Not everything has to have logic in life but some things need to be logical. I have been blessed to be born into a loving family, family who has been there for me all of my life and will always be there for as long as we are here on Earth. I hope one day to give the same love, if not more, to a child. My logic is when the time comes, and partner and I are ready to love a child, we hope to adopt. Everyone is always asking if we would adopt and Ethiopian kid from Ethiopia, because we are both ethnically Ethiopian.
My answer to that question is why would we? We all know that Hollywood has done its fair share of adoption of black African children, and so has the rest of white America. I remember walking out of the American Embassy in Ethiopia after having to register and seeing, not one, but multiple families with an Ethiopian baby. I would ask where they were from in the States and how long they have been in Ethiopia, and the answer never surprised me. They were always from a place where I knew for sure the children will grow up being the only black children in the schools, and opportunities to cultivate their Ethiopian culture and language? Forget about it.
Just to put things in perspective about how big of a problem this is I will introduce some statistics. Maybe when you read this you can help me understand why people go all the way across the world to adopt a child? Between 1971-2001, 265, 677 were adopted from places other than the U.S. During the same period, there were 581,000 foster children waiting to be adopted in the United States and only 127,000 were adopted. If those stats are not convincing, perhaps money is. The cost of an international adoption is $23,000 or more, while foster care adoption is $0-2,500.
Finally, I understand that people feel the need to help and give love to a child who isn’t loved and care for. What I do not understand is, how is one able to go to a place and live there for less than 14 days and feel comfortable in bringing a child who speaks a different language and has a completely different culture? I know many feel taking one or two or even three children out of an impoverish nation and giving them the opportunity to be the best they want to be is logically right, but if you really want to help the children living in these nations be what they can be, please first consider the following: doing adoption long distance, living in the county of origin for a year or more, learning the language, and promising to raise this child with love. This real love includes an understanding and respect for the rich culture they come from, understanding the discrimination and racism they will undoubtedly confront in the U.S., and contemplating how to support the child in their identity when they realize they were taken from the place they were born and raised without a deep connection with their own community. So if you know anyone who is looking to adopt I hope that you will take the time to ask them some questions like
Challenging people to look within the U.S. for a child before looking internationally? Tell them to ask themselves why they want to adopt? Contemplate why are they going abroad for a child? Are they seeing it as exotic??? They need to ask themselves if they have any connections to anyone from the child's community in the U.S,? Do they interact with diverse communities?
Thank you for taking the time to read this and feel free to post questions or comments I am always open to feed backs
My answer to that question is why would we? We all know that Hollywood has done its fair share of adoption of black African children, and so has the rest of white America. I remember walking out of the American Embassy in Ethiopia after having to register and seeing, not one, but multiple families with an Ethiopian baby. I would ask where they were from in the States and how long they have been in Ethiopia, and the answer never surprised me. They were always from a place where I knew for sure the children will grow up being the only black children in the schools, and opportunities to cultivate their Ethiopian culture and language? Forget about it.
Just to put things in perspective about how big of a problem this is I will introduce some statistics. Maybe when you read this you can help me understand why people go all the way across the world to adopt a child? Between 1971-2001, 265, 677 were adopted from places other than the U.S. During the same period, there were 581,000 foster children waiting to be adopted in the United States and only 127,000 were adopted. If those stats are not convincing, perhaps money is. The cost of an international adoption is $23,000 or more, while foster care adoption is $0-2,500.
Finally, I understand that people feel the need to help and give love to a child who isn’t loved and care for. What I do not understand is, how is one able to go to a place and live there for less than 14 days and feel comfortable in bringing a child who speaks a different language and has a completely different culture? I know many feel taking one or two or even three children out of an impoverish nation and giving them the opportunity to be the best they want to be is logically right, but if you really want to help the children living in these nations be what they can be, please first consider the following: doing adoption long distance, living in the county of origin for a year or more, learning the language, and promising to raise this child with love. This real love includes an understanding and respect for the rich culture they come from, understanding the discrimination and racism they will undoubtedly confront in the U.S., and contemplating how to support the child in their identity when they realize they were taken from the place they were born and raised without a deep connection with their own community. So if you know anyone who is looking to adopt I hope that you will take the time to ask them some questions like
Challenging people to look within the U.S. for a child before looking internationally? Tell them to ask themselves why they want to adopt? Contemplate why are they going abroad for a child? Are they seeing it as exotic??? They need to ask themselves if they have any connections to anyone from the child's community in the U.S,? Do they interact with diverse communities?
Thank you for taking the time to read this and feel free to post questions or comments I am always open to feed backs
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