There's No Place like Home

There's No Place Like Home

The young boy almost a man had never had a home. He will never know the feeling of being tucked in by his mother at night or the excitement of playing catch with his father. He only imagined his whole life what it would be like to have a family. He stared out the window and realized how scared he was to be out in the real world all alone. Within a few weeks this man child would be sent from his "home," the orphanage that seemed more like a prison, into the mean, unforgiving streets. He wished upon that same star one last time to have a family- to be adopted.

What you just read was fictional, but must really occur. Adoption in our country is in somewhat of a crisis. It is extremely difficult to adopt a child here. There are thousands of children out there that need parents, and thousands of adults who want to be parents. Why does it take so long for the children to be placed in loving, willing families?

To better understand the adoption process, the initial steps and requirements must be addressed. First, compiling a list of all adoption agencies in the area is one way to start. Most people prefer the agency route because they provide counseling to birth parents as well as adoptive applicants in order to make the right decisions for the child. Agencies also have better updates of the birth parents' recent medical conditions. They also offer more help after the child has been placed if needed. Contacting the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse is also a good start. They will be able to supply information on and also might be able to refer to local adoption agencies, intercountry adoption agencies, support groups, crisis pregnancy centers, shelters for pregnant women, and education programs. The best way to begin is to be persistent. Perspective parents should call and write letters frequently and place applications with as many agencies as possible. They should also make sure that the guidelines and requirements are ones that apply to them. Some agencies are religion affiliated and time and money might be wasted if the same religion is not shared. It is in the client's best interest to ask many questions and to know the costs and fees and if any of it is refundable (Berman).

For the most part, public agencies represent special needs adoptions and private agencies most likely arrange infant or intercountry adoptions. Not all children categorized as special needs have emotional, physical, or intellectual handicaps as most people think. A special needs child also means children over a certain age (usually six), sibling groups to be adopted together, or children of an ethnic minority (Hicks). There are other types of adoption other than the agency, public or private. There is the identified, black-market, or sometimes privately arranged, to name a few (Berman). The identified adoption, or sometimes called designated or collaborative, is a popular choice. This type of adoption process allows the couples that are seeking to adopt to locate their own birth mother (Hicks). Black-market adoption is the buying and selling of a child and it is illegal. Some privately arranged adoptions are made because of contacts. This plainly means that someone you know knows someone else who might know someone else that is considering giving their baby up for adoption. These types of adoptions are regulated differently by each state (Berman). It is crucial that those looking to adopt know all of the legal aspects of the type of adoption they end up choosing.

With the adoption process underway the adoptive parents will be faced with meetings, tests, and countless forms to fill out. They will also have home visits from their social worker. The whole time (which could take many years) this is going on applicants will be fearful of rejection. Reasons to eliminate certain applicants include a criminal record, child abuse, failure to pay child support, substance abuse, serious medical condition, or marital strife (Berman).

Knowing all of this information, it is clear that children and their potential parents often have to wait because of our system. This puts a lot of strain on couples who often give up trying to adopt. Who is to say that people who have their own biological babies wouldn't mistreat their own offspring? It happens all too often. Will this adoption epidemic be cured?

There are an estimated 35,000 children in foster care in the United States that are in desperate need of loving, nurturing homes. Alcohol and drug abuse are factors in the placement of 75% of children who are entering the foster care system. Children who lose their parents to AIDS are another group in need of foster care. In addition, increasing numbers of children who are HIV infected are in foster care. An estimated 80,000 healthy children will be orphaned by AIDS before the year 2002, with approximately one-third of that number expected to enter the child welfare system. At the same time the same number of children in foster care increased, providers steadily decreased from147,000 in 1995 when there were 276,000 children in care to only 142,374 in 2002 when there were 486,000 children in care. There is not only a shortage in the number of overall foster families, but there is also a shortage of foster families with the willingness to parent children with certain characteristics or circumstances, or special-needs as we discussed earlier. Thirty-five percent of licensed foster families had no children placed with them at all in the first year (Henderson). Despite this need, non-traditional families such as homosexual couples are being banned from adopting (Flango and Flango).

Many same-sex couples are able, willing, and desire to provide a secure home for unwanted children, but politicians and bias groups are working feverishly to stop these couples of achieving their dreams. Although no real proof exists that there are negative side effects to a child's well being when placed with a same-sex couple, many doctors and scientists have stepped out to oppose. Doctor Dean Byrd with the National Association of Research and Therapy for Homosexuality (NARTH) feels that, "Homosexual couples are unstable and sick, children placed with same-sex parents are more promiscuous and experience gender and sexual confusion and suffer more depression and emotional difficulties." Are these statements based on scientific facts or is it all politics, bias, and homophobia?

The American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have recently released studies that indicate children in same-sex homes are provided the same emotional, healthy lifestyle as a child in a heterosexual home. The APA states, "There were an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 same-sex biological parents