Why are all the interest in adopting kids from Africa by white people and celebs? Why not adopt American kids?

Question

Working as a Pre-school Psychologist in an economically drepressed area of the south I have to say that many of our children live like they are in a 3rd world nation. How many of you have visited with kids here in US in homes or the foster system...I thought so. I have seen malnurishment, neglect from skin diseases that could have been simply treated, serious medical conditions ignored (sickle cell, strokes, seizures), I work with kids who are resistant to someone holding them because they have rarely or never been held by a loved one. I understand the children of the world need but I also understand that the children of America need as many of those same tradgies that happen in orphanges aboard happen right here. Also as a side note I have worked with parents who got a child from another country who got more than they bargined for social/emotionally and wanted to "return" the child.

Answer 1

Getting a newborn or young baby from the U.S. is very difficult as there arent many babies put up for adoption every year and with older babies and children their parents, however deadbeats, still have parental rights, and arent willing to give them up. By the time they are adoptable they are older (not that they shouldnt be adopted).
Many celebs want younger children and it is easier to adopt younger children from other 3rd world countries, they just give money and easily get a child and they dont have to go through the social workers.
It also looks good to adopt a child from a 3rd world country and they look like humanitarians, which they are, and it is admirable for them to do this. Imagine what a difference they have made in the life of this child.

Answer 2

We are adopting internationally for 2 reasons. The first cause we live here in Romania and we can adopt here. The second is have you ever been to an Orphanage here or anywhere for that matter outside the US, Yea I thought not or you wouldn't ask this question. How do I know..I work in THEM! How many babies have you seen who bleed from their bottoms because their diaper rashes are so bad they look like some sort of flesh eating disease. I have...everyday and not just 1 rase case every other child has a rash so bad I want to cry for them. How many American children in the system cry because 1/2 a cup of smashed potaots and 1 TBS of ground horse is not enough to eat or babies who have never had milk or formula but a puree of orange stuff. What about not being held..I hold children who KNOW at 2 that I am the only person that day who is going to hold them and kiss them..so they scream and claw my face when I put them down.. Besides the homeless in the US are 10X better off than these kids here and if the US got their heads out their asses maybe so many kids there would actually be in loving homes and not in foster care...If you make it so hard and expensive and such a long wait. Oh course people will go elsewhere. As for the celebrities..who really cares. At least 1 child is better of thanks to them How many are better of thanks to you!

Answer 3

We adopted our 5 year old from Ukraine when she was a year old. I get really offended when people ask this question. What difference does it make where in the world the child is from, the point is whoever or wherever they are they still need a family. In third world countries it's much harder for them to get adopted by the people in their own country.

If you saw what I saw in the orphanages, saw what these children were being fed, saw them dressed in five layers of clothing due to no heat in the winter, walking around with pieces of ragged wet cloth for a diaper, and saw that they spent their entire existence in a pen no bigger than your living room, you would not be asking this question. I still have nightmares about all the little children that were left behind that I couldn't bring home with me.

Answer 4

Just for the record, you still have to have a homestudy done in the US to adopt internationally.
I know many people who have or are in the process of adopting internationally and some of the main reasons (whether or not I agree or condone them personally) are because they fear the mother of the child taking the child back, they feel that they would have to advertise themselves too much to find a match in the states, they are fearful that an older foster care child will be too damaged and may act out sexually or aggressively, they believe that children in the US, even those in foster care, are living better lives than those in 3rd world countries, they want a young child however they are not prime candidates to be chosen by a pregnant woman, or they say they feel "called" by a higher power to adopt overseas.

Answer 5

I know it sounds bad, but it seems like some people think of children as handbags. They want that new "accessory". I think that somethimes the modivation for SOME people to adopt outside of their race is so that their decision is apparent and the can show off their new "Adopted Child". I've seen it. They get a ton of attention and praise fro do something so "sacraficial". Others just don't want to jump through hoops and their money goes to feeding other babies in the orphanage not to fund a director of an agency to drive a mercedes.

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The adoption process isn't always the same if you adopt over-seas. Some of these people "celebs" are residents in another country too and are subject to laws of the country where and adoption is finalized. Some requirements are just a large donation to an orphanage or feeding center.

Answer 6

I believe that many people who adopt outside of the USA do it because they don't want to wait to find a child here, or it could be that they are not candidates here in the USA, due to stringent guidelines, like age, or other things.
I really don't know. but all children deserve good parents, so God bless anyone willing to give them a home, wherever they come from.

Answer 7

I don't know. There are plenty of very needy kid in the US who need homes. When I adopted 24 years ago I considered a foreign adoption and then found a boarder baby to adopt. ( A baby who lives in the hospital where they were born because they had no place to go.)

Answer 8

Why not, indeed!

Personally, I think the adoption tax credit should be abolished unless people adopt from our foster care system.

There are half a million kids here in the system, and about 150,000 are available for adoption. Yet people go traipsing off to China or Guatemala or Korea or wherever, and are turning their backs on these kids in the process. I think it's shameful. And ugly.

Answer 9

Many people adopt overseas because they fear a "Baby Jessica" situation where the birth mother will demand to have the child back. With international adoptions, there is little to no danger of this.

Answer 10

Some people think globally. Our country has social services for children and families in need. Most African and other third world countries do not. People starve to death if they can not afford food, they die if they need medical care, they may even lack clean water for drinking. Additionally, people in these countries do not have access to birth control. Mothers have to make the painstaking decision to turn their new born children "out" in order to support the children they already have at home. Sometimes "out" means the streets, the dump or worse. It's hard to hear but true.

Children here are taken care of either by their mothers, foster parents, adoptive parents or in state homes. Children in other countries do not have that resource.

Just one of many reasons why people adopt internationally.

Other reasons include:
*Adoptions are not challenged or overturned once it is finalized and the child is in the home.
*The programs in some countries are more predictable.
*Some programs don't have a waiting list. Once you are eligible to adopt your process to adopt proceeds as there are waiting children.


FWIW, international adoption is just as costly as domestic adoption in most cases.

Also,...

If you can not be approved to adopt domestically you can not get approval to adopt internationally. Every international adoptive family has to go through all the state clearances that domestic adoptive parents have to go through. Additionally they have to go through federal processing and then when they are approved by the state and federal government they have to go through a third level of process in the country where they are adopting. It's harder, not easier. There is much more process, background checks and other red tape to adopt internationally.