Adoptive Parents

WAKEMAN, Ohio -- Eleven children removed from a house where authorities say some of them slept in homemade cages are polite, well behaved, well dressed, and appear to have been well fed, neighbors and authorities said yesterday. Their adoptive parents, Michael Gravelle, 56, and Sharen Gravelle, 57, denied in a custody hearing Monday that they abused or neglected the children, who range in age from 1 to 14. Some of them have health conditions, including autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.

Hi! My name is Patrick. I like spending time with friends. And I like going to the movies and playing with action figures. Patrick is 13, a sweet and very likable boy with a highly creative imagination. He enjoys LEGO blocks, action figures, video games, Beyblade, and fantasy-based play with his peers. He is sought after to join in a game or create one of his own. And he is always willing to include others and shares his belongings willingly. He also likes activities in the community.

DENVER -- A Colorado couple cannot be forced to give their adopted son back to the birth mother in another state without a court hearing on what is best for the child, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled. A Missouri judge had ordered the child returned because the birth mother changed her mind. The child, now a year old, has lived with the Colorado couple since shortly after he was born. The court said Monday in a 6-to-1 decision that Colorado judges can hear custody disputes when judges in other states do not take into consideration the "best interests" of the child.

The U.S. government has told Guatemala it won't return a girl adopted in 2008 after being snatched from her Guatemalan mother, because the two countries had not signed the Hague Abduction Convention at the time of the kidnapping, a Guatemalan official said Monday. Foreign Relations Ministry spokeswoman Celeste Alvarado quoted a diplomatic cable from the U.S. State Department as saying the two countries formally ratified the convention on Jan. 1, 2008, more than a year after toddler Anyeli Hernandez Rodriguez was abducted in November 2006.

The U.S. government has told Guatemala it won't return a girl adopted in 2008 after being snatched from her Guatemalan mother, because the two countries had not signed the Hague Abduction Convention at the time of the kidnapping, a Guatemalan official said Monday. Foreign Relations Ministry spokeswoman Celeste Alvarado quoted a diplomatic cable from the U.S. State Department as saying the two countries formally ratified the convention on Jan. 1, 2008, more than a year after toddler Anyeli Hernandez Rodriguez was abducted in November 2006.

If Joyce Carol Oates's new novel, "Mudwoman," were a computer game, it would be up there with Mortal Kombat and Doom for its grotesque violence, blood, and gore. Which is odd in a novel about a university president and her conflicts with her board. But of course it's about more than that. This particular university president, when she was 3 years old, was tossed into a muddy riverbed and left for dead. By her mother. As "Mudwoman" begins, Meredith (also M.R., also Mudwoman)

GUATEMALA CITY — International adoptions will resume in Guatemala this June after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold, officials announced yesterday. Four foreign adoption organizations will be selected to be part of the pilot program, said Elizabeth Hernandez, the president of the National Adoptions Council. Until the door to adoptions closed in 2007, Guatemala was the world’s second-largest source of babies to the United States, after China, because of its routinely quick adoption process.

TOLEDO, Ohio — Eleven adopted and foster children forced to sleep in cages by their adoptive parents have reached a $1.2 million settlement with the Ohio county where they once lived. Lawyers for the children contended that Huron County children’s services workers should have discovered what was going on before they did and removed the children. “There were red flags that should have had the county in there sooner,’’ said attorney Jack Landskroner. Instead of filing a lawsuit, attorneys for the children negotiated with the county on the settlement,...

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan legislators approved a law yesterday that tightens adoptions while allowing pending cases - mostly involving US couples - to go through without meeting stricter requirements. The new law will enable Guatemala to comply with the Hague Convention, an international agreement designed to protect adopted children from human trafficking. The Central American country sent 4,135 children to the United States last year, making it the largest source of babies for American families after China.

LONDON — Race should no longer be a key criteria for social workers seeking adoptive families for children in care, Britain’s government said yesterday, stressing that the priority must instead be to find a child a new home quickly. Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was adopted, said that for too long sensitivities about ethnicity had complicated efforts to place black and ethnic minority children, meaning they wait far longer than white children for a permanent home. Issuing new advice to those working on adoptions, Gove moved Britain...

