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Because our family has experience with special needs babies/children.....I volunteered to work with Adopt America Network and, this often puts me in touch with special needs situations (private and in foster care).
When our family was also adopting (privately and through foster care), it was so sad to see some very young children/babies languish while waiting to be adopted. And, somehow, one just feels that 'somewhere, out there' is a person/couple who are open/wanting to adopt a child 'just like that', but they're unaware the child exists.
I know there are photolistings; I know there are listings on internet sites, but there are also families who silently wait on a cw'er or agency to 'find a baby/child for us'. And too often, those people wait...and wait....and wait....never realizing that if they'd do some networking themselves, just contacting or phoning agencies, they just might find the baby that's meant to be theirs.
Guess I'm saddened and amazed that in this age of internet and 'quick-as-lightning' connections, there are still little ones/babies who wait forever for a family that's waiting for them...and neither one realizes the other exists OR, their home state has limited the amount of children they can have; OR, their state's ICPC is reluctant to allow special needs babies/children.
I don't know what the answer is, but I find it incredibly sad......
Am I alone in this thinking, or is it just me on a low day??
Sincerely,
Linny
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No, you aren't alone in thinking that. I agree with you totallyThere are some public profiles for waiting children in my own country, and I can barely look at one of them now, because there's a child with CP on there who's been waiting since the age of about 1, and is now about 4. I keep wishing that child would disappear off there, but no...months and now years have gone and that child is still there, and once they reach 5/6 they are getting too old to have much chance of finding a familyAnother baby aged about 10 months was put into a family finding publication (ie. hard to place) because the parents had a severe mental illness and baby was mixed race. The baby was gorgeous (I mean, really gorgeous, could have been modelling) and totally healthy, but they had to go onto national listings to find a family because of the fear of mental illness in the familyI think people come into adoption knowing very little about how it works, and rely totally on their agency/SW's for education, and they never think to go looking, OR they are told not to do that at all, because presumably the agency want to place their own children, or don't want the hassle of a placement from another state and dealing with ICPCIt would be great if people were more aware of netowrking methods and listings etc. It's just getting tht information out is so hard when people never go looking for it
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I am, I guess, on the other end of what you are finding so sad. I am a parent wanting to adopt again, open to many situations, any race (I prefer AA because my son is AA) or gender...but nothing is happening. I have experience with drug and alcohol exposure and PDD; my son has a family history of severe mental illness and I am completely open to this in a new child.
I network- I am in contact with my RW, previous CWs I have worked with, the agency I trained with, my state's Adoption Operations. But, nothing.
I feel like I must be doing something wrong, or maybe I just need to be more patient? I know that there is a special little one out there for my family. I just hope I can find him (or her).
Can you share any networking secrets? Maybe I am just not doing the right things!
I totally agree with you!! And even if they are on the websites, you may not be able to get anywhere!
The child we are interested in was listed last year on the website- at age 1. We have been trying to get info on him, or get our homestudy update fast tracked for the past 9 months!! He is STILL on the website! so wrong!!!!
And really I have been told we are not able to "Network" to find a placement in our state, everything has to be done through our caseworker anyway.. the system is just messed up all around!