Auberon Quin:
I also want to respond to MakerTeacher’s apparent assertion that all foreign adoption processes are corrupt. This is rank nonsense. Some processes are corrupt and creepy (see the film “Casa de los Babys,” for example), and there have been substantiated allegations of kidnapping, baby-selling, and all sorts of nasty stuff in some countries.
Nobody has ever asked us for a bribe. Nobody that we know who has adopted from Mongolia (and, thanks to Yahoo, we know a lot of them) has ever been asked for a bribe.
Mr. Quin, congratulations on your upcoming adoption, I wish you the best.
Please note that you are falsely accusing me of stating that “ALL foreign adoption processes are corrupt.” I recommend you re-read my original post, perhaps with a little charity in your heart. Many of them are indeed corrupt, as you mentioned also. I never claimed they ALL were.
That said, literally *every single person * I know sho has adopted from overseas (and I currently know 34 such couples and have met many many more) HAS been told to take bribe money, and HAS handed it over at some point in the proceedings, “to speed things along.” The countries involved include China, Russia, Brazil, Romania, and Mexico, plus a few others. I do not know anyone who has adopted from Mongolia. I grant you this is anecdotal evidence, but it is pretty strong. That money is NOT being used to improve the lives of the orphans left behind.
There are benefits and downsides for the adoptive parents to both foreign and domestic adoptions, just as there are benefits and downsides to closed and open adoptions. IMHO, it does not matter to the child adopted how they are adopted, just that they are loved. I have worked in adoptions for nearly 20 years now in various capacities, from counseling birth mothers in a residential home for unwed mothers to being a foster Mom. What every form of adoption works for you is what you should do, and you should allow others to do what works for them, so long as a child ends up in a better place I am all for it.
I am just encouraging people to look locally as well, especially if they find the cost of overseas adoptions prohibitive. Adopting from the state usually costs under $1000, total.