[Leafy]

Our lawyer told us at the beginning of our domestic adoption process that being Jewish can be a strength, because many birth mothers associate Jewish families with closeness and warmth. Unfortunately, that's not really true most of the time. What I realized later is that my lawyer deals almost exclusively with adoptions where a match has already been made. What we have found is that being Jewish is a definite drawback to being considered for a match, but not definitive. Several birth mothers have declined to consider us as a result of our Judaism--or, more specifically for them, our not providing a Christian home. I don't think it's anti-semitism, and can understand if a birth mother's religion is important to her she'd want her child raised in that religion.