Now that we have looked at some of the benefits of international transracial adoption, I am now going to discuss some of the risks.

-Many adoptive parents worry about the health risks associated with adopting internationally. Many countries that allow Americans to adopt children do not have medical care equivalent to what we have available, and children can and sometimes do come home with significant undiagnosed health concerns. Minor issues, such as lice, scabies, parasites, etc. are also common in international adoptees.

-The actual age of the child can often be unknown, and... more

Since I have recently discussed the benefits and risks of domestic infant adoption and gave tips on reducing your domestic transracial adoption risks, I am now going to talk about the same topics in regards to international transracial adoption. (Please... more

In my last two posts I discussed the benefits and the risks associated with domestic infant transracial adoption.

In this post, I am going to give you some tips to minimize your domestic adoption risks.

-Before choosing to adopt domestically, you should do some real soul-searching and decide honestly if you can handle the emotional risks associated with domestic infant adoption. If you are able to prepare yourself for disappointment while keeping hopeful, and remembering that many... more

I recently wrote about choosing between international and domestic adoption, and shared some of our experiences with both types of transracial adoption.

Deciding what type of adoption is right for your family is not often an easy thing. While some people feel strongly pulled in one direction or the other early on, many are unsure. And I would say that even if you do feel strongly towards one type of adoption, that... more

There was an interesting comment left on this post from Jen, the mom of two boys and one little girl adopted domestically.(Thanks Jen, for commenting!)

You can read the whole comment here, but basically, Jen was sharing her feelings that it makes her uncomfortable when parents will only consider international adoption, because she feels like they are sending the message that there is something wrong with the kids available for adoption in the U.S. She also said that she feels... more

In my last two posts, I have written about two articles courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune on international and transracial adoption. The first article discussed a variety of topics related to international adoption, including the “search for identity” by adopted children, and the second article was written by an adult adoptee from India who shared her feelings on not “belonging” in either the U.S. or in India.

The article I am going to write about today is from the same series, and is titled, ... more

In my last post, I wrote about an article in a recent series by the Salt Lake Tribune on international and transracial adoption. In this post, I am going to discuss another one of these articles.

This article is titled “I realized I was a permanent outsider”, and was written by Salt Lake Tribune reporter Sheena McFarland. It starts off by telling her story… of being adopted from India by a family living in Utah when she was very young, and just recently taking a trip back to India in an attempt to help... more

The Salt Lake Tribune has been running a series of articles on transracial adoption that I have been enjoying, and wanted to share with you.

The first one is titled “Kids Find Homes but Search for Identity”.

This article talks about the increasing number of transracial and international adoptions in the United States every year and provides a lot of information on the number of adoptions happening, where children are being adopted from, average costs and waiting times for different programs, etc. Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of the article for the “Tips for Adoptive Parents”,... more

There has been a lot of news lately in regards to international adoption programs, and most of it is not overly encouraging. I wrote awhile ago about all of the changes in the China adoption program, and how officials have decided to become more restrictive on who can adopt from China, starting in May of this year. You can read those posts here and here, and you can get lots more information on China adoptions on the China adoption blog.

Even more recently... more

I mentioned this a while ago on my personal blog, but forgot that I hadn’t mentioned it on here yet.

Our family has been having an amazing experience thanks to Make A Wish.

We had several people, including staff at Belane’s clinic, mention that kids who are HIV+ automatically qualify for a “wish” through the Make A Wish foundation.

It all seemed a little too good to be true (and you know what they usually say about stuff that sounds too good to be true), so we didn’t get our hopes up. But I gave a call after some prompting from friends and family just to “feel things out”, and they jumped all over working with us.

To make a long story short, Belane wished to... more