Career in Adoption Though I

¶ … Career in Adoption

Though I have not yet decided exactly what I want to do with my life, I have often thought about a career as an adoption counselor. I have always liked children, and think that placing needful children with loving parents is one of the best things anyone can do, both to help the individuals involved and as a solution to larger problems of orphans and population growth. These situations have very real consequences for everyone, but especially for the people in poorer countries who are hit first and hardest by population-related crises such as starvation and generally limited resources. These countries also have higher rates of orphans and more need of adoptions, and these circumstances are tied into industrialized nations' -- specifically the United States' -- overuse of resources and exploitation of these same third-world countries. In addition, one of my cousins is adopted, and the way she instantly became a part of our family helped me to understand how easy it is to welcome and love a new child into a family, no matter how they arrived there. This is the important part of adoption, but just as it is easy the less important but necessary part of the process is hugely complicated, and I would like to help prospective parents by making it as easy as possible -- while still, of course, ensuring the best possible home for each individual child.

Just confronting the enormous number of various adoption options available can be a daunting task for parents who are almost certainly at an emotionally vulnerable place in their lives. Often, the best first step is speaking with an adoption counselor, or facilitator, or specialist -- the terms are legion, but the job description stays the same. Most importantly, the counselor (my favorite term) is someone who understands and empathizes with the couple. As one adoption agency's website explains to prospective parents, "Working with an adoption professional that you trust and feel comfortable with will make all the difference in your experience" (American Adoptions). Though this statement is made as part of a sales pitch, it isn't any less true. I remember from my uncle and aunt's ordeal how much red tape and paperwork is involved. The United States government typically only handles adoptions of children in foster care, and foreign adoptions -- like my cousins -- go through private agencies (Childwelfare.gov). These agencies can vary widely in the types of service they offer, the cost, and the reliability of their claims, and it is important to research a company very carefully before contracting with anyone for an adoption. Though it might be hard to earn a living, I would prefer to be an independent counselor, helping match parents with agencies and children, almost like an adoption broker. This would eliminate a lot of the competitive atmosphere of the current adoption market -- a phrase which shouldn't even have to exist -- by allowing someone like me to cut through all of the advertising glitz and greed to find each set of parents the right child in the simplest, most straight-forward, and most cost-effective manner. Having someone to do the kind of calculating, bureaucratic thinking that this part of the process requires frees them up for the normal joys and anxieties of impending parenthood.

Beyond the options of either government or private agency facilitated domestic adoptions, or foreign adoptions through private companies whose cost and ease can vary greatly from country to country and with the political climate, a growing choice for couples looking to adopt is the open adoption. Though the definitions of what, exactly, an open adoption consists of, the most important aspect of almost any definition is "that the adopted child has the potential of developing a one-on-one relationship with his or her birthfamily" (Insight). The method and extent of this relationship and the involvement of the two sets of parents is different for almost every adoption. For some, everyone meets each other during the pregnancy, and the families may remain in full contact for the rest of their lives. For others, birth parents might pick a family based on confidential information, but feel that knowing the adoptive family personally would be too difficult (Insight). The complexities of emotions in open adoptions can make them far more complex. There have even been cases where birth mothers have successfully sued for the return of their adopted children, even when money has already changed hands. Again, being an adoption counselor would enable me to help parents weigh the risks and benefits associated with each type of adoption, and help them make the right decision for their family.

In a survey conducted by Adoptive Families, the average cost of an adoption in 2007 was between $20,000 and $30,000 (Adoptive Families). This is an amount equal to the down payment on a house. Though it is not a subject where money should be or often is the primary concern, this is a very real and pressing issue for many families. According to the same survey, "the majority of domestic newborn adoptions cost less than $25,000, while more than 75% of international adoptions cost more than $20,000" (Adoptive Families). This means that the children in countries least equipped to deal with parentless children are also less likely to be adopted, as the increased expense will simply make adoption from these countries financially infeasible for many families.