I'm sorry my post is so out of sequence. Thank you, guys, for breaking the news of the possible release of the final 2 Baptists. We'll see.
Pink--I'd like to address your post. I'm sorry but I don't agree with you on a number of levels. Many children in the US are indeed, prenatally exposed to drugs or alcohol. Many, who have been in the system for years have behavioral and abandonment issues. That is a huge issue. However, children in third world countries often arrive with rickets, parasites, vitamin deficiencies, failure to thrive, post-nutritional deficiencies, institutionally induced attachment issues, and lack of medical histories.
Children born in the states most commonly have a "paper trail" back to the day of their birth or first prenatal appointment and due to very strict disclosure laws, rarely is an adopting parent unaware of previous abuse, neglect, or parental medical history issues.
An domestic adoptive parent is subjected to a home study as is the case with every international adoption. The same goes for post-placement supervision and interstate compact rules. These are federally and mandated and only a very black-market situation would be able to circumvent them. Once a child is legally adopted, usually 6-12 months after placement, no agency maintains any control of the child. If a family receives an adoption assistance stipend, no amount of reporting or accounting can be requested. Agencies may not have any impact on family choices concerning moving, education, discipline, therapy, etc.--not once the adoption is final. This sounds terrible and unethical but essentially, a parent can adopt from a Christian agency and tell the case manager that the child will attend a private Christian school and will maintain a twice yearly meeting with a birth parent. That family can pick up and move to another state or country and make any choices they wish concerning education and religion. No birth-family visitation/open adoption can be legally mandated. It is considered informal and a courtesy only. A legally adopted child is no different than a child born to a family. A parent is only required to follow state laws concerning appropriate education, protection, support, and discipline.
Many of the the very real issues you raise involve children who are in a foster/adoption placement. That is, when a foster family asks to adopt a child they've bonded with. If a family chooses domestic adoption, they can choose to only consider children who have no legal risk--the parental rights have been terminated. We've completed eight domestic adoptions like this. I cannot speak highly enough of our experiences, for the most part. We've had appropriate subsidies, excellent medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and mental health care, access to special education services, and respite help for the asking. If we want to be involved with an agency based support group, we could. We've had very good communication with the public state agencies that placed our children with us. The adoptions held no cost for our family. In fact, there are one time subsidies to help pay for travel and finalizations costs. Everything in US adoptions is intended to remove barriers to permanency and to create an incentive to adoption. If someone is truly interesting in adopting a healthy child of color, let me assure you that there are tens of thousands ready and waiting here in the states.
Adopting internationally, you are truly on your own. You have no way of ever knowing your child's true history. You receive no services, stipends, etc. In fact, you must sign a binding agreement to not apply for government funds (food stamps, SSI) for the child for a certain number of years after placement. Until recently, children with pre-existing medical conditions were not required to be covered under the family insurance plan. This process worked like a charm for our family with our Korean adoptions as the Korean process was finely honed by the 1980's. Our experience with Haiti was a total debacle and morass from the get go.
I encourage anyone with questions concerning adoption to check out the advocacy group I've worked with for the last 16 years, the North American Council on Adoptable Children:
www.nacac.org
There are lots of fact sheets and great links. As an end note, I've given birth three times to gloriously healthy and bright children. We did everything the "right way". As those children grew up they developed serious mental and neurological illnesses--related to an unknown gene which also caused my severe disability. We've also sadly lost a biological grandchild soon after her birth to this same disorder.
Our Korean adoptees and four of our domestically adopted children are fabulously healthy and productive adults. Four struggle mightily with mental and chronic illness. Parenting is a gamble, no matter which door you go through.
