Posts tagged foster care

By Rita Soronen
President and CEO

As we work to raise awareness about adoption from foster care, we frequently share stories of amazing families formed through adoption. We do this to show that families built this way are just as viable as those formed biologically. By showing success, we encourage participation. Others who see a family brought together by foster care adoption may believe, “If they can do it, I can too!”

But we get so caught up in the remarkable stories we hear that we may occasionally overlook the reasons these children came into care, and the impact it has on their lives and the lives of the family members that have joined once an adoption has been finalized. When Nia Vardalos talked about her adoption during her nationwide book tour, adoptive moms made it loud and clear that raising an adopted son or daughter is not all roses and sunshine.

Children who experience or witness violence, face traumatic loss or grief, or live with extreme instability in foster care, also may experience painful mental or physical health effects. In fact, one study of foster care alumni showed that they experienced post-traumatic stress disorder at two times the rate of U.S. war veterans. Understanding the trauma a child has experienced, and the challenges families may encounter post-adoption, can help assure that families formed through the foster care system stay intact and thrive.

Read more …

(via The TODAY Show)

The face is angelic, the lighting soft and the subject is napping peacefully – just the way a newborn photo shoot should look. It took 13 years, but Latrell Higgins finally has his baby photos.

“Here’s my sweet not so little newborn! His name is Latrell and weighs 112 lbs.,” his mom Kelli Higgins proudly announced on Facebook, where the boy’s simple wish created an online sensation.

Higgins and her husband adopted Latrell and his sister Chanya two years ago, welcoming the siblings to their home in Crestview, Fla. The family already had five biological children, with a sixth one on the way, but Higgins felt she had more love to give, especially to kids who would have a harder time finding a home because they were older. In the past decade, more older children have become available for adoption, experts say.

http://www.today.com/moms/adoptive-moms-newborn-photo-shoot-13-year-old-son-goes-1C8347362

“It’s too expensive.”

“Children in foster care are too set in their ways to blend in with my family.”

“I’m not married, so I can’t adopt, right?”

“I don’t want to deal with the birth parents in my face about their child or deal with the child welfare system – it’s all just too complicated!”

We hear these and similar comments all the time. It’s good to consider all of the challenges and needs potential parents could face when creating or expanding a family through adoption – from financial implications to household dynamics. But opting out of the process based on myths or misperceptions about the children or the systems involved is simply a disservice to the 104,000 children waiting to be adopted.

So let’s address some of the myths:

Read more …