Infertility and Adoption Awareness

Did You Know........

• That 1 in 8 couples suffer from Infertility

• The average cost of an adoption in the U.S. is $15,000. Foreign adoptions can be between $30,000-$50,000 and often take 6 months to a year with 2-3 visits to the country before you can take your child home.  There are currently tax incentives that can help offset these costs but they will end at the end of this year, unless they are renewed.
•  "Data for 1995 on the rates of marriage, adoption, single parenting, abortion, and miscarriage suggest that among single women ages 15 to 44 who became pregnant, 12% chose marriage, 0.4% adoption, 37% single parenting, 39% abortion, and 11.5% had a miscarriage." Families Supporting Adoption, 2002.


• "In 2007, there were 279.4 abortions for every 1,000 live births, or about 28 abortions per 100 live births in the United States in 2007." Adoption Factbook V, National Council for Adoption, 2011.


• "There were only 4.2 domestic infant adoptions per 1,000 live births in American in 2007." Adoption Factbook V, National Council for Adoption, 2011.
•  "There were 10.3 adoptions per 1,000 nonmarital live births in 2007. . .indicating that about one percent of unmarried mothers chose adoption for their infants, and over 99 percent parented the baby." Adoption Factbook V, National Council for Adoption, 2011.

Is the saying "May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor" running through anyone else's mind right now? 

•  "The data also indicate that, while the vast majority of of internationally adopted children were adopted by strangers, nearly half of children adopted within the United States were adopted either by a relative or by someone else who knew them previously." Adoption Factbook V, National Council for Adoption, 2011.


• "Marital status, age, and education level of a child's mother are predictors of a child's opportunity for the right start to life.  Children born to singe teenage mothers are less likely to obtain the emotional and financial resources the need to develop into independent, productive, well-adjusted adults.  Babies born to teens reflect a group of children who will have to overcome high odds to thrive.  Children growing up with a single mother are more likely to drop out of school, to become pregnant out-of-wedlock if they are girls, or become involved in delinquent behavior if they are boys, to divorce or separate, and to depend on welfare."  Families Supporting Adoption, 2002.

So What Can You Do........

1. Be Sensitive and Aware of Couples Who Suffer with Infertility.  Check out this amazing article "Infertility Etiquette".  It is great article about being more sensitive and aware of what you say and how to support friends suffering from infertility.  I actually have a few people in my life I would love to have read this. I don't think that people really think about how hurtful and harmful to a relationship their comments can be.  In our case I can most definitely say that the people, who were supposed to be the closest to us and the most supportive, have said the the most harmful and hurtful things.  Infertility leads a couple down a path they never dreamed of and were completely unprepared for.  It is filled with very personal, emotional, financial, physical, and moral choices and burdens, and each couple must choose the path that they can live with in the end.  Educate yourself!
2. Become an Adoption Advocate!  Speak up about the joys and positives of adoption.  Join your local chapter of Families Supporting Adoption,  Find out what you can do the spread awareness.  I never dreamed that abortions really happened as much as they do.  I have never known anyone who had one and so I had no idea that so many woman felt that was their only option.  I also don't think that many woman realize what the world of adoption can do for them.  How much control they have over where the child will be placed or that they can have a relationship with their child and the family they are placing a baby with.  Sometimes taking responsibilities for your actions or your mistakes really is doing what is best for the innocent child involved, and giving that baby a chance to have a mother and a father is an amazing, self-less gift of love.  Speak up!
3. Check out these real life stories here.  When we first talk to people about adopting we will often here, "I just don't know how any woman could give up her baby.  I could never do that!".  I challenge you to listen to these stories, and believe me, you have never heard such powerful stories of "True Love".  Adoption really is about love and these woman are heroes who love their babies more.