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Flying Solo

Single Parent Adoption

Part Three

By National Adoption Information Clearinghouse

Many of the children available through public and private agencies are from minority cultures. Most agencies are hesitant to place a child of one race with a parent of another race and try, whenever possible, to find a parent of the same ethnic, religious and racial background. Some private agencies have religious affiliations and work primarily with adopters of that religion.

If you have your heart set on finding an infant or if you find that a public or private agency is not responsive to your needs or eager to work with you, there are other adoption resources available.

A number of foreign countries will consider single adoptive parents and have a wider range of children from whom to choose. At this time, Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru and Bolivia are among the countries who accept single applicants and have infants and young children available for adoption. The volatile nature of the governments in these countries makes it difficult to know, with certainty, what the adoption policy will be over a long period of time. Most require that an adopter be at least 25 years old.

Pursuing an inter-country adoption is expensive and can be complicated, time-consuming and fraught with uncertainties. It also may be your best chance of adopting a young, healthy child. To help you determine whether you are truly interested in pursuing this type of adoption, an experienced inter-country adoption agency, Holt International Children's Services, has devised a series of questions and comments for prospective adoptive parents to consider. They deal with issues of race (since most of the children are of Asian, Indian or African heritage) and of your motivation for adoption.

Want to see more?

• Where Do I Start? Adoption Information for Beginners
• Go the Distance: Exploring International Adoption
• Domestic Adoption: Building a Family
• Talk about it!