A friend of mine adopted a little girl from africa about a year ago. She is great, of course.

It is a very expensive process.

anyone else out there have any experiences/opinions on adoption?

Friends of mine adopted a little girl from Guatemala and later adopted another girl from there and they seem quite happy all around. I didn’t inquire about the process, though. I wonder if domestic adoptions are less paperwork and expense than foreign ones. I don’t know how big our adoption trade deficit is. Maybe more people should buy American.

From what in understand, it is a lot easier to adopt a foreign baby than a domestic one. White babies are expensive and the waiting list is long. Ethiopian and Asian children are the fastest and cheapest, i think.

I guess that must be true. Even rich celebs like Madonna and Brangelina have to get cheap foreign imports, or is that because they have more cachet than boring whitebread domestics?

The (PFKaP) - 05 May 2009 10:41 PM

A friend of mine adopted a little girl from africa about a year ago. She is great, of course.

It is a very expensive process.

anyone else out there have any experiences/opinions on adoption?

I have worked as a support to foster/adoptive parents for several years.  There are several kids in our local community looking to be adopted.  Steve, what you are speaking of is a private adoption scenario. If someone is interested in a ‘non-private’ adoption, all you would have to do is go through a very simple MAPP class and be certified as a foster or adoptive parent.  Through that process, you could choose to be a foster-to-adopt parent, meaning you would be able to help a child while their parents have their opportunity to complete their case plan.  As a foster parent you are also able to choose an age range of children you are better equipped to cater to.  Instead of paying tens of thousands of dollars for foreign children (not that there’s anything wrong with that) you are payed a stipend to foster or adopt a child through DSS or whatever the local agency that handles this scenario throughout the US.

Really?

You can get payed to adopt a kid?

Are they very damaged? Or just past date?