Article About Adoption

Here's an interesting article about adoption trends I came across today:

Surprises in adoption survey

Here's what I found most interesting:

"Situations in which young pregnant women decide to put their children up for adoption are becoming increasingly rare. Before 1973, nearly 9 percent of births to never-married women were given up for adoption. By 2002, that statistic had dropped to about 1 percent.

"The number of children adopted from other countries increased from about 7,000 in 1990 to more than 19,000 in 2001. That means about 16 percent of the 120,000 annual adoptions in the United States in that latest year were of children from other nations."

I truly wish that it could be more socially acceptable for women to make adoption plans for their unexpected children than it is now.  It's so socially acceptable to be a single mom, and I definitely want to support single moms!  But I also think it's true that sometimes it is just too difficult for a mom to raise her child and provide for the child on her own, and it would be a wonderful thing for her to choose a couple to adopt her baby.  She still can choose to have a relationship with her child as he/she grows up, but know at the same time that her baby has the exact family that she wanted to provide.  One percent of never-married women placing their children for adoption...that's just not very many.  I guess that's one reason there are so many families waiting here.