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Show Adopting Scene is Changing "Adoption has gone from a parent-centered service that sought to find babies for people who could not have their own to a child-centered service that works to find families for the children who need them," according to adoption expert Gaire Berman. The children who need families range from pre-schoolers to teen-agers and can include children from minority groups or children with medical, emotional or educational handicaps. These children, once considered "unadoptable" by agencies, are the first choice of many. People familiar with certain disabilities are perfectly comfortable with adopting a child requiring special care. Others are disabled themselves, and hope to pass on their coping abilities to a child. Elizabeth Cole, director of the Permanent Families for Children unit of the Child Welfare League of America, declares, "Experience has convinced us that there is a family for every waiting child. The challenge is to find that famUy." , , Meeting that challenge has involved M facing two critical realizations. While it is true that healthy white babies continue to be the scarcest commodity on the American adoption scene, agencies no longer let this fact overshadow the more than 120,000 chilren available for adoption. Agencies also needed to dispense with the rule of absolute confidentiality that was long associated with the adoption process. One sign of this change can be seen in the growth of newspaper columns across the country devoted to photographs and write-ups of available children, response has been tremendous one column alone, Ruth Carlton's "A Child Is Waiting" in the Detroit News, has been credited with leading to the adoption of more than 490 featured children. Many agencies have reconsidered their once-rigid standards and now allow qualified single men and women to adopt. Efforts have also been made to reach minority communities. Homes for Black Children, a Detroit program directed by Sydney Duncan, has proved that there are black families in this country ready and willing to adopt waiting children. A great awareness of and willingness to meet the needs of available children, on the part of agency officials and prospective parents, has led to a more effective and rewarding adoption process in America. Today, there are no longer any "unadoptables." |