Reality

In 2009, one major Ohio adoption agency matched just under 150 Caucasian and biracial children with loving families. That same agency matched approximately 18 African American (AA) children with loving families. The difference isn't because of a lack of AA children. Its because most adoptive parents are white and they typically want white babies. Because of this, agencies are forced to call around, even out of state, looking for families to adopt AA babies. Every agency I've talked to in the past few weeks have informed me of reduced or waived fees, waived travel for consultations or training, some agencies are even offering special grants if you are willing to adopt an AA babies.

After discussing the potential issues we could face with the Georgia agency with Jon and a lot of praying, we have decided to continue looking for an agency to complete our adoption. I talked to one today that typically does not let parents specify the gender of the child they want to adopt. Since they are in such need of parents wanting to adopt AA children, they told me if we go with them, they will help us locate a girl. Because of this, I wont be mentioning the agency name. They currently have over 40 families waiting to adopt children (of those, only 1 family is open to an AA baby).

I don't understand why this is such an issue. If you are willing to open your home to a child that is not yours biologically, why does the color of their skin matter? It makes me sad, but reinforces my willingness to adopt a little girl--any little girl---any color. I will be doing some research on our potential agency tomorrow. If everything checks out, we will be 1 step closer, again, to our girl. Details to come....