By KRISTA DORNBUSCH
It took a magnitude 7.0 earthquake for people around the world to increase adoption efforts of Haiti's orphans. While it can be argued that these efforts are beneficial to the children affected by the earthquakes, I am left wondering: Will it take something as drastic as a natural disaster to increase adoption efforts in the United States?
Prior to the earthquake in Haiti, an estimated 380,000 children were living in orphanages or group homes. The recent earthquake has left tens of thousands of additional children orphaned. The United States and other countries are stepping in to adopt orphans of Haiti.
In fact, some groups of people were so swift to help bring children from Haiti to the U.S. that they got arrested for alleged child trafficking.
While the United States is not a third-world country like Haiti nor did we recently suffer a devastating earthquake, more than 100,000 children in the U.S. are awaiting adoption. In Michigan alone, there are 6,164 children waiting to be adopted.
Even though recent legislation like the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 and the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 have created incentives for permanency planning for children in the foster care system, and consequently have increased adoptions, many more adoptive families are needed.
Michigan, as well as other states, also has increased efforts in recruiting families to adopt older children and those with disabilities. The Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange, a Web site that provides adoption information and also presents hundreds of profiles of children available for adoption, has been utilized to recruit these families.
Some may argue that orphans in Haiti have experienced more adversity than the children in our developed country. However, children available to adopt in the United States are available for adoption due to past traumatic experiences such as physical, sexual or emotional abuse, and/or severe neglect.
Furthermore, experiences of abuse and neglect affect individuals differently and even similar experiences can create varying outcomes.
What children awaiting adoption in Haiti and in the U.S. have in common is that their lives are unpredictable, they may not have a sense of security or stability, and for whatever reasons their biological parent no longer can parent them. Every child, Haitian or U.S. citizen, deserves the chance to be considered for adoption.
I am not saying that people should not adopt Haitian orphans, especially since the earthquake has destroyed many of the orphanages. However, if people in the United States are looking to adopt children in need of a stable and loving home, they should be aware of the children waiting to be adopted in our own country.
The number of children awaiting adoption in the U.S. is astonishing and the children need us. Will it take something drastic to influence those in the U.S. to adopt the thousands of children in need of adoptive families? I hope not.
Those interested in adopting a child in Michigan or in more information on adoption can visit www.mare.org or www.michigan.adoption.com.
About the author: Krista Dornbusch, an Ann Arbor resident originally from Traverse City, is a graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She also is an intern at a Southeastern Michigan adoption and foster care agency.
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