Date: Mon 5/21/2001 11:43 AM
From: Chuck Ravenell ([email protected])
Subject: Looking to Adopt? Beware the Web
As the mother of three now grown foster kids and two kids adopted as babies from India, I can understand the desperation of hopelessly infertile couples who want a baby or several. ("Looking to Adopt? Beware the Web," May 21, 2001) However, if you are not dealing with a state-licensed agency or the state child protection services, you are playing with fire.
Our babies took 11 and 18 months, respectively, to arrive. By dealing with a local agency, we could drive over to sign papers or pick up the first picture of the baby. It was a local call! Even then, our agency warned us that the Indian contacts may have withheld important medical information. It was a risk; however, we were lucky and the kids are healthy. The total cost for both was much less than your news story mentioned.
Having had a trustworthy agency to deal with where everyone at the agency or on the board were adoptive parents themselves, paying a bag of money to a virtual stranger is sheer stupidity. Con artists can always find a sucker, since adoption is such an emotionally charged process. Tell people to deal only with licensed agencies. It's much safer. The stock of blue-eyed blondes is a myth left over from the 1930's when children were abandoned because of the Depression and abortion was not legal.
