[anarchamama]

So DH and I have 2 bio children and woul dlike a 3rd, having had to kids we don't feel a need for a 3rd pregnancy, just a 3rd child. We have been investigating domestic adoption of a AA or MR child, but I really only want to persue adoption if there is a real NEED for families, otherwise we will have another bio child. I'm having trouble getting a straight answer on this, and I'de love to hear any experiences or stats, or thoughts.

Cheers
Heather

[mommamarci]

I was told there was a "real need." However, it took four months before we had our son. You would think if the need was as great as they said, it would have happened a lot more quickly. I think it also depends on the area / agency. We were waiting with one agency and our son came to us through another agency. We had signed up for a referral service and they called us because agency 2 did not have a single family open to AA or MR babies. I have also heard from someone else on here that used agency 2. The agency has called them out of the blue a few times because they had a baby born and no family to adopt babe. So, my advice would be to ask the agencies how many families are waiting and how long the average wait is (specifically for AA or MR babies. Wait is usually longer and more are usually waiting for CC or Hispanic.). If very few families are waiting and the average is low, that agency has a real need.

I have heard that some agencies routinely set up international adoptions so people in Canada or Europe can adopt an AA or MR American babies because they cannot find families.

[SchmennaLeigh]

When looking through profiles from the agency that I worked with, there were a lot of couples who were not open to AA/biracial children. I only looked at profiles that said they were interested in aa/biracial or ANY child.

While there may not be an immediate "as soon as you sign up you get a baby" need, there is a need for families who are open to racial issues.

[teranga]

Just wondering if you are only open to domestic? We have 2 bio kids and adopted from Ethiopia. At the time we adopted, even young kids were not guaranteed of being adopted, so there was a real need and that was part of our reason to adopt...Now that it's a much more popular program, I don't think too many healthy infants aren't being adopted...in fact there are wait lists.

Still, there are other places in the world where there is great need, and where the kids are not being adopted (Liberia, Haiti, many others...). The key is finding places which are doable, but not as popular (the Angelina Jolie factor really put Ethiopian adoptions on the map according to our agency).

[anarchamama]

Well I'm candien so really the US is international for me! But we are not really interested in overseas for a variety of reasons.

[traceyk]

I think size of agency and location does make a difference. We got Drihan within 2 weeks and that was after a failed placement two days previously and that day we had three situations to choose from. I can only speak for myself. It also depends on how open your are with gender and other things.

[anarchamama]

It's starting to seem to me like the real answer is there is a need for middle class heterosexual families, that there is lots of non traditional families waiting for a placement but that pbm are not given the same spectrum of choice that white families are. And thats a moral quagmire unto itself! Does this sound realistic, its really starting to seem like the case to me.......

[Fran27]

My impression is that there are families waiting for babies, no matter the race... It seems for one message I read about agencies lacking adoptive parents, I hear about 3+ families waiting... most of them being the 'traditional' families you refer to.

The real need is for older and special need children.

[jaenelle]

Anyone who tells you there's a need for families for healthy newborns -- of any race -- is lying. You WILL wait for a child, regardless of race. Your wait may be considerably shorter for an AA child than a CC child, for instance, but you WILL wait.

[joskimo]

I agree with the post that says there may be a wait, but it really is a much shorter wait. OUr match took 7 weeks and our daughter was born 7 weeks after that. I've heard of many couples waiting for a CC child who wait a much longer time.

That being said, adoption isn't supposed to be about rescuing the child, there are a lot of families waiting to adopt, I think it's an unwelcome burden to bring a child into your family as a rescue.

[Honesty76]

We adopted five babies in exactly five years, all AA and MR. I would not say that we really had to wait with any of them, our first one we were rushed through the HS process for because there were no other families interested in a MR child, our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th WE were contacted by the agency and for the 5th we were lead to an agency via a PM we received on these forums and within 4 weeks we had our little angel in our arms. There is definitely a need for all types of families to adopt all types of children (cc, aa, mr, older, special needs, etc). In some areas the wait is very long while in others they are begging for homes while babies wait in fostercare. I wish there was some sort of national database of adoptive parents out there that could be dispersed to ALL agencies. That may alleviate the need for fostercare for some of these babes and lessen the wait times. Do your homework! Research and network out there, there are definitely babes waiting.

Leslie