Adoption: A Heart Issue, a Faith Issue, a Life-Changing Issue

By Dr. Heather W. AllenThis column has been possibly the most difficult to write. I have prayed about this topic. I have researched this topic. I have started writing and stopped. Then I have started writing again. I think the quandary I am in stems from this topic seeming more complex than a typical issue. The issue of adoption is a heart issue, a faith issue, and a life-changing issue. I will present statistics that I hope are interesting and compelling but more than that, these statistics represent children. Every data point is a child. That is a sobering, heartwrenching thought. My heart is in turmoil when I think about this topic.

When studying Scripture, one can see that God has a heart for orphans, and He mandates we care for them. Spend some time searching Scripture for examples of adoption and orphans. It is a fascinating exercise.

I have written about adoption before. This topic is personal and part of my family’s daily life. We have five children and our youngest two joined our family through adoption. I cannot imagine our lives without all of our children. I cannot imagine our adopted children’s lives had we not adopted them. One of our adopted children has a life-threatening medical condition, and had we not adopted her when we did, and taken her to the best specialists in the country for treatment, she would not have survived. I cannot even think about this because I know in my heart there are other children in similar situations waiting to be adopted, including some who will not survive the wait.

In the United States there are about 423,000 children living without permanent families1 and 134,000 children in foster care.2 Of those children, 115,000 are eligible for adoption, but almost 40% will wait more than three years in foster care before being adopted. Each year more than 29,000 youth “age out” of the foster care system.3

Focusing on the adoption statistics, “as of 2008, approximately 2.5% of the United States’ children joined their families through adoption, including adoptions from foster care, private domestic adoptions, international adoptions, and step-parent adoptions.4

All types of people adopt children: married couples (78%), single females (17%), and single males (5%). The average adoptive parent is about five years older than the average birth parent. The median income of homes with adopted children is $56,138, whereas the median income of households including only birth children is $48,200. Heads of households of adoptive children are more likely to own their own homes, and more adoptive parents hold graduate or professional degrees than those who have not adopted.5

Some people adopt internationally because there are greater numbers of younger children available and often because they find it easier to adopt in other countries than here. Furthermore, there is such a significant need throughout the world that the adoptive parents may focus on one country over another. Other families adopt domestically because their focus is on children in this country, rather than abroad, or they are involved in the foster care system and pursue the adoption of children they know. Regardless of focus, domestic or international, there are children everywhere who desperately need families.

According to estimates from 2005, there were 62 million children living in Asia, 39 million in Africa, 8 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 1.5 million in Central and Eastern Europe6 who need families. In the United States, as already mentioned, there are about 423,000 children without permanent homes and about 115,000 who are eligible for adoption. That is more than 110.5 million children who need families. More recent estimates put the number of children, worldwide, in need of families at about 143 million. I have

trouble relating to that number: 143 million, especially since that number reflects children without families, or orphans.

Focusing on adoptions in the United States, reports indicate that for the last twenty years, the number of adoptions has ranged from 118,00 to 127,000 per year. Of those 127,000 adoptions, in 2005 for example, more than 50,000 were domestic adoptions, about 22,000 were international adoptions, and 55,000 were primarily private, agency, kinship, or tribal adoptions.7

Age varies depending on if the child is adopted internationally (i.e., from a foreign country) or domestically (i.e., from the United States public child welfare system). For example, in 2005, 3% of children adopted domestically were under the age of 1, whereas 40% of the children adopted internationally were under the age of 1. Conversely, in 2005, 55% of the children adopted domestically were over the age of 5, whereas only 16% of those adopted internationally were over 5.

As for gender, 49% of children adopted domestically were girls, whereas 66% of children adopted internationally were girls. Looking, though, at a country like China, about 95% of international adoptions were girls.

In the United States, approximately 39% of the population has said they seriously have considered adopting a child; however, only about 2% have adopted. Currently there are about 1.5 million adopted children in the United States.

Adoption is something many of us have been called to embrace with our families. However, other families may be called to other service. There is no right or wrong answer other than to follow where God leads each of us. Pray for the orphans of the world. There are so many. Pray for the adoptive families. And pray for guidance regarding how to help.

Endnotes:1. Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI)): Facts and Statistics. www.ccainstitute.org/why-we-do-it-/facts-and-statistics.html.2. Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, National Adoption Attitudes Survey, released June 19, 2002, pages 10 and 14. www.adoptioninstitute.org/survey/Adoption_Attitudes_Survey.pdf.3. CCAI: Facts and Statistics. www.ccainstitute.org/why-we-do-it-/facts-and-statistics.html.4. America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011. ChildStats.gov: Forum on Child and Family Statistics. www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/special1.asp.5. Center for Adoption Research (June 2006). Adoptive Family Structure. AFCARS Adoption Data Research Brief Number 1. 6. International Adoption: Trends and Issues (November 2007). National Data Analysis System Issue Brief. Child Welfare League of America. 7. Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and reporting System (AFCARS) #11 data submitted for the FY 2004, 0/1/03 through 9/30/04. www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report11.htm.

Heather and her husband, Steve, live in Edgewood, New Mexico, where they have homeschooled their five children: Edward (17), Joseph (15), Emily (11), Hana (6), and Ezekiel (5), for the last twelve years. When not homeschooling, doing things with her family, or writing for TOS, Heather works as a human factors engineer in her home-based consulting

business. For more information about the Allen family, please visit their website at www.hippityhooves.com.

Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in the July 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, the family education magazine. Read the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com or read it on the go and download the free apps at www.TOSApps.com to read the magazine on your mobile devices.