Search Results for: blog african american support of transracial adoption

Is Inter-Racial Adoption ok?

My husband and I were put in for adoption of two brothers, one Caucasian and one biracial Caucasian/African American. When we started to adopt we were open to any race of children, color definitely was not an issue. When the state was trying to decide who these children should be adopted by it was between us and a single African American woman. Would you be surprised that the single woman only wanted to adopt the bi-racial child? We never would have even considered splitting up biological siblings so why would this woman? I cannot say what was in her heart … Continue reading →

Adoption Match Meeting

The adoption process is nothing like you see in the movies, there was no big home where you walked in and pick what child you would like to call your own. The closest comparison I can think of is like when you are trying to buy a house. The family who would like to adopt is asked to create a one page flyer that talks about your family, what your home life is like and what you have to offer a child. When a child comes up for adoption placement that matches the criteria that you have given, they give … Continue reading →

National Adoption Day this Saturday

Each November is National Adoption Month. Many adoption organizations and adoptive parent groups have activities. But in recent years the centerpiece of National Adoption Month has been National Adoption Day, when adoptions are celebrated in a festive manner. This year National Adoption Day is this coming Saturday, November 21st. It will be the tenth annual National Adoption Day. Courts in every state and in Puerto Rico will process and celebrate the adoption finalizations of children from the U.S. foster care system who now have a permanent family through adoption. Many of these events will have a celebration following—sometimes for the … Continue reading →

Lest We Forget: U.S. Troops and Families were Pioneers of International Adoption

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As we remember our servicemen and women, past and present, on this Memorial Day, it is worth noting how much the landscape of adoption in America was changed by servicemen and women. U.S. soldiers fighting in Europe, participating in the post-war occupations of Germany and Japan, and later serving in Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries helped to familiarize their families back home with the needs of the many orphans they encountered. Although some of the armed services discouraged their personnel from adopting during their service, there are several stories about units informally taking on the cause of one or … Continue reading →

Book Review: Adoption, Race and Identity

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This volume contains the results of studies done in 1972, 1979, 1984 and 1991 on a consistent group of families with transracially adopted children. The authors hope to show the range of experiences of transracial adoptive families by comparing the same families over time. The formal study was conducted in 1972, 1979 and 1984 with families who had at least one transracially adopted child, with that child being between the ages of three and eight at the beginning of the study in 1972. Therefore the children were between ages twelve and nineteen at the study’s formal conclusion with the 1984 … Continue reading →

Barriers to Transracial Adoption

A survey of 405 adult transracial adoptees (conducted by the TransRacial Adoption Group, which is upfront about being “committed to promoting transracial adoptive placements as a viable form of adoption”) found that 97 percent of participants agreed with the statement that white adoptive parents are capable of developing a positive sense of cultural identity in an adopted black child, 86 percent did not believe that preference should always be given to an African-American couple when both a black and a white family were interested in adopting a particular black child, and 93 percent thought it was not necessary for agencies … Continue reading →

Is Transracial Adoption Necessary?

The National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) issued a statement against transracial adoption in 1972, excerpted below. “Black children belong physically and psychologically and culturally in black families where they can receive the total sense of themselves and develop a sound projection of their future. Only a black family can transmit the emotional and sensitive subtleties of perceptions and reactions essential for a black child’s survival in a racist society. Human beings are products of their environment and develop their sense of values, attitudes, and self-concept within their own family structures. Black children in white homes are cut off … Continue reading →

Care of African American Children in Transracial Adoptions: Summer Skincare

When I communicated with Ed Paul, adoption blogger here are families.com about giving advice to parents of transracially adopted African American Children, he made several requests. One of those requests was for skincare advice. I already wrote about winter skincare treatment. Now I will address summer skincare. Summer skincare for African American children is similar to winter skincare, as you need to seal in moisture after bathing. It is different however in the fact that heavy creams and lotions will melt in the sun and harm the skin. Therefore, you need a light moisturizer. I find that baby oil and … Continue reading →

Choosing Whether and How to Adopt Transracially–Our Decision

Adoption workers usually advise people considering transracial adoption to consider how their families and communities will accept and support a child of a different race, realizing that the child will not be a baby forever–transracial adoption means having a teen-ager and grandchildren of other races. The next question is whether the parents have resources to help the child feel pride in his/her culture, and whether the child will see role models who look like him/herself. We felt that the first issue was not a problem. (In fact my parents had nearly adopted an African-American boy themselves—that adoption never took place … Continue reading →

More African American Support of Transracial Adoption

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In a previous blog, I gave examples of how African American people have shown me that they support our racially mixed family. I have also previously related that Matthew Walter and I spent the night out on his birthday. One of the things that we did was go to a place that could have been named “kid’s heaven”. It had every kind of video game in existence. There were all these virtual reality machines that you could get in and it made you feel like you were on a roller coaster or flying on a crop duster. It also had … Continue reading →