The majority of adoptions in the United States don’t happen when a teenage girl hands her baby over to a childless couple at the hospital or when a husband and wife travel overseas to rescue a child from a dingy orphanage. The first federal survey of both men and women on adoption reveals what we know at Sunrise Children’s Services: that nearly half the adoptions in America each year happen when foster parents adopt children who would benefit from being a permanent part of a new, loving family.
In the most recent annual statistics available, there were 120,000 adoptions in the United States. About 50,000 of those were through foster care!
According to the survey, men adopt at twice the rate women do because they tend to adopt stepchildren in greater numbers. And only 1 percent of single women place their babies up for adoption – down from 9 percent in the 1970s.
The survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a significant increase in the number of children adopted annually from other countries – from 7,000 in 1990 to 19,000 a decade later. Still, international adoptions represent just 16 percent of total adoptions.
Focus on the Family recently has been presenting adoption as part of the sanctity-of-human-life ethic, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. In addition, Focus on the Family is raising awareness about “the 127,000 children in the U.S. who are considered unadoptable – kids, typically over the age of 8, who are languishing in foster care,” the newspaper reports.
We see it happen more and more in Sunrise’s Family Foster Care Program. When parental rights are legally terminated, foster parents have the opportunity to pursue adoption of the child in their care. Foster-to-adopt is part of the orientation all our foster parents receive.
Sunrise will continue to offer Adoption Services for couples considering domestic or international adoptions. But the need is greater for those willing to offer a second chance at family life to the “unwanted” children of our nation. Consider joining Sunrise’s foster families in meeting the need.
Recent Comments