The process of adopting a child from Africa involves significant wait time, international scrutiny and significant cost. So it raises the question: Why doesn't Madonna — as well as many other celebrities who have gone abroad to adopt — look a little closer to home for her new family members?
Stars including Sheryl Crow, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Rosie O'Donnell and Calista Flockhart have all adopted domestically. But, in addition to Madonna, celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Mia Farrow, Julie Andrews and Meg Ryan have all adopted children from foreign countries. And while last year saw a slight decline, international adoptions overall have nearly tripled since 1992.
According to the Dave Thomas Foundation, 129,000 American children are currently awaiting adoption. And while 79,000 children were approved for adoption last year, only 51,000 found homes through the foster care system, leaving 28,000 American children without adoptive families last year alone.
“My concern is that when these 129,000 children see so many Americans stepping over them to go abroad, they will feel a sense of not being good enough,” Rita Soronen, executive director for the Dave Thomas Foundation, told FOXNews.com.
Soronen believes that misconceptions about the well-being of the children, and the time and cost involved in domestic adoptions, may lead prospective parents to look overseas first.
According to Adoptive Families magazine, the estimated cost to adopt a child in China is $20,000-$25,000. The estimated cost for a Guatemalan adoption is $25,000-$30,000, and adopting a Russian child is estimated at $30,000-$40,000. According to the National Council for Adoption, domestic costs range from $8,000-$40,000, with the typical price falling between $15,000-$25,000. So adopting overseas has no real cost benefit.
International adoptions are also not necessarily faster than U.S adoptions. According to statistics provided by the American Adoptions agency, the wait time is similar, with international adoption processes averaging between 10-12 months, and domestic waits taking between one and 28 months. New laws and tighter international restrictions have also slowed the process substantially in once-popular countries like China and Guatemala.
As for the well-being of American kids versus their foreign counterparts? “There is an idea that because these kids come from unfortunate circumstances, that they are juvenile delinquents – this couldn’t be further from the truth, they are just as viable as any other child,” Soronen said.
Yes, some of them ARE. I think that it's outrageous. And that is why I questioned you about The God's Child Project South Central, and if they benefit American children when you joined that group on Facebook, Sash. There are children here in America who are poor and starving. There are plenty of charities that already cater to foreigners. We need more agencies helping America's children.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. As far as an agency that WORKS, it's March of Dimes - though it's not called that any longer. A friend is doing the MOD walk this month and I have done it and raised quite a bit of money for it. They paid for EVERY expense we had for my daughter from the day she was born to the day she passed. I know - a different kind of agency, but I DO get your point.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it still is... http://www.marchofdimes.com/
ReplyDeleteAlso, The Red Cross and local homeless shelters are the way to go.
My husband and I would LOVE to adopt domestically (as we are unable to have children of our own), but it is way too expensive. And that put foreign adoption out of the question, as they can go as high as $90,000. So until one or both of us hits the jackpot in the lottery, we're resigned to childless living. Its not so bad, as much as we would love to have the pitter-patter of little feet, we're also totally comfortable in being able to help out young parents we know by babysitting so that they can have a break and go on a date or something.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to answer this if you don't want to, or answer through email, but I thought that you were pregnant.
ReplyDeleteI was. I went in for my fist prenatal visit at 21 weeks as soon as we were on insurance in January. All the hormone levels in my blood and measurements are consistent with a pregnancy that was at 21 weeks, but when they did the ultrasound, it showed that fetal demise occurred at 8 weeks. I was ordered to be on bed rest until Jan. 20th, when they would perform a d & c. They found out that our daughter had Turner's Syndrome, which is similar to Down's Syndrome.
ReplyDeleteThey have since found that the two anti-clotting proteins that vital to maintaining a pregnancy, IcG and IgG, are not present in my bloodstream. The only way to combat this is to put me on massive amounts of blood thinners and hospital bed rest for the entire pregnancy, and a C-Section to top it off, because obviously, being pregnant and on blood thinning drugs is very dangerous. Maternal and fetal death rates are 80% and 78% respectively.