With much uncertainty over international adoption, domestic adoption is on the rise. 20,000 babies and children who would have entered the US and joined US families are now stuck in their native countries due to changes in the process and the slowing down of many popular international adoption programs, like China and Russia. It's truly a shame that children are spending time in orphanages when they could have been in their forever homes, being loved and part of a family.
With that said, the demand for domestic adoption has risen sharply in the last year. I noticed a shift in early 2008. Many adoption agencies have far more families registered than they have in previous years, some are no longer accepting new families and wait times have grown. Many who want to be proactive about adoption are turning to independent adoption, hoping to adopt sooner and avoid long wait times many agencies are advising clients.
I often go online and check some classifieds to see how many adoption ads they are running. Many papers who had no ads for weeks or months at a time, now have ads frequently and sometimes more than one ad running at a time. This just proves to me that more couples are turning to independent adoption as means to adopt a baby in a shorter timeframe. I am amazed at how many adoption ads are running in little known newspapers. Couples are really pulling out all the stops.
Another reason for heavy newspaper adoption advertising in New York is that Parent Profiles, a top site for hopeful adoptive parents going the independent route, is no longer accepting New York couples for legal reasons. In April of 2007, when we signed up for parent profiles, there were about 80 couples from New York on the site-the other day there were 13. It was mind boggling last year to see so many couples. I felt the competition was too heavy and too fierce. Of course shortly after I committed to spending $600 with parent profiles, our daughter's birthmother contacted us-through a newspaper ad!
Parentprofiles.com was the premier site for the last 10 years or so for hopeful adoptive parents. There are many more sites where hopeful adoptive parents can post a picture and link to your adoption website, but they are smaller and less known.
The shifts in adoption trends are event. My next post will talk about how the economy is affecting adoption.
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