Finding suitable homes for disabled children is a tough scheme to accomplish via legal adoption and one would think countries would work extra hard to find suitable and loving parents willing to adopt these special kids to save them from institutional lonesomeness and abuse.
One of our friends is trying to adopt a Deaf child from Russia or China. The adoption blockades are awesome and fear inspiring. It’s as if these international adoption agencies prefer the children suffer alone instead of finding a new home in the United States.
Here are some, not all, of the international adoption requirements for bringing home a Deaf child:
1. You must have $100,000.00USD in savings.
2. You must have $50,000.00USD in a regular checking account.
3. You must own a two-bedroom home. Renters are ineligible.
4. If you are over 40-years-old you are ineligible.
5. If you are hoping to adopt a Russian Deaf child, you cannot be overweight.
6. If you are Hearing, you must know Sign Language.
7. Couples only. No single parent adoptions allowed. Are Gay couples excluded?
8. In China, the adoption fee for a Deaf child is $2,100.00USD.
9. In Russia, the adoption fee for a Deaf child is $5,000.00USD.
Now, I ask you — how many people do you personally know who meet the criteria above AND would be willing to adopt a Deaf child?
I can’t say I know any people who would qualify — and I know a lot of childless couples that would love to love a Deaf child from Russia or China as their own. Is the adoption process broken or are these prerequisites something we need to have in place for every conceived child?
Are these adoption agencies really serving the best interest of the Deaf Child? Or are they merely making it impossible for an international adoption to take place unless you are generally wealthy and well-off?
If there are strict rules for international adoptions — shouldn’t we have at least some sort of rules in place for naturally bearing children in the United States? If you can’t pay — then you can’t play.
Here are some sobering numbers concerning children born into poverty in the USA:
About 15 million children — one out of every four — live below the official poverty line.
22% of Americans under the age of 18 — and 25% under age 12 — are hungry or at the risk of being hungry.
Everyday 2,660 children are born into poverty; 27 die because of it.
Children and families are the fastest growing group in the homeless population, representing 40%.
Here are the sorrowful child poverty statistics for New York City alone:
25% of New Yorkers are children.
762,000 children live in poverty.
181 babies are born into poverty each day.
10,000 children are homeless. This number has doubled since 1988.
Why are adopted children given more basic protections from their hopeful parents than those naturally born?
Something is broken in the adoption process — and it isn’t the children who need fixing.