Life Enriched

Life Enriched

The children are a wonderful gift. Children are the heart of a family. They bring joy, happiness, love, warmth, and maybe a few unpleasant moments, which can make the family stronger. For most people, life without children is incomplete and they will take alternative measures if they are unable to have children because of biological circumstances. Though there are a few methods to having children such as the Alternative Reproduction Technologies (ART), not everyone can afford it, and not every couple wants infertility counseling and treatment. ART cost anywhere from forty thousand dollars to fifty thousand, and then it is not certain that it will work for every individual. One method that is usually a last resort is adoption, foreign adoption; however, understanding the procedures completely may make this choice a first thought instead of an after thought.

Foreign adoption has been an option for almost over thirty years. Before 1970, “intercountry” was the typical term for the adoptions of children born in foreign countries by U.S. citizens. After World War II and during early Cold War the adoption market globalized as wars, refugee, migrations, and other disasters made the plight of orphaned children abroad more visible to Americans. Adoptions abroad have become mere prevalent to U.S. citizens today, they expended from Germany in the 1940s and Korea in the 1950’s to China and Guatemala today. Today, these placements are called international adoptions (The adoption). After the1970’s international adoption has expended in a major way. It started out with a few countries such as Germany and Korea, and now almost every country allows adoption. International adoption has sky rocketed. In the1980’s about five thousand children were adopted by American citizens, where as in 2001 it exceeded twenty thousand. The change is dramatic. One of the reasons for the rise of international adoptions is the dwindling supply of adoptable children in the United States. Increased access to contraception and the availability of legal abortions, are two major reasons for fewer United States born children available for adoption.

Why do people choose adoption? Most often, perhaps, because they are unable to have children themselves. They are struggling with infertility or are unable to carry a pregnancy, or they just want to provide opportunities that they themselves never had. Adoption becomes a good option in different circumstances. Another reason why many parents choose an international adoption is that adopting within United States is legally complicated, slow, and costly. Public adoptions through the foster care system are less prone to legal snarls, but they are much slower, making it difficult to adopt children while they are still infants. Less than two percent of children adopted through the foster care system in 1998 were infants, compared with forty six percent of children adopted from abroad.

There are many advantages of adopting from abroad. One of the advantages is the fact that it is final and closed; information regarding the child would be kept private, even from the birth parents. Where as in America the biological parents may decide to declare them selves the parents of the child for what ever reason and not allow their child to be adopted. The second advantage is that international adoptions are normally faster. Adopting a child domestically in some cases might take one to two years or more, where as adopting abroad would be from six months to a year. It depends on the country one chooses. Another advantage is that international standards are in some ways more lenient. Older couples and single adults who might be rejected by the private U. S. adoption agencies are more likely to be accepted by the adoption agencies in foreign countries, because international adoption is essentially a private legal matter between a private individual (or couple) who wishes to adopt, and a foreign court, which operates under that countries laws and regulations.

One of the pitfalls of international adoption is the fact that the adoptive parents must travel to the country of the child to finalize the adoption, in which case it might be an advantage. For example if the parent wants to give the child a sense of his or her culture identity, they can, because of their personal experience. Another disadvantage is that in some cases one may not get a complete family background and medical history, because of the fact that the biological parents disappear before any questions can be asked. Finally, there is a lot of paperwork. The paperwork itself is not difficult, but time consuming, because every detail, every date, every statement should be given close attention and a good agency will guide the adoptive parents through the whole process.

International adoptions have dramatically increased in number for the past years, as shown up above, but some American’s may still have questions whether love is enough to make a family, and whether color or nationality have anything to do with it. That is where my essential questions occurs, is international adoption a difficult task, and if it is, is it worth it? To answer this questions research will be used based on my essential question. The goal is to answer the question clearly, support it with valid data, and have a clear understanding of international adoption.

First, to be eligible for international adoption most often the applicant has to be twenty-one years of age if married, twenty-five years of age if single. Singles and married couples may adopt in most countries. The applicants must be able to comply with all state, federal, and international laws. They must fulfill the requirements set by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security (BCIS). They must choose an agency to work with that will provide one with information and guide one thorough the whole process. Most agencies would like at least three letters of reference from the applicant. Also a physician’s medical clearance, criminal record clearance (in order to comply with the home study guidelines), employment verification, tax returns, financial statements, marriage certificates, and a divorce decree.

To obtain an approval from the BCIS, the adoptive parents must comply with the United States immigration procedures, initiated through the BCIS in order to bring an adoptive child to the United States. An orphan cannot be brought to the U. S. without a visa; which is based on the BCIS approved petition. An orphan petition has two parts, I-600 and I-600A. I-600 is a petition that classifies an orphan as an immediate relative. When the petition is approved, it is sent to the National Visa Center