Before a person even decides to adopt, there will certainly be nagging questions about whether to adopt domestically or internationally. Basically, people have different considerations and the decision will depend greatly on the adopting parents’ personal views.

Once an individual has come up with a decision, for instance, to choose a single parent international adoption, it simply does not end there. Famous celebrities are often reported as adopting children from diverse cultures and knowing this may inspire a lot of aspiring single parents to do the same.

However, some parents are beginning to experience having difficulties adopting from other countries now as compared years ago. It is important to know why a lot of parents formerly preferred to go through an international adoption.

In the article “Parents Say: Domestic or International Adoption?”, a parent named Laura shared her reasons for choosing to adopt from China. According to her, she learned that there are many girls in the orphanages in this country and it was easier to request and adopt a girl.

Another parent named Madeline also opted to adopt from China but her reasons are different from that of Laura’s. She thought that the procedures for international adoption are more predictable as compared to domestic adoption.

single parent international adoption
Image Credit: Justin Grimes
Moreover, she lived in a community that was dominated by Asian-Americans and Chinese Americans.  She was also very much interested in having a family from different cultures. Other mothers who shared their experiences, expressed their fears about birth mothers coming back to get their adopted child.

They believed that in an international adoption, there was less chance for such a thing to occur. On the other hand, domestic adoption also offers its own set of advantages for being preferred by some parents.

One father shared that he considers it important that his child gets to know his birth parents. Some parents also found it easier and so much cheaper as compared to international adoption. Nowadays, though, some parents think that the international adoption process has become more difficult.

Diane Peter discusses more about this issue in her article “International Adoption: What You Need to Know”. Based on the experience of a parent named Paul Greens, there is longer wait time and stricter requirements in order to adopt a child from another country.

It can take 1 to 2 years wait time to adopt from Russia or South Korea while it can take 6 years or more to adopt from China. Peter further explains the reasons behind this, one of which is international relations.

Many countries, some of which are the US, Canada and China signed the 1995 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptions which, as an advantage, protects children from trafficking. On the other hand, this has somehow reduced the number of international adoptions.

One of Canada’s largest adoption agencies, The Children’s Bridge has experienced significant reduction of adoptions from as high as 200 to only 70 in a year. Furthermore, there are agencies that have closed in the recent years due to a dramatic decrease in single parent adoption cases.

Another reason for this reduction is that more older-aged children are available for adoption while more parents prefer infants or at least preschool-aged children. As a result, more parents are actually opting for domestic adoption.

Parents somehow feel that it is just too expensive and their wanting to have a child takes longer. Most of them realize that what is really important is their pure intention to share their love with their adopted child and to be given the chance to do so, whether the child is from another country or from their own.

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