International Adoption 13-Year Low
Last Friday, a new article on international adoptions by Americans came out “Foreign adoptions by Americans hit 13-year low” by David Crary. In 2009, foreign adoptions dropped to 12,753, 27% lower than 2008 and nearly 45% lower than the all-time peak in 2004.This article sited many reasons most of them pertained to adoption reform. In this article, Chuck Johnson, chief operating officer for the National Council for Adoption was quoted:
"This drop is not a result of fewer orphans or less interest from American families in adopting children from other countries," he said. "All of us are very discouraged because we see the suffering taking place. We don't know how to fix it without the U.S. government coming alongside."
Thomas DiFilipo, president of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services believes that in 2010, adoption numbers could fall even further. He would like to see more help from the State Department saying, "One of their primary functions is to help potential adoptive parents, when their focus should be on children in need of adoptive families."
We would love your thoughts on what this might mean for your family. Were you thinking of adding to your family through international adoption? Does this article make you rethink these plans? Are you planning to contact any of your congressional representatives?
It is true that we should be focusing on helping children in need and not helping adoptive parents get a child. One of the biggest issues is poverty. Many children in poverty already have loving mothers. They do not need new mothers, they need food and clothes.
ReplyDeleteIf charity is the goal, then our first priority should be charity. Not advocating the removal of children from loving families that are struggling to obtain food and medical care for their children.
When you consider what families pay to adopt and consider that if that money had gone directly into helping provide basic needs for children, it could have provided food and medical care for many children, for many years.
A little money goes a long way in many third world countries.
The concern is that in the name of charity, families who DO NOT WANT TO BE SEPARATED are being seperated simply because the child needs living supplies. That is simply sad.
True orphans on the other hand, do need families. Ideally as ethically issues are examined and monitored more closely, adoptions for children with no living relatives that want to love and care for them will open up.
The risk of exploitation and child trafficking has become so high, that something HAS to be done. Children are literally being stolen from their parents and sold to American couples without the couples knowledge. That is simply not ok.
A true act of charity, would be to join hands with programs that are providing food, medical care, and support to poverty stricken families, and support mothers having the means to care for their children without the child having to lose it's mother, family, friends, language, homeland and known universe.