Ransom

I read this on another adoption site and thought WOW this is a neat way to think about the money we all spend to adopt!

These are all questions we can ask until we are blue in the face. These are the things that when I wake up from my own snoring in the middle of the night staring at the ceiling fan I angrily think about to myself. If not for money we would have more children than we do, that is a fact. These however are all things we cannot change. I can’t hit the lotto if I’m not in the game, until there is reform … until there is a “Cash for Children” program instead of “Cash for Clunkers” then unfortunately everyone trying to adopt is going to have to deal with the economics of adopting either domestically or abroad. A wise person once told us as we were lamenting the cost that we were not “buying children”, that we could not look at it that way. We had to look at the cost of adoption as “ransom.” Think about it. Anyone of us would give up everything we had if one of our children currently in our home were held for ransom. We would pay whatever it took. Family would join in, friends would join in, strangers would line up to help. No one would think “well that kid deserves being held for ransom because of XYZ” … the thought is terrifying.

Look at adoption costs the same way. You are potentially stealing the future away from these children. But in a good way. There is a child being born in the US right now who needs a family so they do not grow up without hope! There is a child living in an orphanage where they share a 10x12 room with 15 other children at night who needs your help! There is an HIV positive child in a far away land who if they could only make it to the US would live a long and happy life because of all the breakthrough medicine. There is an older child that once they are aged out of the system will surely be forced into prostitution! Pay the ransom for these children, please … I humbly beg of you.

As an adoptive mom this really hits home. I also think this is a neat way to explain it, when someone asks about the expenses that are involved in adopting.