How Children Can Be A Blessing

Raising children is one of the most important responsibilities in any society. Today, working parents have many options, but what about those children who have neither a mother nor father? What about those children who come from broken and abusive homes? In such cases there are often few choices. Parentless children may be placed in orphanages or in foster homes. Ideally, foster care offers children more personalized attention than would normally be available at a public or private situation. However, orphanage care is notoriously uneven. While some children are indeed in loving homes, others find themselves neglected or

In todays’ society many Americans never think about our foster care system. Foster care is when a child is temporarily placed with another family. This child may have been abused, neglected, or may be a child who is dependent and can survive on their own but needs a place to stay. Normally the child parents are sick, alcohol or drug abusers, or may even be homeless themselves. We have forgotten about the thousands of children who are without families and living in foster homes. Many do not even know how foster care came about. A few of the earliest documentation of foster care can be found in the Old Testament. The Christian church put children into homes with widowers and then paid them using collection from the church

However, it wasn’t till 1562 that English Poor law that lead to the development of family foster care in the United States, it was the beginning of placing children into homes ("History of Foster Care."). In 1853, Charles Loring Brace paved the way to what we know foster care as it exist today. Brace, a minister and director of New York Children’s Aid Society, was concerned with the amount of children sleeping in the streets. His plan was to provide the children homes by advertising in search of families who would open their home to them ("History of Foster Care."). As a result, this lead to social agencies and state governments to become involved, and began paying board to families who would take care of children ("History of Foster Care."). While foster care is a help to children who need a temporary home, there are also many supplemental programs to help children in foster care. Sometimes there is so much emphasis and funding of these supplemental foster care programs that we forget that foster care should be temporary. The government and taxpayers put a lot of funding into programs that keep children in care instead of helping them reunify, get adopted, or make a

For many years, foster care has been a difficult subject throughout our society. When the idea of foster care comes to mind, many immediately think of screaming children, distressed parenting and uphill battles. Before foster care existed in the United States, orphaned children were sent to orphanages. While these institutions were often the best option available to children with nowhere else to go, they often lacked the necessary staff, structure and resources to adequately care for all of the children in need. As a result, some orphanages were overcrowded, and children lived in poor conditions. Some children even died due to the lack of sufficient care (Adoptions, 2017). In order to give children better living situations, the United

In the United States 21% of all children are living below the federal poverty line. 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every year in the United States. 428,000 children are in the foster care system, and 107,918 foster children are waiting to be adopted. The foster care system is temporary out of home care for neglected, abused and impoverish children under 18. While the foster care system has all positive ideas, they fall short in providing certain needs for these children. Kids not only in America but all over the world that are living in poverty, are abused, neglected, and have an unstable home life. Nobody wants to live a life like that, especially not a child. They don’t know how to support themselves on their own, they need a family and a guardian that will take care of them, support, and love them.

One of my all time favorite musicals as I was growing up was always Annie, about a sweet little orphan who through determination and a little positivity found a better life. But sadly as hard knock as Annie’s life was, it is nothing compared to the actually reality. The early foster system was established in the 1500s in order to care for children who were removed from their parents. Foster care was intended to be a short-term solution until the child is either adopted or reunited with their family. However, because of how few people there are willing to take in these kids, the average child will spend over two years waiting to be adopted. But the flaws in this system run much deeper.

Unfortunately, there will always be kids who get abused and neglected, and there will always be people who live in poverty, but this issue can be improved. First, we need more educational training for foster parents, as well as educating the public about the foster care system. There needs to be more funding for foster care so that children have an opportunity to have an education, and foster parents have the right resources for their foster children. That is where this charity comes in, The Alliance for Children’s Rights.

“Although the demand was motivated by a need for labor, the Children’s Aid Society took pains to ensure the children were well cared for. Families applying to take children had to be endorsed by a committee of local business owners, doctors, and journalists. According to the societies “Terms on Which Boys are placed in Homes,” boys under twelve were to be “treated by the applicants as one of their own children in matters of schooling, clothing, and training,” and boys twelve to fifteen were to be “sent to a school a part of each year.” Representatives from the society would visit each family once a year to check conditions, and children were expected to write letters back to the society twice a year”. (Scheurman,

The issue with adoption is the financial challenges with orphanages, foster homes and parents who want to adopt but cannot. Many changes need to be made when it comes to the adoption system. Adoption is a social justice issue because so much money is going to orphanages and foster parents when it could be used for other things, such as helping people who want to adopt but cannot. The cost of adopting should be lowered to have more adoptions and fewer people to pay. Adoption regulations should be changed considering the long process and money it takes to adopt and the process doesn’t always let people become parents.

With the five dollars that Archbishop Closkey gave to start the program, Sister Mary Irene formed the New York Foundling Hospital. The Adoption Agency of the New York Foundling Hospital was dedicated to finding suitable homes for the orphan children left on their doorstep. After hearing of Brace’s orphan trains, Sister Mary Irene started her own “mercy trains” in which children would travel west to live with a good family and to get a Catholic upbringing. This was the start of the Orphan Train Movement.

Millions of children are living without parents around the world and they need help. Over 153 million youths around the world are without one or both parents, and 7 million of them are in institutional care (qtd. in “Children’s Statistics”). Worldwide, minors are suffering from living without a family and a stable relief system. International adoption, although often in the limelight, is on a slight decline and domestic adoption is increasing. Despite the fact that the percentage of people considering any form of adoption has decreased from 2007 to 2013, the percentage of foster care adoptions has experienced more growth than international and private adoptions (“BAAF Adoption

Children are being uprooted form their lives and placed in a home they are not accustomed too. This experience can become even more traumatic when they are placed in homes and shelters with limited or inadequate living conditions. Of the five-billion dollars federally allocated to annually fund the child foster care, 75% of that is spent in the child welfare systems. This exhibits even more atrocities of neglect and abuse from the system designed to protect children. (Hagopian 6) This money is being wasted on frivolous things such as pay-raises for social workers instead of providing a suitable living environment for the children’s prosperity. This money will be better spent on providing food, clothing, or even in scholarships for children who want to go to college. Also, while a child is in the system their emotional, medical, dental, and educational need are required to be taken care of (AdoptUSKids 2).

One of my all time favorite musicals as I was growing up was alway Annie, about a sweet little orphan who through determination and a little positivity found a better life. But has happened to orphans nowadays, you don’t exactly drive by your neighborhood orphanage on your way to work. It seems that these children have disappeared, virtually falling off the face of the earth. Today they are called foster kids with families like my own housing them. The early foster system was established in the 1500s in order to care for children who were removed from their parents. Foster care was intended to be a short-term solution until the child is either adopted or reunited with their family. However, the average child will spend over two years waiting to be adopted. But the flaws in this system run much deeper, from mental disorders all the way to human trafficking. Human trafficking through the foster system is a dire problem that can not be neglected. We will examine this today by looking at three points; recognizing what the problem, understanding the pressure that they are under, and finally how you and i can help provide the promise of a new life

While many organizations, such as Adopt Together, are putting forth an effort to reduce the price of adoption, it is not enough. Resources such as these are not well known. Therefore, many adoptive parents and potential donors are completely unaware that they exist. They try to face adoption without financial help and are unable to adopt. The solutions provided through grants, loans, tax credits, and crowdfunding platforms help many families but do not fully support the cost of adoption. For these solutions to work fully, more publicity would be required.

The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to