However, it also sounds, from the articles, that there is a possibility that the Ruc children (and/or children from other minority areas) may have been sent to orphanages in other cities and their backgrounds obscured such that it may be impossible to know what countries/agencies they were adopted through. That was one of my bigger concerns … that these children may have been “laundered” so much that their parents will never be able to track them down.

The US embassy responded thusly because the one child adopted to the US that Miss Ha and others spoke of was not, in fact, from the Ruc tribe. Believe me, the US embassy is fully aware of the situation with the children from the Ruc community (or was before a staffing change or two), but they also are more aware of the circumstances of that one US case than is Peter Bille Larsen or the authors of any of those articles.

While I have no huge love for the US government, I do respect their involvement in our adoption case. However, I have no respect for anthropologists who lump one case in with some other cases just to drag the US into a particular fray. It makes me feel like my child is being used.

Please Forgive the Anonymity,
The One Child’s Adoptive Mom

I did not realize the connection when I first wrote this post for VVAI. The story is back in the news because these parents have been persistent. The article quoted in my post says, “In the provincial capital Dong Hai, Le Thi Thu Ha, the director of the children’s home where the 13 children were taken, confirmed a police investigation had been launched into the circumstances in which the Ruc children were adopted overseas. ‘The local police force started investigating the case a few months ago when the parents persisted with their complaints. We expect the investigation to be complete and the results announced in the first quarter of 2010.’”