The numbers are in: International adoptions for fiscal year 2009 (10-1-08 – 9-30-09) dipped 27 percent from 2008, to 12,753.

Intercountry adoptions peaked in 2004, with 22,884 children from other countries finding homes with U.S. families.

The top 10 countries from which U.S. families adopted in fiscal year 2009 were:

1. China – 3001
2. Ethiopia – 2277
3. Russia – 1586
4. South Korea – 1080
5. Guatemala – 756
6. Ukraine – 610
7. Vietnam – 481
8. Haiti – 330
9. India – 297
10. Kazakhstan – 295

In an Associated Press article, David Crary writes:

China has been steadily cutting back the numbers of healthy, well-adjusted orphans being made available for adoptions; a majority of Chinese children now available to U.S. adoptive families have special physical or emotional needs.

Adoptions from Guatemala (the #1 country in 2008) and Vietnam (#6 in 2008) have dropped significantly because adoptions from those countries have been plagued by corruption, and adoptions from those countries have been shut down indefinitely.

Domestic adoptions of newborns are also decreasing. Because of our current economic recession, many adoption agencies mistakenly believed more women in crisis pregnancies would decide to place their unborn babies for adoption.

According to a New York Times article by Susan Dominus, that hasn’t happened.

Dawn Smith-Pliner, founder of Vermont-based Friends in Adoption, told the Times that pregnant women are instead thinking:

“…if the achievable goal, a half-decent job, isn’t an option to work toward, then I might as well keep the baby — that’s tangible.”

Single motherhood continues to gain societal acceptance, and women who are considering placing a child for adoption may be foregoing traditional adoption agencies in favor of researching and networking with prospective adoptive parents online.

Sources:

• Intercountry Adoption, Office of Children’s Issues, U.S. Department of State
• Foreign adoptions by Americans hit 13-year low
• Lean Times, but No Rise in Adoptions

U.S. men aged 18-44 years are more than twice as likely as women of the same age group to have adopted a child, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The data come from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, conducted by NCHS. Some of the findings in the report includes:

• Among ever-married persons, men were more than 2.5 times as likely as women to have adopted — 3.8 percent compared with 1.4 percent.
• Overall, 2.3 percent of all men had ever adopted a child, compared with 1.1 percent of women. This equates to nearly 1.3 million men and 613,000 women. Though the new report does not provide conclusive data as to why more men adopt than women, the author of the study points out that the reasons are likely related to the fact that there are greater opportunities for men to adopt their stepchildren than for women, mainly because of post-divorce living arrangements.
• Over one in four women aged 40-44 years who had ever used infertility services had adopted a child.
• Though never-married adults aged 18-44 years were significantly less likely to have adopted a child compared with those who were currently married, approximately 100,000 never-married women and 73,000 never-married men had adopted a child.
• Hispanic and non-Hispanic black women were more likely to be currently seeking to adopt a child, compared with non-Hispanic white women.

Source:
Adoption Experiences of Women and Men and Demand for Children to Adopt by Women 18-44 Years of Age in the United States, 2002. Series 23, Number 27. 45 pp.  CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Office of Communication (301) 458-4800
E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov

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A new study from the University of Minnesota found that about 14 percent of adopted adolescents are diagnosed with a behavioral disorder or have contact with a mental health professional. The rate for non-adopted teens is about half that.

Why the disparity? The study shows that it could be due to factors such as biological genes or the perinatal care the child’s birth mother received.

Well, that’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?  Children who are placed for adoption are somewhat likely to have birth parents who have a mental illness or behavior disorder themselves. It seems reasonable that adopted children may inherit the same disorders—or at least the tendencies to have the same disorder.

Past studies have attributed the higher percentage of behavior disorders among adopted children to the fact that their adoptive parents are more proactive than the general population about recognizing the signs/symptoms, having their children tested, and seeking care psychiatric care for them.

The study also concluded that children adopted domestically (U.S.) are more likely to have behavioral disorders than those adopted internationally. Children of intercountry adoption are far more likely to internalize their problems (depression and separation anxiety disorders are common), whereas children adopted domestically tend to act out.

Seems to me that both domestically-adopted and internationally-adopted children are prone to behavior disorders, according to this study’s results. What is different is the manner in which those disorders are manifested–either internally or externally.

Clinicians from the University of Minnesota interviewed (in person) nearly 700 adopted children and 540 non-adopted children, all ages 11 to 21. Participants had to have a non-adopted sibling within the same age range to help compare behaviors.

