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It's nice that George is touting adoption. It really is.

It's odd that Bruce Willis is the spokesperson for the new adoption iniative. Really.

It's bizarre that Bush took the time out of his adoption speech to recognize that Willis's daughter - Tallulah Belle - helped raise money to send over 36,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the kids of Afghanistan. Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. Altruistic? Yes. Sensible? No. Cheese, I could see. Maybe power bars. Or baby formula. But cookies?

Back to the adoption thing.

Bush: And so, today, I'm pleased to announce the first federal adoption website. It's called AdoptUSKids.org. In its first year of operation, the website will feature pictures and profiles of more than 6,500 children who are available for adoption, as well as maintain a database of prospective adoptive parents who have been approved by the states.

Approved by the states. Wouldn't it be nice if all prospective parents had to be approved? Only if you want to adopt are you held to strict standards.

Aaron and his parnter are in adoption classes now. They have to take parenting classes, go through a criminal background check and do a home study. Imagine if birth parents were held to the same standards before having a child.

The states have some interesting standards. There are age requirements. Why? Because people over 35 don't make good parents? And there is the whole gay adoption issue. If more states (i.e., Florida) would be open to the idea of gay adoption, there would be more children finding loving homes.

Bush points the federal adoption website. It promotes kid shopping. I kid you not.

Hmm, I'm looking for an caucasion female from Alabama between the ages of 3-7 with a slight learning disability. Search......jackpot!

I wonder if you can bid on a child? Oh look dear, here's a nice Asian baby from California. And she only has a moderate physical disability. Hurry, the auction ends at midnight!

Yes, I understand that the site is performing a service. It just seems creepy to me that you can shop for a child like that. No less creepy than going to a sperm bank and asking for the sperm most likely to produce a blond haired, blue eyed football player.

I am all for adoption. I think it's a wonderful thing. My nephew is adopted. But it took my sister and her husband a long time to find a child to adopt. They were turned down because of my brother-in-laws age, because he is divorced, because of religous issues. Adoption should be offered to more people, in better ways, than it is now. It's all well and good to be selective about certain things when placing a child - is the home loving, is there a stable environment, is there enough money to support a child - but there are certain criteria now in place by many agencies that should be done away with. If you take down certain barriers - sexual preference, religion, race, single parenting - you can place a lot more children in loving homes.

Oh, and the agencies should check with the prospective parents of infants what they plan on naming the child. Tallulah Belle? That's just wrong.

Posted by on August 1, 2002 05:25 AM |

Comments

My second grandchild was an unplanned adoption. My daughter and her husband (both physicians) had adopted a girl about four years earlier, so they had already been through the social work checkout system. One day she got a call from that particular social worker asking them if they were interested in a baby boy who would otherwise go into the foster system. The social worker already knew that the baby's mixed-race parentage would not be a factor at all to my daughter and son-in-law. Their only concern was whether they could handle another child at that time. Social worker asked for a return call by afternoon. Daughter said she really had to talk it over with her husband first. By the end of the week the legal and financial stuff was done and Winston came to his new home.

Our local paper runs a picture and short bio of a child in foster care every Sunday. I suspect that this website has zero healthy pink and white children on it. Prospective adoptive parents need to broaden their vision, and this may be the way to do it.

Posted by: sue | August 1, 2002 07:52 AM

And, one their single friends was able to provide a loving home for another mixed-race baby. When it comes to hard-to-place children, marital status (I don't know about sexual preference here in Louisiana) becomes quite insignificant.

Posted by: sue | August 1, 2002 07:56 AM

"Mixed race" meaning what?

Posted by: Laura | August 1, 2002 11:29 PM

So if you are the biological parent it is assumed you are naturally going to have all the parenting skills necessarry to raise your child? No parenting classes required?
The only document the child has is a birth certificate. This gives children no rights. We should begin to have a conversation about the rights of all children born and what we as a society can do to help all children. Being married and biological parents should not excempt adults from preparing for children through parenting classes.
To mandate these for adoptive and divorcing parents only is judgemental and one more way of saying that biological parents some how have innate parenting skills!
Karen

Posted by: Karen | October 24, 2002 08:11 PM