I'm on a history kick today, and if you'd like to read about the early days of International Adoption, visit my other blog.

Just in case anyone doubts that the wheels of government can turn glacier-melting, geological-time slowly, get sa ... which is Creole for, check this out!

It took 149 years for the US government to get a grip on the basics of adoption. Yep. One hundred and forty-nine years to figure out that our kids are our kids and all that means.

And that only works as a sentence if you really think it's working perfectly now.

In 1851, the State of Massachusetts passed the country's first modern adoption law. This recognized adoption as a social and legal process, and put in place rules and regs that focused on the welfare of the child, not simply the adult interests.

From that point, other states did their thing and adoption slowly, very slowly, moved from baby farming as an acceptable situation for children ... horrific as those places were ... to what is practiced today.

From 1851, jump ahead 67 years and view the adoption scene ...

Here is a US Children's Bureau memo from July 19, 1918 on the conditions at a baby farm called "Sunshine Nursery."

Miss Emery called yesterday morning and was here for three hours. She spoke of Miss Washington’s place being quite a dreadful place and I asked her to be specific and wrote down her statements and read them back to her. They are as follows:

Screens inadequate. Many flies. Most of the babies’ beds were built with screens, however.

One little child was tied in bed.
A filthy rug was noticed by Miss Emery on a bed. She lifted it and found a baby beneath it. The housekeeper said the rug had been put there because the baby would not sleep in the light.

While Miss Emery was at this nursery from one to five o’clock on Monday July 15th, she said only one pillow was changed.

The nose and mouth of one child were covered with a mass of flies.

The children had no playthings.

An uncovered slop jar on the porch afforded the only toilet facility for the children.

Miss Emery asked for water for the little girl in whom she is interested. The housekeeper said, “We do not give water because water poisons the children.”

Miss Emery said she picked up the little girl, Catherine, in whom she is interested and her legs were numb. She said this little child 15 months old was chaffed and bruised as though it had been whipped.

Miss Emery told the housekeeper the little girl needed a bath and the housekeeper said she did not. Miss Emery asked for water to bathe the child and the housekeeper refused to give it to her, saying that all their water had to be heated in a kettle.

The little girl in whom Miss Emery is interested was given a cup of milk to drink. Miss Emery noticed that the milk was cold (just off the ice) and asked that it be heated. The tin cup was put upon the stove and in a few moments the housekeeper gave it to the child and burned the child’s lips with it. . . .

And now for the punch line on SLOW.

It was the 2000 census that had for the VERY FIRST TIME in US history "adopted son/daughter" as a kinship category.