Adoptive parents make tremendous differences in children's lives

by Charles E. Johnson
The Pilot-Independent
November 15, 2006


While recent international adoptions by celebrities such as Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt generate media attention, hundreds of Minnesota families are quietly helping meet an equally urgent need much closer to home. Their commitment is cause for celebration.

Adoptive parents of children in Minnesota's foster care system make an enormous difference in the lives of children. They offer the security and stability that children in the foster care system may never have had in their tumultuous lives. They provide the love, structure and support children need to grow into healthy, productive adults.

These adoptive parents can make the difference between children growing up in multiple, temporary homes or permanent adoptive families. They can make the difference between children struggling in school or succeeding in college. They can make the difference between children's wariness and mistrust of others or their acceptance and faith in people — especially adults — once again.

We all know who these children are. They are the children who have been abused and neglected. They are the children waiting in foster homes, group homes, emergency shelters and residential treatment facilities for someone to adopt them. They are the children — especially the teenagers who are dangerously close to "aging out" of the foster care system with no financial, emotional or lifelong support systems — who need parents most. Of the 636 children awaiting families immediately:
 
• 50 percent have been diagnosed with a psychological or medical disability.
• 57 percent are siblings who need to be adopted together
• 66 percent are 6 to 18 years old
• 100 percent need a safe, loving, permanent family.

While we at the Minnesota Department of Human Services and in the counties can provide the services, structure and financing to encourage adoption, it is parents who make lifelong commitments to children who are making the most significant difference in children's lives. And they deserve the praise!

I commend all the parents who have adopted children from the foster care system — including 732 Minnesota children last year — and encourage others who are thinking of adoption to consider children from the foster care system. This especially includes foster parents who have already established a relationship with children in their care.

While it is not costly to adopt children under state guardianship, parents must invest time and energy in this life-changing decision. In turn, the Adoption Assistance program is available to families who adopt children under state guardianship. This monthly financial assistance helps reimburse families for the costs of nonmedical items and provides resources to purchase services for children with special needs.

Counties and the private adoption agencies participating in the Public/Private Adoption Initiative, and under contract with the Minnesota Department of Human Services, do not charge fees to parents adopting children under state guardianship. To learn more, call your county social service agency or one of the nine Public/Private Adoption Initiative agencies for information about adoption, adoption process, home study process, child-and-parent matches, and services following adoption.

These nine agencies are:

• African American Adoption Agency: (888) 840-4084

• Bethany Christian Services: (866) 321-1964

• Children's Home Society and Family Services: (800) 952-9302

• Downey Side Inc.: (320) 240-1433

• Family Focus: (877) 759-6017 (Duluth office only)

• HOPE Adoption & Family Services International Inc.: (651) 439-2446

• Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota: (800) 582-5260

• North Homes Inc.: (800) 430-3055

• Professional Association of Treatment Homes (PATH): (877) 624-7284

For information on children available for adoption, visit the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network (MARN) Web site at www.mnadopt.org or call MARN at (612) 861-7115.

Many people think only of the work and heartache involved with raising children with troubled pasts. But, there is another side to the story. Adoptive parents of foster children know that. They've experienced the joy and fulfillment of parenting as well. And you can too.

Charles E. Johnson is assistant commissioner of Children and Family Services for the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

REFERRALS: CAICA is not a referral agency. CAICA does not refer to or promote facilities or transport companies for children or teens. CAICA warns parents that the parent pay / parent choice programs ie. Residential Treatment Centers, Therapeutic Boarding Schools, Behavior Modification Programs, Christian Programs, Positive Peer Culture Programs, etc., are not regulated by the Federal Government and that it is a "Buyer Beware" industry. CAICA provides the following for parents: Message to Parents, Help for Distraught and Desperate Parents, and Questions to Ask and Warning Signs.

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