[ripples]

I'm curious to hear from adoptive parents and/or people who are about to adopt internationally and/or transracially. Before you completed the adoption, how much info did you receive regarding the possible challenges of raising an adopted child from another race or country?

I'm an adoptee from Taiwan who was raised in North America and Australia by loving parents. Several of my friends who are considering international adoption don't seem to be getting much info or advice about the possible challenges that they might face, and so they come to me for input.

One of Australia's major post-adoption resource centers has noted a lot of unmet issues and challenges faced by families who adopt transracially. I am also aware of a study in Sweden that found that intercountry adoptees had 3.6 times the suicide rate of children born in Sweden. (Anders Hjern, Frank Lindblad, Bo Vinnerljunt, "Suicide, psychiatric illness and social maladjustment in intercountry adoptees in Sweden: a cohort study" published in 2002).

The combo of questions from friends, the questions posted by adoptive parents in the International Adoptees section of this web site and the above studies lead me to wonder:

1. what sort of information and support are adoptive parents provided with (either by their adoption agency or otherwise) regarding the post-adoption challenges and needs for raising intercountry and/or transracial children?
2. what else do adoptive parents and their children need?

In a lot of societies there are pre-natal classes for parents about to give birth, pre-departure orientation sessions for people who are about to live overseas, so I'm wondering what sort of pre-orientation is provided to prospective adoptive parents of intercountry/transracial children?

[Saya]

Hi Ripples. Thanks for bringing up this interesting and important question. Our agency makes anyone adopting internationally with them go through a series of 3 orientation classes on parenting a child from another country. They also referred everyone to a website (and unfortunately I can't remember the name right now) that has on-line tutorials for adoptive parents, including at least one on dealing with issues of race and diversity. The agency also offers a lot of programs once the child is home.

That said, we used an agency that's been around for many years and is located in a large cosmopolitan and multi-racial city. I feel like the experience we had was not necessarily the norm. There were certainly other agencies we looked at that that didn't have near the level of preparation that ours did.

[CalandraLark]

I'm really glad you brought this issue up. To me one of the absolute biggest things required for a sucessful adoption experience, particularly for your kids is plenty of information from the beginning.

Of course I might be on the extreme here seeing as I'm obsesively attatched to these boards five years before I even reach the minimum age for international adoption, much less before I reach my own requirements of finacial and marital status.

Anyway, I encourage everyone who's in the process or has completed it to join in this discussion and tell us how much you knew and how much you wish you had! (and add to my own never ending quest for enough information) So post!

[teranga]

My understanding of this question is how much the parents were told/taught about raising a child of another ethnic group, not of specific information about the child. Is that right?

We had pretty much no information given to us. Our sw asked something like "do you understand there will be additional challenges to you and the child with an inter-racial adoption?" To which we answered "yes" and that was the end of it.

My husband and I really considered this question, did a lot of research on it, spoke with adult adoptees who are of a different race than their parents (also spoke w/adoptees who are in families where there are also bio kids, since we have 2 bio kids and were also concerned about how that would affect our child). We really considered how we would incorporate information about our child's background (racial/cultural/ethnic background) without emphasizing the differences so much that he does not feel like this is his home and WE are his family.

We felt really prepared to adopt our son, who is from Ethiopia (we are both white). We won't do everything right (no parent does!) but I think we've gone in with open eyes and fairly well prepared.

I was really taken aback though, at how little the issue was discussed with us. I know some sw do really delve into the subject, but many don't, which I do see as problematic. What if we hadn't thought any of this through?

So that is our experience...Hope I understood the question correctly!

Teranga

[teranga]

Oh, I should also mention that we lived in Africa for 2+ years, which is why we chose to adopt from Ethiopia. We felt like we would all benefit from being able to talk about the wonderful things about life there, not from book knowledge, but from first hand experience. That was a really important aspect of this to us. We needed to have some kind of understanding of life where our child was coming from. We speak a local African language, we lived in a mud hut for 2+ years (we were in Peace Corps), and we loved it there. That is the "place" we came into this from.

[hml1976]

Interesting question. While our local social worker hardly touched on the topic at all (our daughter is from Kazakhstan, she is Asian and we are adopting a Kazakh boy as well) our placement agency required (and paid for) us to take several online courses about adopting transracially as well as attachment and correct adoption language.

I believe that agencies that are accredited under the Hague will require education for their clients, I think its part of the requirements for accreditation.

As an aside, we also are lucky that my sister, my only sibling (my DH is an only child) is marrying a man of Japanese descent, while he isn't Kazakh, hopefully our children will learn that families don't have to include people of just one race.

[ripples]

Originally Posted by teranga

My understanding of this question is how much the parents were told/taught about raising a child of another ethnic group, not of specific information about the child. Is that right?

Yup, your understanding of my question is right.

By the way, the research I'd mentioned above was in an article called, "Service needs of transracial adoptive families: The case for providing more post adoption services", it was presented by Thea Ormerod, Counsellor, Post Adoption Resource Centre, at the 8th Australian Adoption Conference, Adelaide, April 2004. The article put together a good case about the needs of transracially adoptive families. I first saw the article on the following web site Benevolent Society - Homepage but for some reason the article is no longer posted.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Hopefully more agencies will offer support and/or more info in future. In the meantime, I guess many of us are sort of pioneers. Thank goodness for the internet.

Regards,

[ripples]

Wow! During my internet browsing, I stumbled across a whole conference that focuses on transracial/transcultural adoption. For all who are curious, here's a wealth of info St. John's University -- Academics & Schools -- Centers, Committees and Institutes -- Center for Psychological Services -- Fourth Adoption Conference: “Families Without Borders? Adoption Across Culture and Race”