Orphaned children from around the globe are in need of forever adoptive families through inter-country (international) adoption. Children are waiting in orphanages and foster care around the world for mommies, daddies, sisters, and brothers.
Can you be a family for a child?
Orphaned children waiting for families are:
- Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, School-Age, and Teens
- Boys and Girls
- Single children and Sibling groups
- Children Abandoned or Orphaned by their birth parents
- Children Removed from their birth parents due to abuse/neglect
- Healthy Typical Children with the potential for normal growth and development
- Children with minor correctable medical needs (e.g. cleft palate, club foot)
- Children with on-going medical challenges (e.g. heart condition, GI difficulties)
- Children with developmental delays
- Children with minor special needs (e.g. limb deformity, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, visual impairments)
- Children with special needs requiring life-long care (e.g. Down Syndrome, blind)
- Of diverse ethnic heritage (e.g. Eastern European, African, Asian, Hispanic)
- Living in orphanages or foster homes
These children are faced with unthinkable challenges as they strive to survive without a loving family. I will never forget the blank faces of the children lined-up on my daughter’s orphanage patio strapped into bouncy seats and walkers staring at gray walls with no toys, music, books, pictures, or people to engage their developing minds. Loving families are needed for each of these children.
Is your family able to parent a child adopted through inter-country (international) adoption?
- Can you open your home and heart to a foreign-born child of a different culture and ethnic group?
- Can you give love, comfort, security, and stimulation for a child?
- Can you learn how to support the social/emotional needs of a child adopted after infancy?
- Can you learn how to support the medical and developmental needs for a child with less than a perfect start in life or for a child with special medical and/or developmental needs?
- Would you be comfortable that you may not have the medical or social history of your child?
- Can you be flexible and patient with the unpredictability in the international adoption process?
- Can you take the time needed to travel to your child’s country of origin for the adoption?
- Can you expand your family’s cultural identity and incorporate your child’s native heritage into your family life?
- Can you love a child that doesn’t not resemble you and help that child to develop a positive race identity?
If you answered Yes! to at least five of these questions, inter-country (international) adoption can be the path that leads you to your child. Inter-country adoption is a wonderful way to provide a family for a child without parents and to expand and enrich your family.
So where do you start?
Your first step is to consider the needs of the child you may adopt. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself - are you the “right family” for the child. For example, if you adopt an African child will the child feel welcomed and will his/her racial identity be supported? Or if you adopted a child with special needs, can the child’s medical, developmental, and social/emotional needs be properly meet within your family and community? You need to educate yourself and be honest with yourself so you can decide what type of child (e.g. age, ethnic heritage, special needs, siblings, etc) would be the “best fit” for the child and for your family.
Adoption professionals at Family Connections, Inc. are available to help you explore your family’s adoption plan . The Agency offers a free one-on-one consultation meeting for prospective adoptive parents to help you determine if international adoption is right for your family. Family Connections, Inc. is an authorized New York State adoption agency who has achieved Hague Accreditation from the Council on Accreditation. Please contact our staff at 607-756-6574 or at info@adoptfamilyconnections.org to learn more about international adoption.
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