Quest5ions to consider

I wish I could say I knew all the answers to this, I wish I could say I was the one to make this list of questions, but I am not... Nicole asked them in a recent online forum. These questions are worth pondering, studying, and truely trying to find the answers to them.. How many do you know?

• Do you know the history of adoption as an institution? How it was started in America?
• Do you know how it has evolved over the years, and the social and political forces that made it evolve?
• Do you know whether your state has legally binding open adoption agreements?
• Do you know whether your state has open records for adoptees?
• Do you know which states have no revocation periods for relinquishing moms?
• Do you know what the major political players in adoption are?
• Do you know what political ties your agency has?
• Do you know what the Infant Adoption Awareness Act is, and how it has influenced pregnancy counseling in agencies?
• Do you know if your agency has attended Infant Adoptoin Training in the past or present?
• Do you know what your agency's official, political stance is on open records, legally binding openness agreements, putative father registries, Safe Havens, the adoption tax credit?
• Do you know what your agency's REASONING is for their stances?
• Do you know how many adoptees applied for their original birth certificates in the states where records became open?
• Do you know what percentage of relinquishing moms say they want to be found, or to fine, their relinquished children?
• Do you know what the NCFA is, and what it does, and what it stands for? Ditto for the Evan B. Donaldson Institute.
• Do you know how unmarried pregnant women were treated pre Roe-v.-Wade--by their families, society, churches, medical staff, and agencies?
• Do you know what the studies show about the effects of being adopted, or relinquishing a child?
• Can you articulate how it feels to be a mother who relinquished? A father?
• Can you articulate how it feels to be in a crisis pregnancy?
• Can you articulate how it feels to be adopted? At age 1 week, at age seven years old, at age 15, at age 20, at age 45?
• Can you articulate how it feels to be infertile?
• Can you articulate how it feels to want a child with all your heart, and be at the mercy of govt. regulations or another woman's decision?
• Can you articulate how it feels to have a child you'll never be biologically connected to?
• Do you know the common demographic of most U.S. women who voluntarily relinquish children?
• Are you aware of past and present corruption issues that sometimes cause slowdowns or moratoriums on international adoptions?
• Do you know what the Hague Convention is?
• Do you know where all the "orphanage donation" money in internatioal adoptions goes?
• Do you know how bonding and attachment occur in human infants, do you understand the difference, and can you articulate how relinquishment/abandonment and adoption might affect those processes?
• Have you read the stories of women who relinquished, in their own words?
• Have you read the stories of adoptees, in their own words?
• Do you know which adoption book was on the Amazon top ten list for 2006?
• Do you know the personal story behind the book "Fast Track Adoption"?
• Have you read the stories of transracial adoptees, in their own words?
• Do you know what types of adoption measures your state government, and your country's president, support?
• Do you know how much money is in involved in one year in the adoption industry, in the U.S.?
• Do you understand the links between some pro-life organizations and some adoption organizations?
• Are you aware of the fact that many, many women who've relinquished do not consider abortion and adoption to be related issues, that they are two separate decisions made at two different points in time?
• Are you aware that the vast majority of people who apply to adopt are approved?
• Are you aware of the Americans With Disabilities Act, and do you know how it relates to adoption?
• Are you aware of the average cost of foster care adoption? Domestic infant? International? Domestic black infants?