what is with the US and wanting to adopt children outside the US?

The foster to adopt process is long & difficult

They think domestic adoption is harder

They have a connection to another country, or they like the culture (they want Asian children, or many people who adopt from places like Russia do it because they want white children)

They want to "rescue" a child from a third world country

They don't want to deal with the child's birth family

Personally I think it's better to adopt from the US, there are enough children in need here & they're usually healthier than kids in other countries, especially if they're adopted as babies.

When I see this question, I always wonder how many children here in the US the asker has adopted while criticizing those adopting from outside the country. The answer is usually zero.

I would not call it a fad. Some people just feel led to adopt from other countries- perhaps they have a link to the country. Children here in the US are no more deserving of families and homes than children elsewhere.

Many reasons.Some include:

- Greater availability of infants overseas.

- Genuine altruism, knowing that orphans in some foreign countries live in really deplorable conditions (whereas it's assumed--probably correctly--that kids in foster care here live a much higher standard of living than kids in impoverished countries).

- To some extent, perhaps it really is a fad, fueled by the example of stars like Madonna or Angelina Jolie.

It's kind of weird, though. Whenever there's a natural disaster overseas, some Americans immediately think of adoption as a solution. It happened with Haiti and Japan.Yet you don't hear of Americans wanting to adopt after Hurricane Sandy or Katrina. I'm not knocking the people who truly want to help, and maybe they're right. But why are they so quick to assume that taking kids away from their own culture, language, and extended kinship group is the best way to help?

In the US, the procedures for adopting children are long and drawn out, as well as expensive. You can go through government programs, but then you have to foster children and have your heart torn out a few times before you finally are allowed to adopt. Usually the reason a child is in foster programs in the US is because the parents were abusive or there were problems, and the parents fought for custody to keep the child, so they aged in foster programs until finally they were available for adoption. This means that they not only have a history but baggage and a prior family they may want to keep up connections to. There's also reasons such as wanting a child who looks more like yours, family ethnicity for instance, and often foster and government adoption (if you're that picky) won't work with you as much.

My friend adopted her son here in the US. He's not the same ethnicity, they went through 2 fosters before being allowed to adopt (and sometimes she wonders what happened to those toddlers, and worries for them, it was very hard on the family to love a child for as long as a year and then have them taken without any warning...) Recently he went to visit his family, they've kept up contact with his family and he has visitations and such with his siblings, grandparents, etc. These are all things that DON'T happen with a foreign adoption.

In a foreign adoption, the chances of someone showing up and saying "that's my kid" and wanting to be involved are low. The reasons the children are available for adoption are because no one really wants the child, so there's no one arguing to keep the child. Once the child is adopted, their family can count on that child being with them for life and the past being pretty much done away with. The fees are usually lower, plus you sometimes have situations (such as the case of a handicapped child) where you know you've improved their quality of life by moving them to America. And again, if my family heritage traces back to Russia/Germany/that area then the child would blend into my family far more (and while that shouldn't seem to matter, I've read enough from children who were from another ethnicity raised in a family how it affected them in the long-term to believe that it benefits children to have exposure if not be raised by people who they can physically relate to.)

You're right. There are a lot of kids in the US waiting for homes and families. But there's also families who are waiting for children who know that many of the kids waiting have baggage they cannot handle.

Probably because children in the US that needs parents are in foster families already as opposed to many older children abroad who are in orphanages where the living standard is much lower than in the US. Especially for children with medical problems. The line to adopt in the US is also very long.

Many appear to be under the impression that they are somehow entitled or have a 'right' to help themselves to another Country's citizens.

There have been many questions here outraged that some Countries don't have an international adoption program - they seem incensed that they're denied something they feel entitled to!