Spirit of Adoption vs. Orphan Spirit

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

Adoption is the process in which a person takes over the parenting of someone else’s child and permanently transfers all the responsibilities and rights from the biological parent or parents. Giving up a child for adoption is a very difficult decision for a mother to make. Today, many children are being parented by a single parent, a grandparent, a stepparent, foster parent or other parent figure. Making adoption an option is done by providing loving, responsible, and legally permanent parents to a child when their biological parents are not able or will not take care of them.(Carter)

Even though adoption as a process has negative results for adopting children, some people still takes this act to be a good act where children who are deprived of parents still have a

Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals not related biologically (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child welfare are constantly evolving and the decisions made on a child’s behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional wellbeing.

In this research they took out a longitudinal study. They studied 65 children which were placed in an institution when less than four months, which had all experienced early privation. By 4 years old, 24 children had been adopted, 15 returned to their natural homes and the rest remained in the institution. It was found that the adopted children had closer attachments to their parents and had good family relationships and this was not the case for the ‘restored’ children.

“Adoption is spoken of in the Bible. Greeks and Romans, Egyptians and Babylonians all had adoption systems” (Meiser, 1995-2015). Adoption is the process whereby parents are supplied for parent-less children or those children whose parents are unable to provide for their care. It also provides children

According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting system, in 2011 there were 104, 236 children waiting to be adopted in the United States (p. 4). Adoption is the legal process an individual or family goes through to gain legal custody of a child in foster care. This child’s parents have lost custody of their child because they have been deemed unfit to raise the child, either because of neglect or abuse. After the child is removed from the horrible situation, he or she is taken by child services and placed in a foster home or with a family member. This system is in place to protect children from further abuse, neglect and trauma. Today, children in foster care are in the system for a very short period of time; there is a

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

`Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in or a part of the adoption process? Most people have different opinions on the whole system. Many think that the process is easy and they don’t actually know what most children go through. If more people understood the problems they face then child welfare wouldn’t be so difficult. Children come from broken or abusive households where treatment is horrible or to the point where they just remove the children.

A 10 year old girl threatens to kill herself at school. She locks herself into a bathroom stall and wants to kill herself. This girl has lived in more that twenty foster homes and has been admitted into psychiatric hospitals several times for depression. She was physically and sexually abused by her stepfather from the time she was a infant until entering school. Some foster homes were good for her, while others only added to the abuse. Foster homes tried and failed to help this poor little girl because they could not handle her mental and health problems from the abuse. Adoption could have helped in her time of need. Instead of foster homes, she could have been adopted by couples who tried but couldn 't have children of their own; couples who wanted a child when their own parents didn 't want them. Adoption cannot only help the child but also complete the family of a couple who badly ache for a child to call theirs.

When I had cable TV, I used to watch a show on the Learning Channel, called "An Adoption Story". The show followed the story of a different couple each time, as they adopted a child. It was beautiful to see a childless couple be able to adopt a child of their own. The love and joy was the same as if they had given birth to the child. Adoption is truly a blessing, both for the childless couples, and for the birth mother searching for a loving home for her baby.

This has caused me to want to further research the issue. What are the social and emotional effects that adoption has on children?

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

There are common ordeals and situations that can trouble a family emotionally, physically, and psychologically. Adoption is one situation a family must encounter when a child is born without a proper system of support to sustain life after birth. The causes for a family to make a heartfelt decision to place a child for adoption can have dramatic effects on the birth parents, adoptive parents, and child (Adoptee), even if the decision is meant for the best.

Since 1776, the United States of America has had a growing problem with orphans and childhood adoption. Orphanages become overpopulated while foster homes shelter up to 3 children on average. The foster care system has been viewed as positive reinforcement for American homes; yet the point of fostering children is consistently overlooked. Adoption is necessary for orphans, foster children, or children in abusive homes. The act of adopting a child comes with positive benefits and fiscal responsibility, such as government assistance and wiser spending. Children obtain a healthy childhood with a familiar sense of belonging. The drawback of this is the long governmental process of petitioning for adoption. Seeking the birthparents, if they are alive, retrieving consent, being fiscally responsible, and having a safe environment for the child to grow up in are all responsibilities to look forward to when adopting a child. The adoption rate in the United States of America needs to increase dramatically, as there are social benefits, mental health improvements, and economical advantages for families who adopt.