disney4us2002 said:
I would really like to know where you're getting these "facts" - aside from being wrong and offensive (why is it any more PC to choose the country than the race of an adopted child?). I saw the statistics for MD adoptions just last week. In the three So. Md counties I work with there were only 27 public agency adoptions in 2005 and of those only 3 were for children under age 1 - regardless of race. One of the couples I mentioned are actually an AA couple. The reason for the wait is that they only want to consider "legally free" children under age 2 for fear of a disrupted adoption. That is actually uncommon with public agencies. If you know where they can adopt w/o a wait, please post the agency or pm the name and I will pass it on to them.
I think the difference is between public and private agencies. I've always heard the same thing about public agencies -- babies and toddlers in general are very hard to adopt through the state, because they're giving the birthparents a chance to get their act together. The birthparents are not choosing adoption, they are having their rights terminated by the state and the state needs to make darn sure that they are doing the right thing, before they go terminating people's parental rights against their will.
Many private agencies, however, have trouble finding parents to adopt healthy AA or biracial newborns whose birthparents are choosing an adoption plan for them. The agency we used, for example, where potential birthparents look at profiles of potential adoptive families and choose the family for thier child. While white mothers carrying full caucasion babies generally have 12-15 profiles from which to choose, mothers carrying AA or biracial babies have maybe one or two. We have friends that adopted through this agency as well, and they first waited probably 15 months for a white baby, until they decided that color didn't matter. Within two weeks of notifying the agency that they were open to all races, they got the call that a potential birthmom had chosen them, and she was due the next week! (Usually, matches are made a month or two before the due date). That particular match fell through, as the mother decided to parent the baby, but not more than a month after that, they were chosen again, and this time the baby was placed in their home and adopted.
Our social worker told me that private agencies have such trouble finding homes for these babies that the agencies join forces when they have an AA baby to place, they often have to call the other agencies to find profiles to present to the potential birthmom. Many agencies even reduce their fees for AA/biracial babies, in order to widen the pool of couples who have the ability to adopt them.
Now, these adoptions certainly aren't without
any wait, but generally have a much shorter wait that for healthy white babies. It is sad, but at the same time, IMO, couples need to bring children into their families whom they feel qualified to parent. Some white families living in 99.8% white communities may not feel up to the challenge of parenting a child who may face discrimination and prejudice throughout his life. This doesn't make them bad or racist people, heck, if adoptive parents are supposed to ignore those factors and adopt without regard to race or ethnicity, why aren't bio parents held to the same standard? I mean, they could just has easily forgo fertility treatments or use birth control and adopt those "hard-to-place" (whether due to age, race or health) children too.
OK, back to my original point... Really, if anyone is having trouble finding an AA baby to adopt, they should try some private agencies. If you really want to know which one we used, PM me. They are in Colorado, but work with out-of-state families as well.
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Attacking someone who is calmly and rationally expressing her point of view because you don't agree with her... 