Source:
Kingsbury, Kathleen, “Adoptees More Likely to be Troubled,” TIME magazine, May 5, 2008

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We often hear about single women adopting, but what about single men?

According to a report from Bob McClay of KTAR radio, the number of single men who are adopting children more than doubled between 1998 and 2005.

Single men account for 3 percent of all adoptions from foster care.

Source: KTAR.com

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released. Click here to learn about a limited-time offer: Buy 1, Get 1 FREE! Only $12.95 for TWO books (including
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Some people assume that adopting internationally or from foster care is their only option these days, particularly in light of the media furor over celebrities adopting from overseas.

Not so. According to a special report in Adoptive Families magazine (June 2007), domestic infant adoption is alive and well. Here are some statistics that might surprise you:

In 2002, there were approximately 22,000 U.S. newborn adoptions, compared to 20,099 international adoptions to the U.S.

The average time it takes a prospective adoptive parent to match with an expectant (birth) mother after preparation of the portfolio is 12 months or less. Most families complete a domestic adoption within 18 to 24 months.

• 50 percent of the babies adopted in the U.S. are Causasian
• 28 percent are Asian/Bi/Multiracial
• 16 percent are African-American
• 6 percent are Latino

While the cost of adopting domestically varies widely (from about $5,000 to over $30,000), the median total cost for domestic infant adoption (before the Federal Adoption Tax Credit or employee benefits) is less than $20,000 for the majority of parents adopting. That’s considerably less than the average cost of adopting internationally.

True, there are restrictions for people who want to adopt infants domestically. Many agencies place restrictions on prospective adoptive parents based on their age, marital status, and religious affiliation. But so do the counties from which parents usually adopt.

The biggest “restriction” on parents adopting infants within the U.S. is that only 1.4 percent of pregnant, single women place their babies for adoption (National Survey of Family Growth, 2002).

The report looks at several common misconceptions about domestic infant adoption. In the next post, we’ll examine a few of those.

Source:
“Perception & Reality: The Untold Story of Domestic Adoption,” by Eliza Newlin Carney, Adoptive Families, June 2007.

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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a report, “Adjustment of the Immigration and Naturalization Benefit Application and Petition Fee Schedule,” which outlines some fee changes related to adoption:

I-600A fees will increase from $545 to $670 (page 100)

Form I-600. For filing a petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative for
issuance of an immigrant visa under section 204(a) of the Act. (When more than one
petition is submitted by the same petitioner on behalf of orphans who are brothers or
sisters, only one fee will be required.)–$670.

Form I-600A. For filing an application for advance processing of orphan petition.
(When more than one petition is submitted by the same petitioner on behalf of orphans
who are brothers or sisters, only one fee will be required.)–$670.

I-600A average processing time is 3.39 months (page21)

I-600A average completion rate time is 1.53 hours (this figure reflects only time spent actually working on petition) (page 78) 

Biometric fees (digital fingerprinting) to be increased from $70/person to $80/person (page 84)

29,500 I-600A applications were filed in 2006.
This figure is expected to increase to about 29,601 by Fiscal Year 2008/2009 (page 66)

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Today, I’ll report Recommendation #4 from the study: “Safeguarding The Rights And Well-Being Of Birthparents In The Adoption Process,” conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

Recommendation 4: Modify state laws on the timing of relinquishment and revocation so that parents have several weeks after childbirth before an adoption decision becomes irrevocable. Ideally, this would include a minimum of one week after birth before a relinquishment can be signed and then a substantial revocation period.

The authors of the study write:

A factor that compromises genuine parental consent is subtle and/or overt coercion, whether from parents, friends, religious or school communities, or the adoption professionals themselves.

Adding the ingredient of financial profit to the equation increases the prospect of pressure from some adoption practitioners. Unscrupulous facilitators (and others) analyze the factors that increase the likelihood of relinquishment and try to implement them; for instance, they sometimes persuade an expectant mother to relocate to another state—where she doesn’t know anyone and has no support system—or to accept inflated reimbursement for living expenses to increase the chance that she will feel obliged to relinquish.

Overt coercive tactics should be barred in law and practice; furthermore, ethical practitioners need to be alert to even unintended, subtle forms of pressure – so, for instance, they need to help an expectant mother understand explicitly that accepting financial aid or developing bonds with the potential adoptive parents does not obligate her to go through with the placement if she decides it isn’t right for her or her child.

