There are nearly 400,000 children in the U.S. living without permanent families. They are living in foster care and for the 100,000 children that are eligible for adoption, nearly 32% will wait over three years to be adopted.
It is these kinds of statistics that shed a little light on the situation surrounding adoption in the United States. An adoption agency faces significant challenges in navigating the process of children who need permanent homes, mothers who are giving their child up for adoption, and men, women, and families who wish to adopt but may have questions about the process and how it may impact their lives.
And for mothers considering giving up their child for adoption, the experience can be emotionally draining and difficult. Many mothers who are considering giving up their child for adoption face difficult questions, such as:
- How much will adoption cost me?
- Do I get to choose the adoptive family?
- Can I have a relationship with my baby?
An adoption center or adoption agency is designed to answer those questions and many have websites about adoption that detail adoption programs. Many of the concerns of mothers who are considering giving up their child for adoption surround the child’s experience in a new home and new family.
Some statistics shed more light on this picture. Over 90% of adopted children five years or older stated that had positive feelings about their adoption. A survey reported that 81% of relationships between the parents and the adopted child in a household were “very close.”
The mother may have questions about the type of people who are adopting, including whether that person or couple is willing to allow an open relationship between the adopted child and his or her biological mother. One source says that many more are open to that option.
70% of people who adopt are single families, and 23% are single females. Less than 6% of those who adopt are single males and just 1.6% are unmarried couples. An adoption agency helps locate the right person or couple for a child up for adoption and answers questions for both the mother who is considering giving their child up for adoption and for the person or couple who is considering adopting.
Although statistics do not paint a complete picture, many statistics show that foster care can be a difficult environment for a child. As many as 25% of children who have aged out in foster care do not have a high school diploma or GED and in 2012 around 60,000 children were not placed in traditional foster care. Instead, they were placed into institutions and group homes.
