It’s great that the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s adoption department is recognizing that there are a variety of good parents.
Not only are two-parent households encouraged to adopt, so too are single-parents and same-sex couples as seen in “Plenty of Squamish families formed through adoption” on page A17.
Karen, for instance, is a single mom living in Squamish who adopted a six-year-old girl and is now fostering a toddler as well. Vicky, a single mom, also adopted her son from within B.C.
Unlike some countries that only adopt to married couples or have strict criteria for singles, the Ministry of Children and Family Development is definitely doing the right thing by realizing that loving, stable families come in all shapes.
At a big adoption agency in India, for example, same-sex couples aren’t allowed to adopt and single men can only adopt boys.
These rules push aside some of the best adoptive parents who want to invite a child into their home but aren’t allowed to because they are single or not in a heterosexual relationship.
For families in B.C., there are three kinds of adoption: International adoption, domestic private adoption and through the ministry.
There are a lot of reason to adopt locally, including that foreign adoption typically costs tens-of-thousands of dollars, whereas it’s free through the ministry. A $60,000 adoption fee, which is not unheard of, is too steep for many families to afford, making B.C. a logical location. And local kids really need forever homes, whether they have been in the system for years or are recently being fostered. Around 1,000 children in the province are waiting to be adopted, according to the ministry.
Many families adopt from foster care, where children live temporarily before being placed with a permanent family. The kids are usually between the ages of six and 12 and are often part of a sibling group that needs to stay together, as well as healing from difficult early childhoods including abuse and neglect. (Infants, on the other hand, are usually placed with families by agencies, not the provincial ministry.)
Single parents and same-sex couples shouldn’t be discouraged from adopting from the province, which encourages all families to apply in addition to two-parent households. There are hundreds of kids right here in B.C. who are waiting for homes.
