Adoption is an integral part of culture in the United States as it crosses the borders of ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, and touches hundreds of thousands of individuals each year. Specifically in 2009 there were 12,753 international adoptions in the United States, signifying a 25% drop from 2008 state statistics posted by the Center of Adoption Policy. Every year there are single parents, families, and individuals who pursue adoption for a variety of reasons. The process embodies a legal issue as well as a lifelong family commitment. The draw may be derived from family connections to infertility or the lifelong dream of adoption, whatever the driving motivation the presence is undeniable throughout our society. As the range of reasons behind the pursuit of adoption amongst individuals varies so does the type of adoption. From the full spectrum of open to closed cases, to issues of trans-racial adoption, orphanage issues, single parent adoption, inter-country adoption versus domestic adoptions the process is lengthy and comes with many tolls. The reach of adoptions stretches into the financial, emotional, family, and cultural spheres of life.
The process begins for most by isolating the focus of their search and educating themselves. With the focus of the families or individuals process is further directed through legal avenues of either a licensed private agency adoption, where families relinquish parental rights to the agency and work with the agency as they decide about a prospective match for a fee of up to 40,000 dollars. This agency must also qualify and meet the expectations of the State standards for licensure. To independent adoption which conducts the process through an attorney and typically works directly with the birth parents and this type of transaction must agree with the standards of the bar association and State regulations. This Independent type of adoption is not identified by all states and typically is also less expensive than the aforementioned private agency adoptions. Facilitated/unlicensed agency adoptions are significantly less supervised and assured as they are directed by an unlicensed individual who links birth parents with looking prospective adoptive parents or individuals. However these types of processes are further affected by the specific type of adoption being conducted from inter-country to foster care adoptions.
Especially, as Intercountry adoptions signify further processes in filing with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Determining the type of adoption dependent upon whether it is subject under the Hague Adoption Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which was formally inducted into placement within the United States on April 1, 2008, and establishes standards to protect inter-country adoptions. The Hague Convention preambles states;
“The child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. Intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin.”
The process continues with further legal due process in choosing between forms I-800A, Application for Determination of Sustainability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, or I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.
While the legal process of adoption is pervasive in the first steps of obtaining a child the focus of the paradigm shifts dramatically as the child grows to issues of assimilation into the family and community as well as issues of diversified ethnic background and even the role of biological parents in the adult adopted individuals life.
Also, as we’re embarking on our week long topic of adoption:
What are your preliminary responses?
Do any of you have personal connections to adoption?
What are your thoughts on the different policies regarding adoption processes in the United States?
Sources:
Taken from:http://www.adoptionpolicy.org/facts.html
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_adoptoption.cfm
http://adoption.state.gov/about/who/eligibility.html)
Posted by: Jessica Powell, Cassandra Knox, Nancy Chen, Kendall Eifler, Courtney Vataha
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I know that recently there was research done to show that alot of kids who were being adopted from other countries were actually stolen from their biological parents. I think it said that there was an agency about 10 years ago that was doing alot of this in China and last year began to reunite the stolen children with their biological families. There is always a great fear when people hear about these sorts of stories because not only is it awful to think these children are taken from their loving families but there is also the fear of loving a child and then having to give them back to their families.
ReplyDeleteOn the note of international children adjusting to their new environment I have had friends and relatives who were adopted into a family of a different ethnicity and race and have found it created great identity issues for them. A friend of mine who is originally from Korea but adopted into a white family says he was raised to be a white boy but always felt weird in his own skin.
While I thinking that adoption is a wonderful and very necessary thing, I do understand where the concerns come from and think it is just that much more necessary to pay attention to them when you are considering adoption.