Why don't people Adopt in USA in stead of going over seas to Adopt.?

Question

Kids here need LOVE and Good Parents, Support and Guidance.

Answer 1

For us, it was because of the uncertainty of a domestic adoption. We have lost 4 babies in 7 years and we could not handle another heartbreak. In our home state a birth mother has 6 months to change her mind and take the baby back. We knew that if we had taken a baby into our home and loved him/her as our own, and then lost them it would be devastating. This is also why we decided against Foster/Adopt even though financially it would have been easiest, the thought of another loss was too big of a "cost" for us.

Also, domestic adoption can be very very expensive, more so than an international adoption. I was quoted upwards of $35,000 for a domestic adoption - and though we have plenty to raise a baby with all he/she would need (and more) coming up with that initial $35k would have been difficult.

Yet another reason is that my husband is Asian, and we wanted to adopt an Asian baby because he really wanted to honor his Asian heritage.

Finally, yes, with all of the losses that we have suffered, we really didn't feel capable of parenting a child with special needs - whether the needs were severe disabilities, drug addiction, or other physical deformities, etc. We didn't feel we would be the best parents we could be to a child with extra need - with international adoption we could request a healthy infant.

They might be selfish reasons, but we wanted to be parents and we did not want to put ANY child in a situtation that was not best for the child!

We will soon be parents to a beautiful, healthy, child - and we couldn't be happier!!!

And as a last note....I have 3 different friends - and know of about 10 more who adopted both domestically from the foster/adopt program and/or adopted special needs children domestically! There are more domestic adoptions every year than you might think!

Answer 2

its really expensive to adopt here in the states. if you adopt out side of the country you can save yourself lots of money. that money you can then put into a college found for the child or something. its just money you spend less adopting outside of the country.

Answer 3

If USA is anything like Australia, it is very difficult to adopt young children from our country. Not many are put up for adoption nowadays and the waiting list is extremely long. Many people don't want to adopt older or disabled children (although some people certainly do) and the waiting list for overseas babies is a lot shorter, there are more babies available and you don't have to wait as many years before you get your little one.

Answer 4

I agree, but according to some of the adoptive parents I've talked to who have adopted overseas, it's because it's difficult to get a healthy white baby here and the waiting list is too long. I think that's unfair and sad. To have a baby of any race or color is a blessing!

Answer 5

I totally agree and we plan to adopt locally within the next two years

Answer 6

Because you have to be rich to adopt here in the USA.  And most people want babies instead of older children so they adopt overseas.  And the time process is a lot easier to adopt overseas and the parents don't have to pay expenses for the birth mother if they adopt from overseas like they do in the USA.  Plus the mother can't take her child back or get visitation rights to the child like she can here in the USA.

Answer 7

In the USA most the babies up for adoption are addicted to drugs from their cracked out parents and have tons of medical needs. AND it is so hard to adopt and the fees are outrageous. Over seas, the babies are healthier and the fees are less.

Answer 8

Regardless of how many children are waiting to be adopted, no one should ever feel pressured into an adoption that they don't feel is right for them and their family.  Many, but not all, children in foster care have mild to severe emotional or physical issues.  

Although there are no guarantees with any adoption that a child will not develop some sort of special needs issue, it takes a couple with an enormous amount of time, patience, and diligence to parent a child who has been either been physically or emotionally abused for years.

Every potential adoptive parent needs to know what their limitations are.  Education and awareness on foster care from a counselor is the best way to determine if adopting from foster care is right for the family.

Answer 9

ETA:

It should be noted that the most children adopted every year (not counting step-parent) come from the US foster care system, at about 50k children.

Next is International at about 23k children,

Third is domestic newborn, about 14k children.

This question seems to get asked several times a week. Here is the answer I posted twice last week. There are numerous reasons one might choose international over domestic.

Many feel that even children in foster homes here in the US have it much, much better than children in orphanages or in the streets in many other countries...so feel they should adopt where the needs are greatest.

US foster children have medical care, shelter and food, educational opportunities, etc. while this is not true of orphans or children whose parents can't raise them elsewhere. Many children in Guatemala, for one example, actually live at the dump, surviving on whatever food and shelter materials they can pick out of the garbage. Girls that age out of orphanages in China are often put on the streets to live as beggars or prostitutes.These are just a few examples.

Also, contrary to popular belief, it is not easier to adopt Internationally nor does it require less paperwork. The requirements are the same here, as far as a homestudy with background check is required, and with International you have the added immigration processes as well as the foreign country's laws and processes and requirements.

