[sak9645]

Technically, adoption disruption means stopping an adoption before finalization, and adoption dissolution means terminating an adoptive relationship. However, the term "adoption disruption" is often used for both situations.

Suppose that you started the process of adopting from a country. You actually went far enough to get a referral of a child, and were planning to travel to meet the child and finalize the adoption. Then, suppose that your husband suddenly announced that he wanted a divorce, after 20 years of marriage. Totally in shock, and not at all prepared to be a single parent, you decided not to go through with the adoption. This would be a disruption.

Now, instead, suppose that you adopted a child. He turned out to have very severe reactive attachment disorder, possibly related to sexual abuse and beatings he had suffered in his birth family. He tried to molest your biological daughter. He attacked you with a knife he concealed in his room. He killed the cat. He stole. He lied. And so on. He needed to be watched constantly.

Doctors said that therapy would be a long slow process, and might not work. They recommended placement in a therapeutic home, where there would be 24-hour supervision for his protection and that of the other residents, as well as daily therapy. When you checked into such settings, you found that they were terribly expensive. You learned that the only way your child could go into such a setting would be if you relinquished him to the state. Reluctantly, you did so. This would be a dissolution.

Sharon