4/10/2009 - Friday

• 4/10/2009 6:25:43 PMInner World of the Adopted ChildI read a fantastic article the other day.  For anyone contemplating adoption or who have adopted and are currently banging your head against a wall, it is a must read.  According to the article, about 1% of children in the United States are adopted - 29% of those come from abroad.  That is a significant percentage.  I would argue that most people probably know someone or are in some kind of contact with someone who has either adopted or been adopted.
  
  ...What we fail to sometimes take into account - and what many agencies don't adequately prepare parents for - are the ways in which adopted children manifest with a variety of psychological characteristics that differ tremendously from other children. Sadly, many parents embark on the task of raising an adopted child ill prepared for understanding or coping with the behavioral manifestations of a child who often feels like a throwaway kid.
  
  When a person considers all of the variables that could potentially affect the life of an adoptee, it is easy to see why raising an adopted child can end up involving much more than the parents ever anticipated or were prepared for.
  
  Does this mean that children should not be adopted but rather kept institutionalized?  Hardly!  If anything, it means that if we are at all concerned about the children that make up the next generation, we've got some learning to do so that we can embrace all the damaged kids out there.
  
  There is so much to this article, I really can't summarize it all here.  Take a few minutes and go read it for yourself.
  
  The Inner World of the Adopted Child