I don't think anyone else has asked this question on here ...

We as Blacks do adopt, the issue is lack of recruitment or outreach to Black communities. make note that there are tons of older Black children in the foster care system, and who are adopting/fostering those children? Next is this, if the biological parents who are placing these children reason is poverty, poor choices based on poverty etc; and even some forms of drug abuse, the parent can get help to keep her child or his/their child. There are options out there, not just who will take these children.My thoughts are this:Certainly there are black families that adopt. However, in my area, recruitment is not the issue, it's attitudes towards adoption. Our agency has gone into predominately black churches, advertised on radio stations that market to the black community, worked with pastors, put up billboards in strategic places...and with very little response. When our baby boy was born, the state made exhastive efforts to find a black family first. After 2 days on the phone, they started searching through old records for families who used to be certified. That's how they found us. We were not pursuing another adoption but when called, how could we say no! BTW, there is a shortage of families here in the N.O. area period, not just AA families.The way I see it, if a birth mother chooses adoption for her child (for whatever reason), that is her choice and I don't question it...regardless of her race. Thank you for your input. I personally do want to hear from black people. I ask a complete stranger in Target which hair cream was better because she had a little boy with her who had hair just like my sons. She gladly gave her opinion and she was right...I love the stuff, smells much better than olive oil!

nickchris,You are right, in N.O. there is not a very large middle class in the black community. Our agency went outside the city (Northshore area, Baton Rouge etc where the population is mixed and affluent) They told me that even pre-Katrina they were having to send AA babies up north to be adopted. That made me really sad for the birth moms. Many of them want open adoptions. Kind of hard to do when your baby is in WISCONSIN! Actually, hearing all of this from our agency is what changed my mind about adopting an AA child. I had always thought that it would be best for these AA newborns to go to an AA family. I never imagined that there was a shortage of families for a healthy newborn!!When I realized how hard it was for them to find homes for these babies, I changed my mind. Our baby boy happened to be a safe haven baby and a complete surprise (left at the hospital) When they told us he was AA, I asked if they had looked for an AA family. They said yes, we tried, but with no luck. So, we happily said YES and we feeled honored to be his mom and dad. I DO worry about him when he is older. I can't stand the fact that he may be called names, or be treated differently, or experience predjudice. It makes me mad just thinking about someone hurting my son's feelings. I swear I will knock them out!:D It has also opened my eyes to the world that black men live in. Where they are judged just on the color of their skin and not the content of their character. It has opened my eyes to my own misconceptions and sometimes ignorance of our nations history. All I can say is that we will do the best we can and love him like crazy!

We as Blacks do adopt, the issue is lack of recruitment or outreach to Black communities. make note that there are tons of older Black children in the foster care system, and who are adopting/fostering those children? Next is this, if the biological parents who are placing these children reason is poverty, poor choices based on poverty etc; and even some forms of drug abuse, the parent can get help to keep her child or his/their child. There are options out there, not just who will take these children. My thoughts are this: Certainly there are black families that adopt. However, in my area, recruitment is not the issue, it's attitudes towards adoption. Our agency has gone into predominately black churches, advertised on radio stations that market to the black community, worked with pastors, put up billboards in strategic places...and with very little response. When our baby boy was born, the state made exhastive efforts to find a black family first. After 2 days on the phone, they started searching through old records for families who used to be certified. That's how they found us. We were not pursuing another adoption but when called, how could we say no! BTW, there is a shortage of families here in the N.O. area period, not just AA families. The way I see it, if a birth mother chooses adoption for her child (for whatever reason), that is her choice and I don't question it...regardless of her race. Thank you for your input. I personally do want to hear from black people. I ask a complete stranger in Target which hair cream was better because she had a little boy with her who had hair just like my sons. She gladly gave her opinion and she was right...I love the stuff, smells much better than olive oil!

During our home study, we were asked what race of child we preferred and we said we preferred an African American child but we were open to any race including Caucasian and our social worker seem to be offended by that. She even told us she preferred kids be adopted within their race. I really wanted to tell her about herself but I wanted the home study to be approved. I am grateful that I grew up looking past race. Thats my 2 cents.

If this question has already been asked and discussed, I apologize; I couldn't find anything about it. My husband and I are interested in adoption, and from the research we've done so far, it looks like our best option would probably be domestic infant adoption of an African-American child (we are both white). My concern with this is that, honestly, I am afraid of alienating our African-American friends. I don't want to wind up sacrificing friendships that are important to me over this issue (transracial adoption), especially since there are other options. Do any of you have any experience with this? I would love to hear about it.

Should a CC parent of a AA child try to get involved in black culture? Or is that disrespectful to the culture?