Jasmine Brooks
International Adoption
3rd Block
English III
Mrs. Myer
Due: December 19, 2011

Reflection Journal
What I Know:
There are two kinds of adoptions, international adoption or domestic adoption. International adoption is adopting a child from another country; domestic adoption is adopting a child within the United States. I was domestically adopted along with my sister. We both came from Chicago and were born there. Even though I was domestically adopted, I’ve always had a growing interest in international adoption and hopefully someday I can adopt two children from Ethiopia. I know adopting children from other countries is an incredible opportunity. Most children that are adopted come from third-world countries. They are usually orphans because their mothers or other family members can’t afford it or physically unable to take care of them. For example in China, babies that are born which most of the time are girls are abandoned because their parents would suffer penalties for violating the population control policies.
What I need to know:
I need to know why some people have a problem helping other countries that are in need. Also, I need to know why international adoption is more structured than domestic adoption when it seems like domestic would be easier since it’s within the United States. I need to investigate the number of orphans worldwide. I don’t know why Americans can’t adopt children from Western Europe, Australia, or Canada.

Where I Stand:
I am all for internationally adopting because thinking about all the children in foreign countries that were abandoned and died because of that, just makes me sick to my stomach. Knowing, that we can actually do something about it and help save them is amazing. No matter where a child is born or his nationality, he/she is entitled to a loving home. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to only adopting domestically if we feel called to adopt internationally. As the Bible says in James 1:27; Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. I don’t think there is a geographic boundary when a child is in need.

International Adoption
Introduction
International adoption is when a child is adopted from another country. Many people choose international adoption, because they want to help give orphan children a better life. Most of the adopted children come from very poverty stricken countries. In 2008, 75% of the children adopted came from the countries of: Guatemala, China, Russia, Ethiopia, and South Korea (“Where Do I Start?”). People who care the most about this topic are Christians and people who are compassionate about helping children in dire need. In the Bible in James 1:27, it states: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (“The Holy Bible”). This verse means that it is the duty of Christians to look over and take care of orphans and widows in need and to not let the world affect their duties as Christians. The controversial issue with international adoption is why people are adopting from other countries when there are kids in our own country that need homes and a loving family, too.
Positives:
There are many positives and some negatives of adopting a child internationally. A positive is that the child is getting a family that can take care of them and love them like their own. Also, the child will have more opportunities living in the United States than the country they came from, because the U.S. has more resources than the poverty stricken country.
International adoption is more structured and more predictable than domestic adoption. A reason why that is because, with domestic adoption, the adoption is not finalized for 6 months, and the birthmother might attempt to reestablish parental rights. Even though the guardianship is legal, it would still be possible for a judge to rule in favor of the birthmother. In international adoptions, that is not the case, because most of the time the children are orphans. Also, international adoptions are finalized and cannot be reversed even if the biological parents are present and change their mind (“Where Do I Start?”). With international adoptions, parental rights are terminated before the child is placed for adoption. This takes a major burden off of the adopting family because they know that they biological parents have no chance of taking back their child.
The waiting period with international adoptions may be less than with domestic adoptions. This is because there are more children available for international adoption than domestic. Non-white children are more difficult to place than a healthy white child. Also, the requirements may not be as strict for adoptive parents in international adoption. The reason behind this is because, of the number of orphans needing homes. Some adoptive parents in the U.S. do not wish to have any contact or relationship with the biological family. Most international adoptions do not have biological parent involvement as most of the children have been orphaned (Brooks). Having a first-hand experience on adoption, I interviewed my mother, Julie Brooks because she has adopted domestically twice and also she has helped other families who have adopted internationally so she is very familiar with both the international and domestic adoption policies.
Negatives:
A major downside to adopting internationally is the time that it takes to complete the whole application/paperwork process. There may be a lot of “red tape” involved. This is due to governmental involvement. If you adopt internationally, you must go through the adoption agency, the government agency, and the country’s government that you are adopting from. Certain countries have strict requirements for adoptive parents (“Ethiopia”). International adoption is also much more expensive than domestic. This is because in international you would have to pay agencies and adoption fees to that agency and, also to the government. Most adoptive couples will have to travel to the country at least once when adopting their child. For instance, with an Ethiopian adopting, the parent will have to travel once to meet their child and finalize their adoption with the Ethiopian court a few weeks prior to getting their child. They are required to travel the second time to process the child’s exit VISA and bring their child home (Brooks). This process takes a lot of money, because you must pay for your own ticket for both of the visits plus your child’s ticket for when you bring them home. If your child has any medical problems and needs medical attention, those costs are separately paid for by you. So all in all, there is nothing cheap about adopting internationally, however you are adopting and changing a child’s life for the better which is priceless. There are many family issues that come with adopting internationally. Some people may consider it a con that the child will not physically look like their family. Adoptive parents need to discuss this topic to ensure there are no issues regarding race. There may be language barriers as well as ethnic barriers, such as hair and skin care or cultural rituals (“International Adoption”). There may even be developmental delays since these children have been in orphanages and not received the one on one interaction that they should have. There may be little or no medical history available too. Another big con of internationally adopting is choosing the age of a child, the gender, and where to adopt from. Some couples are interested only in infant/newborn adoption which is very rare for international adoption. This is because the paperwork and procedure tasks takes so long that the baby will be several months old before being available to be adopted (Brooks). Author’s Opinion:
It may seem that there are more negatives than positives in international adoption, but I think is it well worth it to adopt an orphan and forever change all of our lives. In my opinion, international adoption is the best choice of adoption. A child is in dire need in a third-world country that needs a family to love them and care for them. Also, adopting internationally is saving a child’s life because if they weren’t adopted they would most likely die from diseases or die from not being taken care of. No child deserves to a have to go through those kinds of situations. We have a chance to save them through adoption so we need to do so if were called to do that. Even if you are not ready to adopt, there are many other ways you can help a child in need. A couple of things are to sponsor a child or an orphanage, which you just send however much money you would like to donate, and that goes towards helping poverty stricken children survive. Writing this paper has made my choice to adopt internationally in my future so much easier.