Adoption Myths and Truths: Why Aren’t More Families Adopting

By Elizabeth Redhead Kriston

It has been reported that though more than 1/3 of American families have considered adoption only 2% have actually fulfilled this dream. Why do so few families follow through? It is not the lack of children waiting for homes. Each year over 300,000 children become available for adoption in the foster care system. Why is it so hard for so many loving children to find forever families?

http://facts.randomhistory.com/adoption-facts.html

My sense is that the reason lies somewhere between poor information, unanswered questions, and the perpetuation of myths surrounding the adoption process. The media can be thanked for the latter. Misery sells. Because of that truth and the fact that news is business, the stories that are featured on our favorite morning news programs or fill the ticker tape scrolls on our 24 hour news channels often are stories of loss and pain not of joy.

As with all news stories, we are more likely to be fed information about horrible adoption stories gone wrong. We hear about children torn from the arms of their loving families only to be returned to their birth parents or relatives. We rarely hear about the tens of thousands of adoptions that go right. Our delicate sense of right and wrong and our fear that we will be on the receiving end of injustice and heartache must keep many from pursuing adoption.

Then there are the other issues that we perceive to be roadblocks to adoption, especially the adoption of domestic foster children. We think the cost is out of reach. We think the children will have emotional, educational, and/or medical needs beyond our scope of comfort. We think we won’t love them as much as biological children, or worse they won’t love us. We think we are not good enough to be allowed to adopt. We think we are too old, too poor, work too much, or that our sexual orientation will bring the process to a halt. We feel overwhelmed by the paperwork and the process as a whole. In short, there are too many barriers both real and conceived to allow many would be adopted parents step up and make their family complete.

My hope is that the number of families who say yes to adoption increases. My hope is that more children waiting for their forever families find them. To make this possible I have decided to share my journey with adoption as a way to bust some of the myths by revealing the truths. As I address these myths and truths in future blogs, I hope you will share your story as well. We need to support one another through the maze of adoption and make it less scary for those who are considering the process for themselves.

You can contact me via my website www.redheadkriston.com