If the best interests of birth parents are to be supported, along with those of their children, then sound laws and practices have to be developed relating to when a woman or man can sign a relinquishment and whether the decision can be revoked.

State laws should provide every reasonable protection to ensure that the decision is sound, reasoned and informed. That resonates as intuitively fair before the child is born, but it also should apply to the period afterward because that is when post-partum hormonal changes need time to abate; when the reality (and finality) of the choice often becomes most real; and when mothers and fathers need to be allowed to reflect on the "rightness" of their decision.

Though some adoptive parents and practitioners might balk at the lengths of time involved, they ultimately serve everyone’s interests because the adoption is on firmer legal and ethical foundations and adoptive parents can feel more secure that the birth parents were sure of their decision and will not try to reclaim their child.

At least 28 states specify a waiting period after the birth of a child before legal relinquishments can be signed; only six states mandate a waiting period longer than three days.

Ideally, state laws would require a minimum of four to seven days after childbirth before allowing a woman (or man) to sign a relinquishment. In most instances, that would allow time for the mother to leave the hospital and for her to make a reasoned judgment after the immediate physical impact of delivery has abated.

At least 17 states and the District of Columbia have adoption laws providing a specified number of days after the signing of a relinquishment (ranging from three to 30 days) during which parents can revoke their decisions without having to prove fraud or best interests of the child.

A few additional states allow revocation before court action terminating parental rights. In many other countries, including the majority in Europe, consents for adoption do not become final for about six weeks; in approximately half of U.S. states, irrevocable consent can be established four days after birth or less.

This is a controversial recommendation, to say the least. I’m sure that birth and adoptive parents have very different views on this subject. I live in a state in which the adoption laws favor adoptive parents — birth parents have 48 hours after signing relinquishment papers to revoke their consent. For my husband and I, who experienced four failed adoptions in the course of one year, the 48-hour rule was a godsend. After we brought home our child, we didn’t have to wonder whether his birth parents were going to show up to reclaim him.

On the other hand, I know that some people who place their child for adoption are coerced into doing so, and that isn’t right. I’ve heard lots of stories from women who relinquish their child minutes after he is born and later regret it.

There are no easy answers to this dilemma. How can the adoption system be fair to everyone? The first step, in my opinion, would be to establish consistent laws among the states. Whether the grace period is 48 hours or 4 days, it should be consistent across the board.

Readers, what do you think? Based on your own experiences with adoption, what would work best for you?

Source: “Safeguarding The Rights And Well-Being Of Birthparents In The Adoption Process” by Susan Livingston Smith, Program and Project Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, November 2006.

Related Posts:
Statistics About Infant Adoption and Adoption Practitioners

Statistics About Parents Who Place Their Children For Adoption

Most Birth Mothers Want Information About Their Children

Birth Parents’ Rights in Adoption

Women Considering Placing a Child for Adoption Should Receive Counseling

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and
check out my Exploring
Adoption bookstore.

During the next week, I’ll share each of the seven recommendations from the comprehensive study: “Safeguarding The Rights And Well-Being Of Birthparents In The Adoption Process,” conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

Recommendation 1: Establish legally enforceable post-adoption contact agreements in all states and permit adults who were adopted to regain access to their own records.

Birth mothers in closed adoptions say that living with the uncertainty of what became of their children is the most difficult factor they cope with.

Receiving information about their children is the most important thing that would help to bring them peace of mind.

That reality flies in the face of contemporary stereotypes of birth mothers as women who crave anonymity and oppose contact by the children they placed for adoption; rather, the desire to know about their offspring appears almost universal.

For example, one study of birth mothers in Britain, who ranged in age from 22 to 81, found that all but nine of the 262 respondents (about 3 percent) wanted basic information about their children. The same small number said they wanted to preserve the secrecy of their identities.

Many pregnant women today seek open adoptions that include written agreements for ongoing contact with the adoptive families.

State legislators frequently use birthmothers’ supposed desire for privacy as a rationale for keeping birth records sealed when, in reality, only a tiny minority wants to stay closeted and the vast majority want information about or contact with the children they relinquished.

Source: “Safeguarding The Rights And Well-Being Of Birthparents In The Adoption Process” by Susan Livingston Smith, Program and Project Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, November 2006.

Related Posts:
Statistics About Infant Adoption and Adoption Practitioners

Statistics About Parents Who Place Their Children For Adoption
For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and
check out my Exploring
Adoption bookstore.

