International Adoption at GAB!
Today, I’m over at Gender Across Borders talking about international adoption, and I’ve already received some really great comments! Here’s a little teaser:
My husband and I have given quite a bit of consideration to adopting a child. We’re not sure yet if we want children, but if we do decide to take on that immense responsibility, we know that we need to talk about giving a home to a child that otherwise wouldn’t have one. As teachers, we see all too often the effects on children within the foster care system, and the outcome can be heartbreaking. With the recent wave of natural disasters all over the world – hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes – not to mention ongoing global problems such as poverty, food shortages, and political unrest just to name a few, there is no shortage of heartbreaking stories about children ripped from their parents or parents with no other choice but to give up their children for adoption. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems there has been a noticeable increase in discussions in the United States about international adoption, which, along with my husband and my potential desire to adopt children, has prompted me to explore this topic further.
I have many, many questions about international adoption, and have only had a chance to do some cursory research, but I do believe it is important to explore this topic whether you are considering adoption or not, because policies are still being made and desperately do need to be made. According to the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism’s Gender and Justice Project:
For decades, international adoption has been a Wild West, all but free of meaningful law, regulation, or oversight. Western adoption agencies, seeking to satisfy consumer demand, have poured millions of dollars of adoption fees into underdeveloped countries. Those dollars and Euros have, too often, induced the unscrupulous to buy, defraud, coerce, and sometimes even kidnap children away from families that loved and would have raised them to adulthood.
Click here to read the rest of the post, and leave your thoughts in the comments!