Adoption: Great Work If You Can Get It
I am, as usual, sending the reader to the CT website for an article. http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2010/03/why_dont_you_just_adopt_1.html
This one is about adoption. An old student (from way back in the early 80s) hackled my feathers (ha, ha, mixed metaphor) when he put on Facebook that prolifers don't have any right to speak a pro-life message unless they adopt. I took him to task, asking him whatever happened to free speech--it's not something we earn by adopting children, it's a God-given civil right. His argument was one of credibility, he said, not free speech. I still don't buy it, although I appreciate those who do adopt children from poor countries or in foster care. He and his wife had, so he did walk the talk.
But when people say clueless things to the infertile, or to anyone wanting children, "Why don't you just adopt," they usually have not been through the adoption process themselves. As this article points out, there is no home study and $10,000 fee for having your own baby, assuming you can just pop them out after sex plus nine months. Adoption is an expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining process for many people. While I understand that social service agencies must be careful about who is granted a child, I feel about the adoption process as I do the Social Security disability process. It is not designed with the best interests of the clients in mind, but with the monetary profit of the secondary parties--social workers, adoption agencies, and lawyers. I know, I know, some do it pro bono, but many do not.
A lot more children would be adopted if it were an easier process, is all I'm saying. The greatest regret of my life is that we did not have more children, and we see now that we should have pursued adoption; but I don't know if we would have had the stamina to endure it and the willingness to lay ours lives bare before "professionals."
This one is about adoption. An old student (from way back in the early 80s) hackled my feathers (ha, ha, mixed metaphor) when he put on Facebook that prolifers don't have any right to speak a pro-life message unless they adopt. I took him to task, asking him whatever happened to free speech--it's not something we earn by adopting children, it's a God-given civil right. His argument was one of credibility, he said, not free speech. I still don't buy it, although I appreciate those who do adopt children from poor countries or in foster care. He and his wife had, so he did walk the talk.
But when people say clueless things to the infertile, or to anyone wanting children, "Why don't you just adopt," they usually have not been through the adoption process themselves. As this article points out, there is no home study and $10,000 fee for having your own baby, assuming you can just pop them out after sex plus nine months. Adoption is an expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining process for many people. While I understand that social service agencies must be careful about who is granted a child, I feel about the adoption process as I do the Social Security disability process. It is not designed with the best interests of the clients in mind, but with the monetary profit of the secondary parties--social workers, adoption agencies, and lawyers. I know, I know, some do it pro bono, but many do not.
A lot more children would be adopted if it were an easier process, is all I'm saying. The greatest regret of my life is that we did not have more children, and we see now that we should have pursued adoption; but I don't know if we would have had the stamina to endure it and the willingness to lay ours lives bare before "professionals."
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