Have you ever known someone who was adopted? If you’re thinking about having your own child adopted, then you might want to know more about helping create families through adoption.
While 38% of adoptions in the United States are private, 37% are through the foster care system. The remaining 25% are international adoptions.
Before being adopted, 45% of children remain living with their birth family. In approximately 41% of these cases, relatives choose to adopt another family member’s child or children.
On average, a child spends three years in foster care before they are adopted. Around half of these children may actually be placed in three of more foster care situations. When these children are school age, 55% of them had to change schools five or more times. This makes a major impact on these children, many of whom get behind in school and suffer the loss of friends.
In 2012 alone, there were over 58,000 children in the United States’ foster care system that were placed in group homes or institutions rather than in traditional foster care placements. For the children that were placed with traditional foster families, 86% of these families chose to adopt one or more of these children in order to provide them with a permanent, loving home.
Other reasons parents choose to adopt a child include the following situations:
- To expand an existing family
- To have a child because they are infertile
- To provide a sibling for their child
The U.S. State Department reports that over 7,000 children were adopted by American families in 2012. As a result of being adopted, these children did not need to be raised in an institution or group home facility.
While most people, approximately 70.2%, that adopt a child are married with families, 22.7% are single women. Unmarried couples do adopt, and they comprise about 1.6% of the people that choose to adopt a child. Single males are responsible for around 5.5% of all adoptions.
If you would like to have information about newborn or infant adoptions, you can contact a local adoption agency to learn more about their program. While this is clearly an incredibly difficult decision for you to make, a leading adoption agency understands this and will be able to guide you through the process.
Your reasons for considering adoption are as unique as you are. However, it’s important to remember that when you place your child for adoption, you will be assisting another person or couple in being able to create a family.
