One of the many questions and comments that transracial adoptive families who have built their families through international adoption dread the most is, "Why didn't you adopt from the U.S.?" or some variation on that theme.

It seems that most people have a vague knowledge of the fact that there are lots of kids waiting for adoption in the United States, and then many people seem to have the attitude of, "we should take care of our own first", even when they don't really have any idea what is involved in adopting domestically or internationally or why an adoptive family would choose on over the other.

It is true that there are over 100,000 children currently available for adoption through the U.S. foster care system. There are single children, small sibling groups and large sibling groups waiting for homes. There are children of many different races available. There are many children with emotional, medical or behavioral special needs (and some have a combination of all three)waiting for homes. There are also healthy children, however most of the healthy children available through foster care are older.

There are no concrete numbers, however there are also many children in the U.S. placed for private domestic adoption. Typically these children are infants, although there are some older children placed for adoption this way, too.

There are benefits to adopting through the foster care system or through a private domestic adoption. Those benefits include:

- There are little to no fees involved with a foster care adoption, and many adoptive parents even receive subsidy payments and/or Medicaid until the reach age 18.

- There is no international travel involved.

- The children usually speak English as their first language (although there are some children waiting who speak Spanish as their first language).

- With children who are not infants (and sometimes even with children who are very young, there are usually multiple visits between the new adoptive parents and the children before the placement is made, so a gradual "getting to know you" can take place.

- Open adoption is possible and encouraged in many situations.

- The process can move quickly.

- The paperwork is minimal.

- There are usually (at least some-what) accurate medical records and information for parents, and medical concerns that are common with international adoption, such as parasites, bacteria, malnutrition, etc. are usually not an issue, or at least are less common.

All of that being said, since 2002, United States citizens have adopted over 20,000 children internationally each year, so there are obviously many reasons why so many are choosing to adopt internationally instead of domestically.

This will be continued in my next post.


Resources for domestic adoption:

AdoptUSKids

Legal issues, including foster adopt laws by State here

National Adoption Information Clearinghouse has tons of great information on foster care adoption here.

Adoption.com’s page on Foster Adoption

Foster Care Adoption message boards on Adoption.com

Foster Adopt Blog on Adoption.com

Foster Care Blog on Adoption.com

Hoping to Adopt Blog on Adoption.com