Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ranching family has an amazing herd

Yes, that's really the title of this article about a family who has adopted 15 kids from "other lands." It's in our local newspaper. Opening paragraph:

If the State Fair of Texas sets attendance records this year, it can thank Jay and Suzanne Faske.Their entire family will be traveling to Dallas.

No "maximum capacity" signs are posted on the hearts or the home of this
cattle-ranching couple from Burton whose selflessness and generosity led them to orphanages in Kazakhstan, China, India, Russia and Colombia, where they adopted 15 of their 17 children, some with special needs.


Another gem from the article: "Rachel, born with club feet and a dislocated hip, was rescued at age 3 from a Chinese orphanage." And then how about this: "A part of Jay Faske felt compelled to intervene on behalf of this little one — if they didn’t save him, who would?"

OK, I'm not dissing this family. They seem quite amazing. The media, on the other hand? I'll happily diss.

Any advice out there for dealing with the media when interviewed on adoption stories? How to avoid having it come out with the yucky rescue narrative?

UPDATE: Syd's mom asks how to contact the reporter: It's David Casstevens, email address is dcasstevens@star-telegram.com

2 comments:

Jeff and Madeline said...

Geez. You have to demand you read the final story before publication. As we all know, once it hits the stands the retraction is meaningless, so it is important to proofread for the reporters bias and errors.

This reminds me of a person I just met, there was a lot "saving" come out of her mouth and she has adopted two from China. Can you tell me how to not burst into flames when another A-parent is talking like this in front of bio parents? I corrected OFTEN with re-phrasing and our reasons for adopting, but I could not get the knives out of my eyes.

Anonymous said...

OK....craziness! People like this encourage our children to be "grateful" without understanding that their words have negative consequences. I once read an adoptee's blog and she said something to the effect of "it's all about the adoptive parents not the children who are adopted." I thought "how rude!" at the time because my daughter is my number one prioirty. But now I am enlightened by that comment. We need to EDUCATE this writer! Let's bombard with EMail...tell us who to write, Malinda!