Adoption: A Heart Issue, a Faith Issue, a Life-Changing Issue

By Dr. Heather W. Allen

This column has been possibly the most difficult to write. I have prayed about this topic. I
have researched this topic. I have started writing and stopped. Then I have started writing
again. I think the quandary I am in stems from this topic seeming more complex than a
typical issue. The issue of adoption is a heart issue, a faith issue, and a life-changing issue.
I will present statistics that I hope are interesting and compelling but more than that, these
statistics represent children. Every data point is a child. That is a sobering, heartwrenching
thought. My heart is in turmoil when I think about this topic.

When studying Scripture, one can see that God has a heart for orphans, and He mandates
we care for them. Spend some time searching Scripture for examples of adoption and
orphans. It is a fascinating exercise.


I have written about adoption before. This topic is personal and part of my familys daily
life. We have five children and our youngest two joined our family through adoption. I
cannot imagine our lives without all of our children. I cannot imagine our adopted childrens
lives had we not adopted them. One of our adopted children has a life-threatening medical
condition, and had we not adopted her when we did, and taken her to the best specialists in
the country for treatment, she would not have survived. I cannot even think about this
because I know in my heart there are other children in similar situations waiting to be
adopted, including some who will not survive the wait.

In the United States there are about 423,000 children living without permanent families
1

and 134,000 children in foster care.
2
Of those children, 115,000 are eligible for adoption,
but almost 40% will wait more than three years in foster care before being adopted. Each
year more than 29,000 youth age out of the foster care system.
3

Focusing on the adoption statistics, as of 2008, approximately 2.5% of the United States
children joined their families through adoption, including adoptions from foster care, private
domestic adoptions, international adoptions, and step-parent adoptions.
4

All types of people adopt children: married couples (78%), single females (17%), and single
males (5%). The average adoptive parent is about five years older than the average birth
parent. The median income of homes with adopted children is $56,138, whereas the median
income of households including only birth children is $48,200. Heads of households of
adoptive children are more likely to own their own homes, and more adoptive parents hold
graduate or professional degrees than those who have not adopted.
5

Some people adopt internationally because there are greater numbers of younger children
available and often because they find it easier to adopt in other countries than here.
Furthermore, there is such a significant need throughout the world that the adoptive
parents may focus on one country over another. Other families adopt domestically because
their focus is on children in this country, rather than abroad, or they are involved in the
foster care system and pursue the adoption of children they know. Regardless of focus,
domestic or international, there are children everywhere who desperately need families.

According to estimates from 2005, there were 62 million children living in Asia, 39 million in
Africa, 8 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 1.5 million in Central and Eastern
Europe
6
who need families. In the United States, as already mentioned, there are about
423,000 children without permanent homes and about 115,000 who are eligible for
adoption. That is more than 110.5 million children who need families. More recent estimates
put the number of children, worldwide, in need of families at about 143 million. I have
trouble relating to that number: 143 million, especially since that number reflects children
without families, or orphans.

Focusing on adoptions in the United States, reports indicate that for the last twenty years,
the number of adoptions has ranged from 118,00 to 127,000 per year. Of those 127,000
adoptions, in 2005 for example, more than 50,000 were domestic adoptions, about 22,000
were international adoptions, and 55,000 were primarily private, agency, kinship, or tribal
adoptions.
7

Age varies depending on if the child is adopted internationally (i.e., from a foreign country)
or domestically (i.e., from the United States public child welfare system). For example, in
2005, 3% of children adopted domestically were under the age of 1, whereas 40% of the
children adopted internationally were under the age of 1. Conversely, in 2005, 55% of the
children adopted domestically were over the age of 5, whereas only 16% of those adopted
internationally were over 5.

As for gender, 49% of children adopted domestically were girls, whereas 66% of children
adopted internationally were girls. Looking, though, at a country like China, about 95% of
international adoptions were girls.

In the United States, approximately 39% of the population has said they seriously have
considered adopting a child; however, only about 2% have adopted. Currently there are
about 1.5 million adopted children in the United States.

Adoption is something many of us have been called to embrace with our families. However,
other families may be called to other service. There is no right or wrong answer other than
to follow where God leads each of us. Pray for the orphans of the world. There are so many.
Pray for the adoptive families. And pray for guidance regarding how to help.


Endnotes:
1. Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI)): Facts and Statistics.
www.ccainstitute.org/why-we-do-it-/facts-and-statistics.html.
2. Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute,
National Adoption Attitudes Survey, released June 19, 2002, pages 10 and 14.
www.adoptioninstitute.org/survey/Adoption_Attitudes_Survey.pdf.
3. CCAI: Facts and Statistics. www.ccainstitute.org/why-we-do-it-/facts-and-
statistics.html.
4. Americas Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011. ChildStats.gov: Forum
on Child and Family Statistics. www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/special1.asp.
5. Center for Adoption Research (June 2006). Adoptive Family Structure. AFCARS Adoption
Data Research Brief Number 1.
6. International Adoption: Trends and Issues (November 2007). National Data Analysis
System Issue Brief. Child Welfare League of America.
7. Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and reporting System (AFCARS) #11 data submitted
for the FY 2004, 0/1/03 through 9/30/04.
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report11.htm.



Heather and her husband, Steve, live in Edgewood, New Mexico, where they have
homeschooled their five children: Edward (17), Joseph (15), Emily (11), Hana (6), and
Ezekiel (5), for the last twelve years. When not homeschooling, doing things with her
family, or writing for TOS, Heather works as a human factors engineer in her home-based
consulting business. For more information about the Allen family, please visit their website
at www.hippityhooves.com.



Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in
the July 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, the family education magazine.
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