The Children Who Wait

The Children Who Wait
-Marsha Traugot

In this essay, Marsha Traugot describes about the new trends in the concept of child adoption in U.S.A. Comparing the past situation with the present situation, she describes in detail about the factors that brought the change in the field of adoption.

Tammy, a five and half years old girl who is suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome has been freed for adoption. The social organization is looking for a one or two parent, black or biracial family with older siblings. If it was 20 years back, Tammy wouldn’t be regarded as a suitable child for adoption.

In the past, non-white, handicapped and the children beyond infancy were not considered to be adoptable. Similarly, single parent, black parent and the family with older siblings were not allowed to adopt the child. So, non-white and handicapped children waited in their foster care for a long time. 

The black civil rights movement, women movement, social science research, etc. have brought changes in the concept of adoption. Because of birth control, legalized abortion, and changing attitudes towards sexual behaviour and marriage, the number of available healthy infants decreased in the foster care. That’s why, people began to think about other waiting children.

The number of children in the foster care increased to a half million in America during 1978. And it was very difficult to keep them longer because they would suffer from many problems such as pseudo-mental retardation, learning disabilities, mental illness, criminality and abnormal behavior. The foster and social workers had to struggle to keep their health condition normal. Political parties wouldn’t spend for the children in the foster care. So the social workers had to change the criteria and the varieties of family were considered to be good family for the adoption. In the present context, the social organizations, first of all, study and analyze the character of the child, and then match the parents who are willing to adopt a child. They held regular meetings and discuss their problems. If they are failed to find the suitable match, they broadcast blitzes on TV describing the child in detail. Thus, the child gets his/her permanent family.