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(DIR) Return to: Adoption in the Media
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#Post#: 18--------------------------------------------------
A crying shame
By: Montraviatommygun Date: March 1, 2011, 10:31 am
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A crying shame
Sarah Treleaven, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008
This first in a two-part series looks at the steeply rising
costs of adoption. Next Saturday, the costs of surrogacy.
Perfect-looking families stare out from online profiles on
private adoption sites, pleading to provide a home for someone
else's biological child. Couples view video clips of a
four-year-old born to a drug-dependent mother, puzzling over
whether she will be the right fit for their family. And then
there are those who literally travel to opposite ends of the
Earth to pick up a son or daughter they've only seen in a
photograph.
The picture of adoption in Canada includes multiple images.
While there are three options for adoption in Canada--public,
private domestic and international -- the system is far from
simple to navigate. It is characterized by copious paperwork,
lengthy wait times, few guarantees and -- in the case of private
and international adoption -- extremely steep fees.
While there are currently no fees associated with public
adoption through a Children's Aid Society, the cost for private
and international adoptions can range from $10,000 to $50,000.
Prospective parents often start by paying for a mandatory
homestudy, which determines if prospective parents and their
environment are suitable for a child, and sometimes a parent
training course. Additional expenses can include counseling
costs for the child's biological family, legal fees (for
facilitation by licensees, citizenship processing or name
changes), oversight fees for adoption practitioners, travel
expenses (including hotels, flights, incountry costs and visas),
private agency fees and finally -- in the case of private
domestic adoption -- the costs of marketing oneself as the ideal
couple.
In the private domestic system, prospective adoptive parents
create online profiles, print business cards and publish small
books in an attempt to sell themselves to provincial adoption
agencies and birth mothers. According to Sarah Pederson, program
manager at Ottawa's Adoption Council of Canada, the
administrative steps and expenses are wide ranging and
guidelines are generally set by the provincial or territorial
Ministry of Children and Youth Services.
The wait times for private adoption can be excruciating and
control is wrenched out of the hands of applicants as they wait
to be picked by a young woman who gleans from a picture and a
few short paragraphs that they just might be the perfect family
for the baby she cannot keep.
Denice GrantSmith and her husband, Lewis, are trying to arrange
a private domestic adoption by posting on Web sites such as
Canada Adopts!, and pushing their parent profiles to agencies.
Ms. GrantSmith, herself an adoptee, says that they have spent
$6,000 to $7,000 to date on a homestudy, Web site development,
agency registration and the printing of profiles. For the entire
process, she expects to pay "$20,000 at least," once
parent-training classes, counselling and legal fees, and agency
fees have been factored in.
In the public system, it is the kids who must be marketed to
prospective parents. They are typically older, classified as
high need and have often been removed from a negligent
environment. Virginia Rowden, director of social policy at
Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies (OACAS), says
that there are at least 9,000 children in Ontario alone
available for adoption. Even up against the projected expenses
for private and international adoption, these children are often
the hardest to place.
And the odds of placement might soon get even slimmer. Pending
legislation in Ontario would require future adoptive parents to
pay out-of-pocket for a lawyer to finalize their child's
adoption. "Unless a fund is established to pay legal costs, free
adoption services in Ontario will cease," says Marcelo
Gomez-Wiuckstern, director of communications for OACAS.
Then there are international adoptions. These are generally
facilitated through an international adoption agency and the
requirements and expense can vary widely depending on the
child's country of origin.
After two high-risk pregnancies that resulted in emergency
Cesarean sections, Maike McCaskell and her husband decided to
adopt a
third child through international channels. Two years after
starting the application process, Ms. McCaskell and her
mother-in-law flew to China in August, 2004, to pick up a
10-month-old baby girl. Within an hour of landing in Guangdong
province, Ms. McCaskell was holding her new daughter.
"I know that people don't necessarily believe me, but it's the
exact same thing as when you give birth and they put the baby in
your arms," Ms. McCaskell says.
The McCaskells estimate that they spent a total of $25,000 to
$27,000 on the adoption of their daughter. In addition to the
homestudy, physicals, police checks and agency fees, the
Mc-Caskells also paid for the translation of all of their
documents and sundry government fees. Ms. McCaskell was required
to stay in China for two weeks, and she estimates that the
expenses related to the trip cost her $7,000.
Michael Blugerman, an adoption practitioner in Toronto, says
that China is one of the least-expensive countries of origin for
foreign adoptions, averaging $23,000, including travel and
incountry costs. In other countries, most notably Russia, the
expense can be closer to $45,000 --not including personal
expenses.
Cathy Murphy, director of adoption services and acting executive
director of Children's Bridge international adoption agency,
says that mandatory incountry stays vary significantly -- from
two weeks in China to eight weeks in Kazakhstan.
The high cost of adopting from a foreign country prompted the
National Bank of Canada to introduce the International Adoption
Financial Package 10 years ago. According to Citizenship and
Immigration Canada, inter-country adoption has been declining
since 2003. But Linda Sefc, NBC regional manager, says that the
loan program has been increasing in popularity, and that the
average amount borrowed is $35,000 to $50,000.
Even for couples with deep pockets, the adoption process can
quickly wear them down. Money can buy few guarantees. The
private system in Canada is suffering from a tremendous shortage
of available newborns; fewer than 100 private adoptions were
completed last year from the pool of hundreds, if not thousands,
of couples waiting to adopt.
The wait times for international adoption average two to three
years, according to Ms. Murphy. But Mr. Blugerman says that the
popular China program is now a four-to five-year wait, and the
landscape is constantly changing. "The most active new area is
Africa -- particularly Ethiopia and South Africa. I think [the
wait] could be under a year. Some, like Korea, have slowed down
to a dribble. There's more of a nationalistic fervour
everywhere. The first principle is that these kids should be
raised in their own country."
But with a dearth of newborns available for domestic adoption,
an unpredictable international adoption system and reluctance on
the part of parents to take on children through the public
system who might require special care, frustration over the
inability to build a family is mounting. Regardless of
resources, some parents worry that they could be waiting forever
for a child.
Laura, who asked that her real name not be used, has been
waiting to adopt a baby through private Ontario channels for two
years. "There's nothing you can do other than wait," she says.
"Money isn't an issue. We're young, we have a nice house and
cottage -- we're everything any birth mother would desire. We
can provide a great life for a child, and it's just not
happening for us."
(HTM) http://www.financialpost.com/money/story.html?id=456035&p=1
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