by Genesis H.

Created on: September 10, 2008

For so many people now days looking into adopting children, going overseas is becoming a reality. To me this is sad but very true. Many who look into the cost and time differences in adopting in country and out of country see many perks.

When people spend years and years attempting to have children of their own and fail, they do not want to wait a whole lot longer. We have all seen the national geographic shows with these poor little Chinese girls with no homes and it looks hopeful for desperate people. Anyone with a maternal bone in their body is saddened at these pictures and videos.

The sad part is that we do not see footage such as this of children in America. People who are looking to adopt infants in the states are told how difficult it is to get a child as an infant. However, if you have ever worked in or around the foster care system you know there are many children looking for places to go. Many, many children are hoping to find their forever home. Their faces are not seen on the T.V. screen however and are sometimes in the foster care system their entire lives.

I can understand the reasons for our very strict guidelines to adopt children in the U.S. Parents should go through very thorough screening before being aloud the possibility of raising a child. What I don't understand is sometimes parents who do not deserve to keep their own children are put through less intensive investigations and are aloud to keep their children far longer than they should.

There was a local story in my area about a woman who was living with her abusive husband. The couple were constantly fighting and the neighbors were constantly calling the police out. One night it got so bad the husband was actually choking his wife with a telephone cord when the police arrived. One of the neighbors had to tell the police officers before they drove away that there was still a child in the house. The mother was going to the hospital and the father to jail. Two days later mother and daughter were back at the home like nothing had happened. Her child didn't get taken away.

My point in this is simple. If we want to help our children in the U.S. in finding "forever homes" we should make changes to our system of letting this happen. If we do not adjust things somewhat whether it be in the time or cost involved or both then more and more couples are going to resort to the Asian adoptions.

For the people who are professional foster parents this does not look as appealing. These foster parents receive a check once a month from the state they are in. These amounts range from $2,000 to $4,000 roughly. It is a very lucrative business for them. Why would they want it to change. They are actually happy we do not air how many of these foster children there are in our country because it is job security for them.

I hope that we can help our own country's issues with our foster children. It would be positive for both the children and the prospective parents. The truth is that I do not see the U.S. changing the way they handle our adoptions. I do see it becoming easier for Americans to adopt Asian children because it is a good situation for them. I believe it will be a new reality. For some a better reality. For the foster kids in the U.S. maybe not.

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