Appendix I: Overseas Adoption, Page 2

The Trans-racial Aspect of Foreign Adoption

Children adopted from overseas are often of a different race from their adopters. If you are considering such an adoption you should be sure you have read the section on trans-racial adoption. The discussion there applies equally to overseas adoption. A child adopted from overseas is cut off from his or her cultural roots in an even more radical way than is, for example, a third-generation British-born Afro-Caribbean child in Britain adopted by a white family. It can be extremely difficult for a foreign-born adoptee to trace his birth family later if he decides to do so.

The Financial Side of Overseas Adoption

International adoption is not a cheap option. In this country there is your assessment by a qualified social worker. From 31 January 2000 the home study for an overseas adoption by a family living in England or Wales must be carried out by registered and approved adoption agencies. Home studies by self-employed or independent social workers are no longer acceptable. Scotland is expected to follow suit soon. While assessment is free for domestic adoptions, you will almost certainly be charged an economically realistic fee for a home study for an overseas adoption, which can be £3,000. That’s just the beginning. There is the cost of translating paperwork, lawyers’ and middlemen’s fees, fees to the mother and baby home or orphanage overseas, medical examinations and treatment, visas, bribes, travel, hotel expenses, etc. Realistically you need to be thinking in terms of over £10,000 for an uncomplicated foreign adoption from the Third World. If you are adopting from your own extended family it will be less, but still expensive. In 2001 a complex and high-profile case in the UK reportedly resulted in legal fees of over £60,000, all of which was chargeable to the ultimately unsuccessful adopters.

The donor country may require that you demonstrate a certain level of financial security before allowing you to adopt. And the UK Home Office will not grant entry to a child for the purpose of adoption if you are dependent on social security benefits. Unlike domestic adoptions, there are no adoption allowances for overseas adopters.

Health and Emotional Deprivation in Overseas Adoptees

Children adopted from orphanages overseas tend to be undernourished, ill, infested with parasites, and compared to western children, developmentally delayed. Your child may need urgent medical treatment before she is able to travel and almost certainly will need medical treatment in this country. Health testing before the adoption is mandatory, and your chosen child may be refused entry to the UK if she tests positive for HIV or has other serious chronic health problems. But it is often amazing what a difference good food, exercise and love will do for these children, who seem to explode with good health, very quickly catching up with their peers in every respect.

Our boys from the Ukraine have bonding and attachment difficulties and oral defensiveness, which makes feeding difficult. One has TB and severe emotional problems. The other one shows signs alcohol abuse by his mother and has attention deficit problems. But they are our greatest joy in life. I know we can’t fix everything right away and they’re still only two years old, but we will do whatever it takes to help them get well.

The physical and cultural shock for such children, moving from their home country to the West, is profound. Literally everything will be different: food, language, smells, climate, street noises, homes, ways of interacting with children and babies, furniture, schedules, household rules, schools, social and linguistic cues, body language — everything has to be relearned, very often without anyone around who speaks his native language, and with hardly anyone realising the scale of the task facing the bewildered child. The older the child the more difficult the job will be for him and for his new family. See the following section for a more detailed discussion of cultural differences and the problems they can cause.

The emotional deprivation and lack of stimulation suffered by some children from foreign orphanages is another matter. There is a point in the process of institutionalisation where it becomes more or less irreversible. There have been far too many cases of children being brought to the West for adoption who prove to be incapable of adjusting to home life. Some of these children wind up being rejected by their western adopters and are returned to institutions in the West (some are even sent back to their countries of origin) by impulsive do-gooders who took a child after seeing a television documentary. These kids need a lot more than just love; they need the same skills required for adopting a British child with a history of deprivation and abuse, and more.

When we adopted our daughter from Bulgaria at 15 months she had been swaddled all her life. As a result, she couldn’t hold a bottle or toy, couldn’t sit up or crawl or walk. She has permanent frontal lobe damage and acts like a child with fetal alcohol syndrome, with no decision-making
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© Roger Ridley Fenton