In 2004, the U.S. government issued 21,831 orphan visas for parents adopting internationally. In an article for Parents and Kids, Pat Hoopes (regional manager for the Massachusetts office of Wide Horizons for Children), describes several considerations people should make before adopting internationally:
1. Are you comfortable with the unknown?
The resources, laws and procedures of the country from which you choose to adopt are likely very different than the way we do things in the United States. A great deal of information about the child you hope to adopt will be unattainable. Can you live with this? If you have a need to know every fact, detail and history of your child, international adoption may not be for you. But if you're willing to parent a child in spite of a difficult or unknown history and you're willing to embrace the unknown with optimism, international adoption might be just the ticket.
2. How much risk are you willing to take?
Parenting is risky business, and adoption poses more risk than pregnancy for most people. It's important for you to determine your comfort level. For example, if you know nothing about your child's birth parents, are you willing to adopt?
Hoopes writes that while birth parents are anonymous in China, the majority are from rural areas. They abandon their children (usually girls) due to poverty, the one child policy and a strong cultural preference for boys. While teen pregnancy, substance abuse and dysfunctional families do exist in China, it is less likely that a Chinese baby will come from that type of situation. So, based on cultural mores, you do know something about the birth parents. Is it enough?
Another risk factor concerns the type of care a child receives prior to being adopted. Does the child live in a large, understaffed and underfinanced orphanage or in a small group home with a good child-to-caretaker ration, or in a foster home where he has received one-on-one attention? A child is more likely to be developmentally delayed if he's lived in a large, understaffed orphanage.
How long has your child been in care? "A child who is in short term institutional care is likely to have fewer associated risks than the one who has been there a long time," writes Hoopes.
3. Are you willing to be flexible?
You narrow your options considerably when you indicate that you will only accept a child under one year old. If you're willing to adopt a child up to two years old, or one who has more developmental delays that you had hoped for, you increase your options considerably.
4. Are you comfortable with differences?
If you're Caucasian and only feel comfortable adopting a child from your own race, you might consider Eastern Europe. However, even if you do that, your child brings with her a cultural heritage. You need to reconcile your own racial and ethnic issues before adopting so that you feel comfortable helping your child learn what her cultural identity means to her.
This article and additional articles describing the pros and cons of adoption is available at laurachristianson.com.
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