Children are undoubtedly one of the most precious things that we experience in our lives.  Their youthful exuberance, persevering resilience, unpredictable humor, and genuine innocence often give hope in even the bleakest of circumstances.

Despite the effort and investment it takes to raise them, children bring joy.  Those who have children know this from a first-hand experience.  Even those who do not have children know this, because its the joy of a child that is often what sparks peoples’ desire to have them!

Unfortunately for some, the ability to have children is difficult or even impossible.  In other situations, people simply wish to bring a child into their family via adoption so that they might share their love (and of course, it can very well be both and more). Thankfully, adoption exists so that this genuine act of love can be made possible.

Yet for anyone who has researched, attempted or completed the adoption process  know it is an agonizing adventure.  Of course the successful outcome is worth it, but the incredible agitation is that there are people who genuinely wish to have a child(ren) in their family, but must jump through hoop after hoop to do so.  There are respectable, genuine, eager-to-love people who wish to adopt, and yet the adoption process often takes at least 2 years (or more) depending on the agency, not to mention the thousands of dollars it takes.  And consider the fact that America is one of the easier countries to adopt from and more facilitating as more scholarships are now available to help fund it, as well as, a $10,000 tax credit return for those who do adopt.

An international adoption becomes an entirely different beast. Often times case workers collect their “fees” in addition to the agency fees.  Giving “gifts” to the case workers is not uncommon, and many governments have put more red-tape in place as they are hesitant to allow adoptions, especially to Westerners.  Of course religious orientation, age, and financial status all play a roll too.  Likewise, many countries do not allow adoptions to people of certain countries or allow adoptions at all .

The conundrum lies in the fact that there are children, human lives, that could be in a better place and being loved by people who genuinely want to love those children.  In that sense, one is puzzled why the process has to be so difficult? Why must a child spend years of his or her life bouncing from orphanage to orphanage, or living in a slum in Mambai, or the barrios of Central and South America (as examples) when there are homes with room for them?  The bureaucracy of it all can be extremely frustrating as we deny life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, supposedly inherent human rights (at least an American view of them), to these young ones.

On the other hand, it is human life we’re talking about. To allow the process to be “easier” means that more people who may not actually be capable of caring for a child properly are kept from doing so, especially with the ever-present, ever-wretched thoughts of child abuse.  To just “give” a child to anyone would be terribly irresponsible.  Because life (and children) is so precious, we must be careful with it.

Just how difficult (or easy) should the process be? What is ethical and what is not?  Where are the lines drawn in a world that is not simply black and white but more like a spectrum of gray?

  In the end, the curious question remains, “How do we handle life?”

-  IgniteTheMind