Each year in the United States, approximately 14,000 women and a growing number of men make an agonizing parenting decision that they hope will provide their children with the best possible future: They place their babies for adoption.

A comprehensive study, conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, examines contemporary infant adoption, particularly as it relates to birth parents.

The most prevalent situations a woman is in when she chooses to place a child for adoption include:

1. Women in their early- to mid-20s who have graduated from high school and are becoming independent from their parents.
2. Single parents of all ages, and occasionally, married parents, with other children who are struggling to obtain emotional and financial resources to parent.
3. Teenagers (about one-quarter of those who make an adoption plan are teens).
4. Women with extreme personal difficulties that compromise their ability to parent (poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence, severe mental illness, developmental delays, and severe health problems).

• Victims of rape, either by relatives, date-rape, or rape by strangers.

• Women from conservative ethnic, religious, and cultural communities that have strong prohibitions against out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
• Recent immigrants (most undocumented) who have no social support or extended family.
• Parents expecting a baby with a disability

90 percent or more of the women who place their children for adoption have met the adoptive parents of their children. Almost all of the remaining birth mothers helped to choose the new parents through profiles. Contrary to the stereotypes that have been created about them, almost no women choosing adoption today seek anonymity or express a desire for no ongoing information or contact.

A minority of infant adoptions involve fathers in the process. Many states have established putative father registries to involve these men, but they are too often used as a means of cutting them out rather than including them.

Women who feel pressured into placing their children suffer from poorer grief resolution and greater negative feelings. Most states do not have laws that maximize sound decision-making, however, such as required counseling, waiting periods of at least several days after childbirth before signing relinquishments, and adequate revocation periods during which birthparents can change their minds.

Research on birth parents in the era of confidential (closed) adoptions suggests a significant proportion struggled—and sometimes continue to struggle—with chronic, unresolved grief. The primary factor bringing peace of mind is knowledge about their children’s well-being.

Women who have the highest grief levels are those who placed their children with the understanding that they would have ongoing information, but the arrangement was cut off. Such contact/information is the most important factor in facilitating birthparents’ adjustment.

Choosing the adoptive family and having ongoing contact and/or knowledge results in lower levels of grief and greater peace of mind with adoption decisions.

Related Posts:
Statistics About Infant Adoption and Adoption Practitioners

Source: “Safeguarding The Rights And Well-Being Of Birthparents In The Adoption Process” by Susan Livingston Smith, Program and Project Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, November 2006.

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and
check out my Exploring
Adoption bookstore.

Each year in the United States, approximately 14,000 women and a growing number of men make an agonizing parenting decision that they hope will provide their children with the best possible future: They place their babies for adoption.

A comprehensive study, conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, examines contemporary infant adoption, particularly as it relates to birth parents.

Here are some interesting statistics from the study regarding infant adoption:

More than 135,000 adoptions take place annually. About 13,000 to 14,000 of these adoptions involve babies who are voluntarily relinquished domestically.

Of non-stepparent adoptions each year, approximately 59 percent are from the child welfare system, 26 percent are international, and 15 percent are voluntarily relinquished domestic infant adoptions.

Statistics About Adoption Practitioners

About half of all infant adoptions are carried out by independent practitioners, who facilitate birthparents’ placing their children directly with potential adoptive parents.

Service fees for infant adoptions typically range from $20,000 to $35,000.

The vast majority of adoption agencies, as well as independent practitioners, offer open adoptions, in which identifying information is exchanged. Many of the adoptions they arrange also are mediated adoptions, in which ongoing information is exchanged through the agency.

Currently, 20 states permit legally enforceable adoption contact agreements, but the laws in only 13 of those states apply to infant adoptions. (Penalties for violation of such contracts include fines, but never return of the child).

In some states, attorneys paid by and representing the prospective adoptive parents also may represent the women (and men when they are involved) considering placing their children. This practice of dual representation raises acute ethical and practical concerns.

At least 28 states specify a waiting period after the birth of a child before legal relinquishments can be signed; only six states mandate a waiting period longer than three days.

At least 17 states and the District of Columbia have adoption laws providing a specified number of days after the signing of a relinquishment (ranging from three to 30 days) during which parents can revoke their decisions without having to prove fraud or best interests of the child.

In the next post: Statistics about Birth Parents

Source: “Safeguarding The Rights And Well-Being Of Birthparents In The Adoption Process” by Susan Livingston Smith, Program and Project Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, November 2006.

For more news and information about adoption, visit www.laurachristianson.com, and
check out my Exploring
Adoption bookstore.