If you were planning to adopt, would you consider looking outside of the US, and adopting a child from a third world country; or would you prefer to keep it domestic?

I don't get this, I can understand wanting to help the kids from other countries but we're already got millions of kids here people have thrown away who need families, and charity's supposed to begin at home.

No child in the USA is going to starve to death because of not being adopted. The third world countries, it could happen.

I would probably not adopt an older child from a third world country. There is a history of them having emotional problems, being unable to bond.

The younger, the fresher I suppose. Asian babies don't seem to have that problem, but from Russia or the Slavic countries, I have heard of it a lot.

Well don't forget about that 8 year old Russian boy who got sent back after trying to kill his adoptive parents.

It's a nice gesture to look abroad, but I couldn't imagine going on a global search to find the perfect child to adopt. If I ever considered adoption, it would be locally.

Exactly, isn't it already going to be hard enough to get them adapted to having you as a parent without the whole culture shock as well?

DanaShelbyChancey wrote:

No child in the USA is going to starve to death because of not being adopted. The third world countries, it could happen.

I would probably not adopt an older child from a third world country. There is a history of them having emotional problems, being unable to bond.

The younger, the fresher I suppose. Asian babies don't seem to have that problem, but from Russia or the Slavic countries, I have heard of it a lot.

That's what would cause me to look internationally, too - knowing how often these children are rescued from such extremes of poverty that we could barely imagine! I've had friends who've adopted from abroad and it's been very successful. A very good friend adopted a 9 year old boy from Liberia and had no problems bonding with him. A lot of it depends on the circumstances the child lived in before coming over here, but my friend's son came from an orphanage where things were pretty grim - little money for food and whatnot.

I'd rather adopt internationally than locally. It's great that so many of you would prefer to adopt locally because those kids need homes, too, but I hope people will respect that others feel called to adopt internationally.

I could just as easily say that I don't get why people wouldn't want to rescue a child from starvation and early death, the way many international children are rescued from. I have a friend who runs an orphanage and children's development centres in Uganda and the stories she tells of the kids who are available - the poverty they were found in and what they were rescue from.

Also, the friend who's son I mentioned? Had he not been adopted, he'd have been swept up into one of the children's armies in Liberia. My friend figures the only reason they didn't take him when he was 7 or 8 was because he has a slight speech impediment but now that he's 12 - and a good athlete - she said she figures he'd have been abducted by now and forced to commit all kinds of atrocities.

Nhaiyel wrote:

It's a nice gesture to look abroad, but I couldn't imagine going on a global search to find the perfect child to adopt. If I ever considered adoption, it would be locally.