Friday, May 2, 2014

Link: PWNL Reacts to Washington Post Article: Congress should focus on interstate, rather than international, adoptions

Recently there was an article in the Washington Post that talked about some of the challenges that families face when trying to adopt children who are waiting in the US foster care system.   While we know that there can be obstacles to this process, it was really nice to see the hope filled response that one of our PWNL moms had to the article.  As the Director of our older child program, reading this comment really helps to reinforce the importance of the work that is being done at the Barker Foundation to support the adoption of older waiting children in the US foster care system.  The road to adoption from the foster care system may not be easy, but the need is great!  We encourage all families who have the desire and ability to provide a loving home to older kids with a history of trauma to not give up – even when the process may seem impossible. 

Please read below to see both the article and the response from our PWNL parent. 

 

Response to Article From A PWNL Parent:

4/28/2014 12:39 AM EDT

I am in the process of adopting a foster child from another state, and I must admit that I am a bit confused by this opinion piece. I’ve been working with an adoption agency to get “matched” with a child and to facilitate the adoption. This process definitely is not easy! But it doesn’t seem more difficult or time consuming than what seems to happen with overseas adoption (i.e. it’s taking about the same amount of time, and it involves about the same amount of hassle and headache). My home study hasn’t been rejected by any states. And because adopting kids from foster care is considered a “special needs” adoption, adoptive parents like me will get the full adoption tax credit (so I don’t see that there’s a financial disincentive to me, as this opinion piece suggests - my adoption is very inexpensive compared to overseas adoptions, but I’m still getting the same tax credit that families adopting overseas will get, and in my case, the amount of credit I get has nothing to do with my income). Yes, I agree that it would be MUCH better if there were a nationally-standardized process; it’s frustrating that this seems to happen a bit differently in every state/jurisdiction. But I would hate for someone to read this and give up on the idea of adopting an older child, because the process is too hard. Work with a good adoption agency, and you can do it!

 

Link To Article:

Why is it easier to adopt a child from overseas than from another state?

By Jeff Katz

More than 100,000 American children are in foster care and waiting to be adopted, according to the federal Children’s Bureau.

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