International Adoption in America

Since I was young, I knew I'd adopt. Not because I'm infertile (as far as I know I'm think I'm capable of bearing children), not because I believe the population is exploding and that we should regulate how many children people can bear, because I definitely believe in personal freedom. I wanted to adopt because-- why bring children into this world when there are so many children already brought into this world just in need of having a loving supportive family and home? 

Adoption can be a beautiful thing, however, it is a very controversial and difficult process. We must take into account the financial aspect that comes with adoption, the many months and years an adoption process goes through, the kind of psychological and traumatic issues the child has, the family the child comes from, and your family values and what they assume to get out of adoption. To put it bluntly, the process of adoption is not a walk in the park, and in some ways definitely not as easy as having your own biological children. 

Over the years, a significant amount of adoptees come into families that are abusive and treat them differently from the biological children. Coincidentally, a lot of these families are extremely religious evangelical conservatives who adopt older children and have big families. Take Hana's (and many other Ethiopian adoptees) stories as an example. They pressure many mothers to give up their children "to give them to a better family." And it's not just evangelicals who do this either, many people in their home countries coax mothers with large amounts of money to give up their babies for adoption, and many of these mothers come from poor impoverished backgrounds. 

The adoption black market, where children are traded around underground, is also an issue as well. Many adoptive parents decide that they don't want their children anymore, so they sell them underground. One case of this was the Illinois couple Nicole and Calvin Eason, who decided to adopt a 16 year old girl named Quitta, and later decided they didn't want her anymore so they sold her off, shortly after she went missing.

To adopt in the most ethical way possible, you need to make sure your potential adoptee comes from a well known and trusted adoption organization, you are capable of dealing with the many struggles and difficulties you may face while dealing with your child, and making sure the family the adoptee comes from wants personally to give the child to a better family. These facts aren't to scare people away from adoption, they are just the mere realities you must face if you want to adopt.