It is a very complicated and involved process, however the timeline is more predictable than a domestic adoption, and bringing home a child is pretty much guaranteed if you meet all the requirements and complete all the paper work properly. The children are already cleared by their country to be placed, and the birth parents are not involved so couples do not need to wait to be chosen.

Also there are many, many more children in various foreign countries than there are adoptable children in the US foster system, or mothers placing newborns domestically.

Answer 10

Kids overseas have the same needs.  I think it's a matter of personal preference.  There are risks with domestic adoption that international doesn't have, like the birthmother changing her mind.  Some adoptive parents just find that the cost of going overseas is worth it to avoid those risks.  Other parents would rather adopt from the US.  BOTH make a huge difference in a child's life and should be commended!

Answer 11

It is too hard to adopt here in the United States, there is a lot of red tape and instead of encouragement, you get a lot of stress and discouragement so a lot of people feel that it is best that they go outside of the country and get those children.  When you look outside of this country there are more children who are in worst conditions then those here, a lot of them are parentless, abdandoned, sick and malnourished so I think a lot of people forgo the red tape and the expense here an go overseas to help just one.  If I could, I would do both one from the USA and one from a foreign county one  of each.

Answer 12

This is simple. My Aunt is adopting a new baby girl from China. In China, they used to KILL baby girls. People want to help the kids overseas and give them a better life than kids in America have. Kids in America are spoiled brats. I know. I was one once.

Answer 13

Here in Pennsylvania, the adoption laws make the whole process very difficult for people who want to adopt. Even if you want to adopt an older child, a disabled child, or a set of siblings, you're facing an uphill battle. If adoption was for adults who didn't really care if they were placed with a child or not, then maybe domestic adoptions in PA would suit them... but that's not the case. For people who are aching for children, domestic adoption is a gamble. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. Maybe their adoption will never even get off the ground, or maybe they'll have the kid almost in their arms when the process is frozen forever. Worse yet, maybe you'll have the baby in your home when one day you get a knock at the door and someone takes the baby back.  That's why a lot of people here go international. Adopting internationally isn't easy, and it takes more money, but a lot of people feel that it's a better option than adopting domestically if you really want a child.

Another reason is that many people (myself included) understand that the US is a darn good place to be born. If you're born in the US, you're already better off than almost anyone else on earth. We've got good schools, good hospitals, enough food, a social safety net, etc. However, even if you are an orphan in the US and grow up in foster care (which is not at all an ideal way to grow up), you're STILL better off than an orphan in one of the world's many poor nations. If you're an orphan in the US, there is food and water to feed you. In some poor nations, there just isn't any food or clean water to be had, even for people who've got a little money to buy some. If you're an orphan in the US, your odds of dying from exposure to heat or cold are low. This isn't true in a lot of other places. If you're an orphan in the US, you probably are not going to be sold into prostitution as a toddler. In many other places, this is almost a sure thing.

So, that's why. When you're working with a system of laws that don't help match children with "forever families," and you know that there are children out there who will die if you don't intervene, and intervening to help those children is something that you can actually do, it's completely understandable that a

person would choose to adopt from Asian countries, African nations, the former Russian federation states, etc.

I know of a couple who'd been married for years and desperately wanted children but who were unable to have them biologically. They so wanted children that they were willing to adopt any child. They were finally matched with a middle schooler who had a sister of a similar age, and they agreed to take her sister, too. Sounds great, right? Older children, sibling set... the state should be glad to place them, right? Well, after months of paperwork, they were told everything was going well, and they got the girls 'bedrooms all ready, and they were told that the girls would be arriving within days... and then they got a phone call that the girls were being sent to live with their biological grandmother. The woman didn't have a good record of looking out for their best interests, and she hadn't worked for months to get them like this couple had... but that's the way the system works. The couple was so devastated that they decided never to pursue adoption again.

This question has been asked many times already, by the way...

Answer 14

Our age range is 4-15. We've been through two agencies and have been waiting well over a year (since we started as a couple. I originally started as a single mom in 1998)  Our homestudy has only been approved since February though, and we've had several short-term foster placements. None of them have really been in the age range we've requested. I want a child who wants to tell me about something other than the green poopies he made at preschool.

We've hit so many dead ends with our adoption journey that we'd be over seas at this point if it was financially feasible for us to do that.