"Well, maybe that means some of these parents-to-be will reconsider the thousands of American children stuck in foster care, available for adoption."

This would only come from people who have never tried to permantly place, or adopt an American foster kid - beaten abused, abandoned, sexually abused, you'd think it be easy if you were a normal person. But the expense, the time of dealing with the children's services, the house inspection, the 60 hours of manitory (varies by state) parenting classes - the fact that after the adoption you are still in the system and your life will always be open for strangers inspection. The legal cost of dealing with and double checking that both parents have really had thier parental rights severed (don't trust the children services on this, or it will come back to bite you) is VERY expense, after 24,000$ my adoptions failed, and so did five other couples that I know. They were all married at the time, and some of them had tried twice to adopt foster kids, they gave up and adopted Chinese kids. It was a lot easier, quicker, and cheaper. As a single person I was ineligible, and I wasn't really looking for a baby, my foster kids had become eligible for adoption (I had been told by Children services) - they had been with me 2+ years of thier young lives(5 & 7) so I started the process, to only find out that the mother who had fled the state (to avoid arrest) - had never actually had the charges filed against her, and therefor had not been severed of her rights, she sued for return of her kids - she didn't get the kids - but the judge made it so the kids were no longer eligible for adoption, only foster care and I'd had enough - loving kids to have them jerked in and out of your home is to heart aching cruel.

I would never, NEVER, NEVER advise anyone to adopt from the American foster system, it will cost you more money, more time and more likely to fall through than a foriegn adoption, or one where you are dealing with a birth mother who is not in the system. If children services involved, you don't want to be.

Besides they don't want you to adopt, they want you to have a "permanant placement" - ie they are still foster kids, and you are dealing with crazy birthparents, and a new case worker every couple of months who wants visit and pick apart your private life - it is NOT the same as adoption, and it doesn't make the kids feel safe - and these so called permanant placements can be revoked at anytime - the kids are never really yours, and you can find yourself in the place of having promised the kids, that you would always be thier mommy, and they will be with you, and have the state take them at anytime. Don't do it

And people who don't have any clue should stop spouting off about adopting American foster kids, the system needs to be seriously reformed. But when it comes to permantly taking a kid away from a parent , we the public don't have much will, or many legal options to do so - and permant placement is not an adoption, or permant.

and it wasn't as petty as the article this refers to --

the school, is a boarding school, which is why it has alot of the luxuries that people seem to criticize, but this will be the girls homes. And thousands of girls applied, only a couple hundreds will get in for now, but there are plans, to expand the number of grades at the school slowly over time.

The school is focusing on educational standards, it wants to be academically one of the best schools in the world.

Any girl who goes, does so free, and if she does well and is excepted into a college anywhere in the world, her tuition is also covered as part of the deal.

The girls make a commitment to come back to S. Africa to get involved in government or the economy - Oprah is hoping they make a long term improvement and impact on Africa. She wants these girls to make a difference. They interviewed the 12-13 year girls who were accepted into the program, and talk to them about their hopes and dreams, these kids were articulate and very impressive. She has hand picked obvious little geniuses, who out in the normal world probably wouldn't have been able to go to high school since their families couldn't afford it. The thought of these bright, postive girls never going to school, now that would be a waste.

Three pregnant girls staying at a Utah maternity home for pregnant teens "whacked the director in the head with a frying pan," tied her up with an extension cord and escaped in a stolen car.

-- what I found interesting was the description of this home in other sources, it is a home where parents drop off their underage teenage daughters to have their babies, it doesn't say but it seemed to imply - that like the 1950's houses were girls were sent to "visit an aunt" come home without baby, and no longer pregnant and pretend it never happen. And it seems fitting that it is in Utah a conservative state....family values indeed, why are these girls not having the babies at home?

There must be more to this story, if I was sent off to a home, I might make an escape to, perhaps they want to keep their babies?