social services agency,
handles nearly 1,000 adoptions each year, and expects to increase that
number in the future.
Source:
Panelists Share Experiences After Adopting Via the Web
Salt Lake Tribune 29Jul01 I3
By Elizabeth Neff: Salt Lake Tribune
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