Who Can You Adopt?
The number of children available for adoption within the United States has dropped in recent decades for several reasons, including the increased use of birth control, the legalization of abortion and the growing acceptance of single mothers, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway a resource center run by the Children's Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But numerous children, here and abroad, still need a home. In fact, an average of 120,000 American children were adopted annually throughout the 1990s, bringing the total number of children living with adoptive parents to an estimated 1 million, according to the NAIC.
Here is a general overview of the types of children available:
Infants
Healthy infants of color are more commonly available for adoption than healthy white infants, according to the NAIC. In part, this is because white women are less likely to place babies for adoption and more likely to seek an abortion than women of color.
Children with Special Needs
Many of the children who are available for adoption are described as having "special needs," meaning it takes longer for agencies to find them a good home than it does for them to find a home for healthy infant children. Included in this group are school-age children; children with physical, emotional or mental disabilities; and siblings who must be adopted together.
But this label can be misleading: For example, some agencies describe infants of color as special-needs children because most people seek to adopt someone of their own race or ethnicity, and there are relatively more infants of color available for adoption than adults of color available to adopt them. If you are interested in adopting a child of color, this is important to keep in mind.
Foreign-Born Children
Due to poverty and political unrest around the globe, many foreign-born children are available for adoption, and an increasing number of American adults are choosing to adopt them. In fact, international adoptions have more than doubled in recent years, from 6,536 in 1992, to 13,620 in 1997, according to an NAIC review of U.S. State Department statistics.
The most common countries from which Americans adopt are:
- China
- India
- South Korea
- Russia and other Eastern European countries
- Central and South American countries