HANOI - The number of international adoptions has plummeted to its lowest point in 15 years, a steep decline attributed largely to crackdowns against baby-selling, a sputtering world economy, and efforts by countries to place more children with domestic families. Globally, the number of orphans being adopted by foreign parents dropped from a high of 45,000 in 2004 to an estimated 25,000 last year, according to annual statistics compiled by Peter Selman, a specialist on international adoptions at Britain's Newcastle University.

The number of international adoptions has plummeted to its lowest point in 15 years, a steep decline attributed largely to crackdowns against baby-selling, a sputtering world economy and efforts by countries to place more children with domestic families. Globally, the number of orphans being adopted by foreign parents dropped from a high of 45,000 in 2004 to an estimated 25,000 last year, according to annual statistics compiled by Peter Selman, an expert on international adoptions at Britain's Newcastle University.

If Joyce Carol Oates's new novel, "Mudwoman," were a computer game, it would be up there with Mortal Kombat and Doom for its grotesque violence, blood, and gore. Which is odd in a novel about a university president and her conflicts with her board. But of course it's about more than that. This particular university president, when she was 3 years old, was tossed into a muddy riverbed and left for dead. By her mother. As "Mudwoman" begins, Meredith (also M.R., also Mudwoman)

If you hear about a good cause in a distant land, you might write a check. If you taste the food, see the art, and hear the music of people needing help, you might dig a little deeper and become a longtime supporter. That's an idea behind Room at the Table, a Lexington-based volunteer organization that has raised thousands of dollars in recent years for charities all over the world, as well as some closer to home. Local recipients have included Women of Means, a group in Wellesley that provides medical care to women in homeless shelters.

BROOKLINE - A number of athletes join a cross-country team to keep in shape. A few run to relieve stress, or to expend extra energy. A lot hit the trails, Brookline High School coach Mike Glennon believes, because they aren't cut out for other sports and simply want to feel a part of something special. Chernet Sisay has a far different reason. The Brookline High senior runs because he is happy to be alive, and he's going to do anything it takes to make a name for himself. Sisay is approaching his sixth year in this country after spending the first 12 years of his life in Ethiopia,...

JEFF JACOBY’S continuing insistence that marriage is for the sole purpose of procreation and should therefore be defined as heterosexual is distressingly narrow (“Marriage cannot be redefined,’’ Op-ed, June 29). What about the heterosexual couple who cannot or chooses not to have children? Should elderly heterosexual people who marry late in life be barred from the institution because they cannot procreate? And, more importantly, what about the countless numbers of gay and lesbian couples who marry in order to provide stability for adopted...

BROOKLINE - A number of athletes join a cross-country team to keep in shape. A few run to relieve stress, or to expend extra energy. A lot hit the trails, Brookline High School coach Mike Glennon believes, because they aren't cut out for other sports and simply want to feel a part of something special. Chernet Sisay has a far different reason. The Brookline High senior runs because he is happy to be alive, and he's going to do anything it takes to make a name for himself. Sisay is approaching his sixth year in this country after spending the first 12 years of his life in Ethiopia, the last three...

Hi! My name is Skylar.I like to build things out of empty boxes. Skylar is 9, a smart, creative boy who can be shy and reserved until he warms to people. Then he is sociable and interacts. Aspects of his bright imagination include his drawing and his ability to create things out of empty boxes and cartons. He likes to play outside, too, especially soccer. And he loves all kinds of foods; he says he will eat anything but raw onions! In third grade at school, Skylar is performing at grade level, though he does struggle with a mild speech delay.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a voter-approved initiative yesterday that barred gay couples and other unmarried people living together from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Associate Justice Robert L. Brown wrote for the court that the law would encroach on adults’ right to privacy in the bedroom. “Act 1 directly and substantially burdens the privacy rights of ‘opposite-sex and same-sex individuals’ who engage in private, consensual sexual conduct in the bedroom by foreclosing their eligibility to foster or adopt children,’’ Brown wrote.