I had always assumed that infant adoption would be easy. I had considered adopting a baby for years and years, but, after talking it over with my wife, I decided that it would be better to try to raise our own. Unfortunately, due to fertility problems, it was not a possibility. My wife was very upset about this, but I wasn't too worried. Adopting a child seemed like a higher calling anyway. There were so many needy children out there, after all, looking for good parents, that I couldn't very well turn my back on them. I began to research infant adoption immediately.
Unfortunately, child adoption isn't as easy as I had thought. I didn't really see why at first. I have a clean background, outstanding recognition in the community, and a higher education. I have a stable job, a loving family – everything that a child could need. I figured that the adoption agencies would be falling over each other to give their children to me. I had seen the movie Annie. I knew how it was for children in the system. Nonetheless, infant adoption proved to be very difficult.
If I had been willing to adopt an older child, things would have been very different. It turns out that infant adoption is actually a pretty in demand service. With fertility rates declining around the world due to industrial pollution, many childless couples are turning to infant adoption as a way to have a child of their own. And whereas many of these people are overjoyed to find a new baby looking for a home, few of them want to adopt an older child.
Older children, you see, pose certain problems that infants don't. With infant adoptions, you get to raise the baby from scratch. Even if the child has had a hard first year or two of his or her life, there is plenty of time for things to change. Adopting an infant is almost like having a baby of your own.
Adopting an older child, however, is more difficult. Older children often have difficult emotional needs. They have sometimes been shuffled around from family to family for years, and have trouble forming attachments. This makes them less popular for adoptive parents. Almost anyone can handle infant adoption, but adopting a child requires an unusual degree of patience. It can take years and years before the child feels better about himself and is able to trust his parents.
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