The Pros And Cons Of Adoption

In the summer of 2014, 1 a foster child joined a Christian family. Michael was a week old when he arrived at the Jimenez home. Mark, 2 Lauren, 2 Emily, 2 and Michelle were so excited to have a new son and little brother to love. Michael had become a member of the Jimenez family through foster care. His birth parents had lost parental rights, 1 but the birth mother wished to participate in a program to regain her son. She was scheduled for visits throughout the placement, 1 but never showed. This gave hope to a family already envisioning their happily ever after. One month before the adoption was scheduled in court, 3 the Jimenez family received news that a paternal aunt was seeking custody. The whole family was heartbroken when they came to take Michael away from the only home he had ever known. Many foster-to-adopt families start this process and believe that the end result

Families are left feeling emotionally empty and hesitant to trust in a system that they feel has failed them. Often, 3 these families are unprepared to handle the disappointment and are apprehensive to expose their family again to adoption. For the Jimenez family, 1 the thought was inconceivable. According to the Texas Adoption Resource exchange, 8 one of the responsibilities of foster and adoptive families is to: “make efforts as team members with children’s caseworkers towards reunifying children with their birth families.” (DFPS ) Even though this is the goal for most child welfare programs, 3 foster-to-adopt parents seem to get caught up in the excitement and euphoria of their happy little family, 3 thus forgetting the program’s main intent of reunification. The statistics, 6 based on FY2010, 6 shows the following: “208,000 children were in foster care, 2 53,000 were adopted. Of those adopted, 53% were placed with foster parents, 2 32% were placed with relatives, 2 and 15% were placed with non-relatives.” (DFPS