International Adoption – The World As I See It

I started reading “All Are Precious In His Sight” in April of 2010 while the little girl named Chrisse that they adopted from Serbia was in the hospital after having heart surgery. She passed away after fighting for 31 days. Chrisse was an amazing little girl and she taught me so much. I never met her but knowing her story she showed me that there are so many children out there that need homes. It breaks my heart to know that children that have disablities in other countries and just left in orphanages and eventually get transfered to adult institutions where they spend all of there time in cribs being basically ignored.

Right now they are in Ukraine adopting these two precious boys who have down syndrome.

They are going to name them Cooper & Conner. Let me tell you a little bit about these two boys. You look at them and think that they are 3 maybe 4 but no these two boys are 6 years old. They are in cribs all the time and Conner has bed sores on his back. They are posting every day on there blog about visiting with the boys twice a day and also they upload videos to their YouTube channel of the boys and them interacting with them. I bought a bright pink hoodie from a fundrasier they were doing trying to raise money to get and get two different boys but that adoption ended up not working out. I have been reading their updates everyday and watching the videos. My grandma also asks me each day what went on today with them. I want to ask everyone to pray for them so that they can get these two boys home soon!

I felt the need to write about this because there are so many kids out there who need families. As everyone knows I am a birth mom so I know all about domestic adoptions but I knew nothing about international adoptions. They found Chrisse and both of these boys through Reece’s Rainbow. Reece’s Rainbow lists all the kids they know about that have some sort of disablities it is also a place for people who want to help but don’t feel the calling to adopt. They let people donate money to any of the kids so that when their families find them there is some money already to help out with the costs. I was not asked to write this but I want to let people know that if you want to help out orphans you should donate money to these kids and help them find their forever homes. I am going to pick a child or two and try and raise money for that child so that they can find a family. I ask that if you have a few extra dollars please consider donating to this site and help out these precious children.

Adoption Awareness Month

Unless you have adopted, or are planning to do so, you may know little about children who need homes. Given that it is adoption awareness month, it seems only appropriate to give some general information about the world of adoption.

According to the U.S. Department of Human Services, there are 1.8 million adopted children in the United States; these children account for 2 percent of all children in the United States. Of those:

• 75 percent were adopted domestically.

• 37 percent through the foster care system.

• 38 percent through private services.

• 25 percent were adopted internationally.

About 75 percent of children are adopted by non-family members while 25 percent are adopted by relatives; seventeen percent of those adopted by relatives are adopted through the foster care system and 37 are adopted through private mediums.

There are several ways to adopt in the United States. One way is through the foster care system. In 2010, there were 107,000 children in the foster care system waiting to be adopted and 53,000 were adopted. The general process is that a state-licensed agency (either for-profit or non-profit) matches prospective parents to children in need of a home. Though substantially cheaper than all other types of adoption, many choose other means of adoption. This is because many people want newborns of a particular race, and foster care adoption houses children of all ages and races. Unfortunately, these children need a home just as much as all other children up for adoption.

A second way to adopt is through a private agency. Private agencies act as intermediaries between children and prospective parents in the matching process. Many choose this medium because the agency guides parents through the entire adoption process.

A third way to adopt is independently, i.e. privately. It is legal in most states, though Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts do not allow it; the laws surrounding independent adoption vary from state-to-state. This process involves prospective parents independently seeking out biological parents who have put their child up for adoption; lawyers are used as intermediaries. Many choose this means of adoption because agencies have policies regarding parent-criteria and prospective parent-biological parent contact both during and after the adoption. Independent adoption allows both prospective parents and biological parents to set their own criteria. Prospective parents control the search process and have direct contact with the biological parents; both parties also decide if the child will have contact with the biological parents after the adoption process is finalized.

A fourth way to adopt is internationally. China, Russia, Guatemala, Korea, and Ethiopia are common countries from which children are adopted; however, about 80 other countries around the world adopt out children to parents from different countries. In 2010, over 11,000 children were adopted from other countries. Generally, parents use adoption services similar to domestic adoption services. Many choose to adopt internationally to help children in desperate situations; many times, children are undernourished, under-educated, or have disabilities. Others choose this process because, depending on country, it can be less costly.

Amber Paley is a guest post and article writer bringing to us information and statistics on child adoptions. Amber also writes about abuse in nursing homes.