I was heartbroken to read this Newsweek story on foreign adoptions gone awry. And it evoked an outpouring of emotions by the magazine’s readers as it was the most trafficked article on the site for a while and the comments came fast and furious.

Warning: This article is not for the faint of heart and I could not get it out of my mind, going to bed really depressed. It dealt with American parents who had to (re)abandon their adoptive children from Russia, Bulgaria and Romania due to extreme violent behavior and mental illness. One of the frazzled moms even beat her two-year-old adopted child from Russia to death. She is now serving a 19-year-prison sentence.

But what I hope people remember from this story is that this is an extreme and small occurrence among international adoptions -- as the magazine pointed out. This (hopefully) should not keep people from adopting from these countries. This is what I keep telling myself:

Emotional, behavioral and physical problems are not unique to adopted children. Biological children can have the same range of issues. But adoptive parents often assume they know what they're getting into because they get the chance to meet their child in advance.

The article quoted many smart psychiatrists who offered adoptive parents hints to whether their child is suffering from abuse and/or mental illness and needs to see a professional.

NJ Bans the Death Penalty: Here is some good news. New Jersey became the first state in 40 years to ban the death penalty, according to the Associated Press. The law takes place immediately and eight inmates on death row, including the sex offender who murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka -- the case that inspired Megan’s Law -- have had their sentences changed to life imprisonment without parole.

Des Moines Register Endorses Hillary: With the Iowa caucuses just around the corner (January 3, 2008), the state’s largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register, just endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. Apparently, she is sinking in some polls there, while Barack Obama is rising, but that doesn’t mean anything in the caucuses as Howard Dean learned. You have to get your people out. Should be an interesting race. I can’t wait!

Britney Watch: Are you ready for more groans? Britney's sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, 16, is pregnant, she told OK! magazine. Okay.

What else is in the news? Are you going anywhere exciting for the holidays? Please share!

I recently reviewed There is No Me Without You, a moving look at AIDS and its powerful effect on Ethiopia, families, and most especially the children. As promised at the end of that review, here is my interview Melissa Fay Greene, the author of There is No Me Without You.

You recently returned from Ethiopia. You were there during Passover (April) – how do you celebrate Passover in Ethiopia? (It can be challenging enough in some parts of the US.)

We were the guests of Dr. Rick Hodes, an American-Jewish doctor who has lived in Ethiopia for about 20 years, and of his houseful of adopted and foster Ethiopian sons and long-term guests and recuperating patients and neighbors and people he met while swimming laps at the Sheraton and Israelis he lured home from the airport when his Ethiopian sons greeted arriving passengers from Tel Aviv with signs that read—in English and Hebrew—"Need a kosher seder?  Talk to us."  Jewish, Muslim, and Ethiopian Orthodox Christian guests sat together in a huge circle on the floor, around spread tablecloths and traditional foods, and we chanted through a seder in three languages.  My son Jesse, age 11, pitched forward and fell asleep on the floor in the middle of what was, essentially, the dinner table.  He was still jet-lagged. He snoozed there a while, without anyone seeming to notice, but I finally roused him enough to walk him off the table and into a back bedroom.  (I write more about Dr. Hodes in my book)

In reading material on your website I gather that you and your husband are parents to 9 children. Can you tell us how they joined your family?

We’ve been blessed with four children by birth (Molly, 25, Oberlin ’04, works for ForestEthics in San Francisco;  Seth, 22, is a senior at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music;  Lee, 19, is spending a gap year studying and volunteering in Israel;  Lily, 14, is in ninth grade, living at home with us in Atlanta); and three by adoption (Fisseha, 13, in 6th grade, came three years ago from an Ethiopian orphanage;  Jesse, 12, a 5th-grader, came seven years ago from a Bulgarian orphanage; and Helen, 10, grade 4, came five years ago also from the Ethiopian orphanage.)

Finally, Daniel, 12, and his brother Yosef, 10, currently live at the foster home in Addis Ababa which is the subject of my book There is No Me Without You.  We’re hoping to bring them home by the summer.