January 26, 2000

Churches urged to preach
adoption as alternative
___By Russ Dilday
___Buckner News Service
___During the month thousands of Texas Baptists churches are focused on the issue of the sanctity of life, Adela Jones challenges churches not to overlook the "better option" in preserving the life of an unborn child: Adoption.
___"The gift of adoption is the gift of life," said Jones, clinical director for domestic adoption at Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services.
___"Many times, a woman will choose an abortion because she wants the problem to go away. Unfortunately, that leads to more problems for the mother--and especially for the child. The gift of life and an adoption plan expand the gift to the adoptive family as well as the birth family."
___In addition to preaching against abortion, churches should advocate adoption as a better choice, she said. "It's my prayer that we can give them a ray of hope and tell them there is an alternative to abortion, one God will honor and with which their lives will be blessed."
___As an adoption professional for more than 20 years, one of the most discouraging trends Jones has observed "is that, by far, adoption is the last choice for women who have unplanned pregnancies.
___"About 50 percent of the unplanned pregnancies in this country end in abortion, while 45 percent of those who are pregnant try parenting. Only about 5 percent choose adoption," she reported.
___She pointed to a number of issues which eliminate adoption as first choice, including "misinformation" and "a tremendous cultural prohibition."
___"The irony is that with Roe vs. Wade, our culture has said that it's OK to kill your baby if you don't think you're ready to parent, but hypocritically, our culture is saying, 'What? You'd give your baby away?'
___"Young women run into all kinds of opposition, discouragement or outright outrage if they even consider adoption," she explained. "I think we need to change that if we're going to decrease the number of abortions and the number of children rearing children."
___According to the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, about 120,000 adoptions are recorded in the United States in an average year. In 1992, Texas was third behind California and New York among states with the highest numbers of adoptions. About 1 million children in the U.S. currently live with adoptive parents.
___Last year, Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services placed 24 children in Christian homes through its domestic adoption program. Jones views the service as "truly a ministry."
___"We're here to show, in very real terms, God's love," she said. "What makes us different from many other agencies is how we approach our work. There are other Christian adoption agencies, but we combine the vision of ministry with top-notch, professional staff members with full credentials. When you combine that with a servant's heart, you get what we believe is the finest adoption service in the state."
___Buckner is the only agency affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas that handles adoptions.
___Jones cited two challenges for the adoption ministry: The need for more families who are willing to adopt special-needs children and children of different ethnic backgrounds.
___"We are placing newborns, so most do not have any behavioral or emotional problems coming from previous living conditions," she said. "But we do have some children with special needs that generally center around medical issues. These are children who need the time and energy of adoptive parents.
___"The other challenge for us in domestic adoption is finding homes for children who are full or part African-American," Jones said. "We have some cultural issues to overcome within the black community of going to an agency for a formal adoption. This is a challenge I've faced my entire career: Finding African-American families to adopt. What we find ourselves doing is placing those children with Anglo couples. So our acute need is for families, whatever their own ethnicity, who are open to accepting a child of color into their family."
___Prospective adoptive parents also fear legal issues involved in the process, Jones said. "The biggest barrier is based on misinformation--that the birth parents will come back to reclaim the child."
___National Adoption Information Clearinghouse research indicates those fears are mostly unfounded. Once adoptions are legalized, most do not dissolve, with less than 2 percent terminating after legalization.
___All domestic adoptions facilitated by Buckner are called "open adoptions," meaning adoptive and biological parents have contact with one another and can share information.
___Open adoption "works on the premise that a child is born into one family and that family makes a loving, courageous plan for him to be reared by another family, with the result that he is able to feel the love and caring from both those families," Jones said.
___A more personal fear for many is "the fear of not being matched," Jones said. "But if we define success as number of parents matched with children, we have a 100 percent success rate if they get through the process and stay in the waiting pool. We have an average wait of nine to 12 months after the home study and education process.
___"The only ones who have not been matched are ones who have dropped out. It becomes a matter of faith."
___Jones emphasized the success rate for birthparents, whether they choose parenting or adoption, also has been 100 percent, "because their children were born alive."
___Where to get help
___If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis pregnancy and would like to know about adoption, contact the Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services 24-hour adoption hotline toll-free at (800) 441-2670.

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