I Believe in the importance of adoption.

I believe in the importance of adoption.

I’ve never met my real parents, my birth parents I mean. Don’t know much about them besides a few details. I don’t know their names, where they were from, their occupations, what they’re doing now or what their personalities were like. Now that you know that about me, did you know that in 2020 there over four hundred thousand children in the American foster care system? I was lucky enough to find a loving pair of parents right away, but so many aren’t as fortunate as I was. I didn’t have to wait five minutes, while some can spend years in foster homes or worse. 

It’s expensive – financially, emotionally, and physically. Unfortunately, the adoption process can seem daunting and overwhelming. Fortunately for me, my parents were persistent and faithful in their pursuit of adopting. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t have times where they were discouraged or faced obstacles. On average there are one hundred thirty-five thousand children who are adopted every year. The average child waits for an adoptive family for more than three years. It is estimated that there are over a million couples waiting to adopt. So why are there so many children who are waiting to be adopted?  I believe that the process is too cumbersome and expensive, with average costs ranging from fifteen thousand to forty thousand dollars. That’s only the financial impact.  The other emotionally draining stressor is the uncertainty of the process. Couples can spend money and time and still never end up with a finalized adoption. 

The amount that the government spends on foster care administrative costs is incredibly high. The total cost of placing and monitoring children in the foster care system totaled four point three billion dollars in 2019. Imagine if some of these funds were allocated to subsidize adoption fees and expenses!

I am far from the only one in my family who is adopted. I have one of my favorite cousins Adam, who also went through an open adoption process similar to mine. Which is starting to become the most common way to adopt. There are over seven million Americans who are adopted. I think it would be safe to say everyone knows at least one family who has been blessed with being able to adopt. Although I’ll never know, I’d like to believe that I’m in a much better situation than what could have been.