Risk Involved in International Adoption

Today’s post is all about risk. As adoptive parents (or prospective adoptive parents, biological parents, and the like), there’s risk to be found everywhere. There’s obviously risk in adoption (both domestic and international), in raising a child, and so on. Life is essentially full of risks, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some risks taken can produce an outcome more beautiful than you could have ever possibly imagined.

I have limited experience with domestic agencies (Robyn, want to weigh in on this one?), but it’s my understanding that you are provided with as much medical information about your child’s birth mom (and maybe birth father, too) as possible (at least that’s what our agency states on their website). That’s not to say it’s always accurate; human error–on either the birth mom’s part or the agency’s–can, of course, skew information. But the fact of the matter is that an open adoption can offer the ability to communicate with your child’s birth mom about possible health issues in the family, etc. When you agree to adopt internationally, you agree to pretty much plunge in feet first. Few countries offer a plethora of background medical information on your child. Guatemala was supposed to be one of the most thorough, and aside from her well-baby visits (height, weight, vitals), Beauty arrived with a single piece of paper bearing the results of her routine blood screens (HIV, hepatitis, and so on). That’s it. We were told she was a normal, healthy nine month old. And due to limited medical resources for children in-wait for their international adoptive families, that’s what the pediatrician and our agency’s staff in Guatemala believed. We were very lucky; she was a healthy baby then and is a healthy toddler now. But we accepted the referral knowing that she might have health issues that were undetected at the time of adoption. This is a risk you must be willing to take if you elect to adopt internationally or domestically, but you’ll definitely have to make a long-distance decision if you adopt a child from another country (especially if you aren’t able to take a visit trip to meet your child before his or her homecoming).

I know limited information about Beauty’s birth mom, M., and nothing about F., her birth father. I have no idea if there’s a history of illness of any kind in Beauty’s first family. I will probably never know this information. So far, aside from her developmental delays and toe-walking, Beauty presents herself as a normal almost-three year old. Yet we went into our adoption knowing there was some element of chance involved; with such limited background medical information, Beauty could have arrived home with any number of medical conditions, some permanent, some temporary. Adopting internationally means that the moment you accept your child’s referral, you assume all risks. You might receive a few pictures every couple of months plus your child’s height, weight, and vitals, but probably not much more than this. This is not to say that medical needs do not present themselves while your child is in-country; most agencies do all they can to paint as thorough a picture as possible for prospective adoptive parents. But this is not a flawless system. If you’re contemplating adopting an internationally-born child (or children), you must be willing and ready to take on this risk.

Photo Credit.

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