Why adopt? Part 1

Wow! Isn't that a huge question...well to some it may not seem to be. But to me it's huge. Especially in this PC world. What if I say the wrong thing? Of course I'll offend someone...it's the way of the world. For the most part I usually don't care...I think we have all become a bit too PC, so PC that in our PCness we end up hurting people so deeply they may never be healed...Am I the only one that ever thinks this? What I do care about is how this will effect my future daughter...and for her I seek the right words. So why adopt? Well to be honest I've always wanted to adopt. I've had friends who adopted internationally and I always just looked at them and thought "wow!" I want to bring a child like this into my home...can I put it all into words? Probably not. I have always been fascinated by other cultures. I had a degree in Int'l Relations in College...I minored in Russian and Spanish...I wanted to join the Peace Corp..be an interpreter...well obviously I didn't do that, you know life happened...and well I found out the Peace Corps was interested more in someone w/ an engineering degree than a language one...who knew!?! But I always wanted to adopt, and I wanted to adopt internationally.

The system for domestic adoption here in the US...well frankly it sucks! I work for the welfare system...I know! I've seen kids go in and out of foster care, only to be continually disappointed by their parents. Then at the age of 10, these kids are placed up for adoption...usually as a "special needs" child because of "behavioral problems." Could all of this been prevented? Of course it could! Again I feel conflicted as I write this...it sucks here b/c we try to maintain the birth parents rights...to a point that we damage our children moving them from foster care home to foster care home...not allowing them to be adopted at a young age. Why? To protect those parental rights! A huge percent of these parents we try to protect have recurring drug abuse and mental health problems...many also have criminal records longer than my arm. Do I get that some parents need protecting? Of course I do...but many don't. And unfortunately no one is willing to draw that line in the sand....where do we draw the line? Is it after 2 offenses or relapse? 3? 4? So we as adoptive parents travel half way across the world. Why? Because the parents have no rights...they are terminated in the absolute since of the word. Not just terminated parental rights...but terminated from these childrens' lives. Many mothers dropping babies off, leaving them where they know they will be found...but never leaving them w/ a trace as to who they are or where they came from. Then we rich white folks, (I'm not rich but I know it is how it is perceived) , take our babies and fly back across the ocean so no one can come and reclaim what we have taken to be our own...do I get this? Hell yes! But do I feel bad about it at the same time? Hell yes! Do I want to adopt? Absolutely! Do I want my baby to be ripped away from her mother never to know her again? No...I don't. But I don't want that mother to come and take her back either....wow! Can we say mixed emotions?!?!?