Finally-the definition essay is finished!

Debbie Suer
Joel Murphy
English 51
25 April 2009

County Adoption

The word adoption is not in the mainstream families’ dialogue, but for a small percentage, the word means the world to them. Adoption is having the parental rights of a child’s biological birth parent(s) permanently and legally transferred to the adoptive parent(s) (Department of Public Social Services 4). It is a most rewarding, yet challenging concept that takes an enormous amount of time, patience, diligence, open-mindedness, humility and most of all, commitment. Once you finally come to that painstaking decision to parent someone else’s biological child as your own, there is no turning back.

There are other aspects of parentless children, for example, foster care and group homes. They are not, however, a permanent solution for these children. Many of these children are removed from their homes due to neglect or abuse. Their worlds have been shattered. Fortunately, some group homes take in these children, where they do their best to accommodate the children’s needs, offer hope, guidance and healing from the scars of mistrust and abandonment. They are usually between the ages of six to twelve and go to school during the day. They have access to counseling and medical management, if needed (Father’s Heart Ranch). Unfortunately, sometimes these victims get lost in the system. Many of them fall into the same patterns they grew up observing from their parents, and have considerable trouble with drugs, violence and crime. Even though individual foster homes as well as group homes do all they can to prevent violent or malevolent behavior, once these children are put into the system, they tend to follow a very bumpy road.

The people who will be the guides, educators and professionals that you deal with when attempting to adopt a child, are going to be Riverside County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) social workers who specialize in teaching the adoptive parent how to parent. (Department of Public Social Services 3). A very lengthy process must be carried out before you are given a foster/adoptive license. Fingerprinting, criminal background checks, child abuse index clearing, self-autobiographies including home study evaluations, and home safety inspection, budget information, health screening, CPR/first aid certification, letters of recommendation, emergency disaster plan and fire inspection in addition to 3 months of extensive classroom training (Community Care Licensing).

Child Protective Services (CPS), also a division of DPSS, takes on the role of removing children from unsafe and unhealthy situations. Those children are then placed in temporary foster homes or group homes until a more permanent solution is decided for them. All too often, only the babies, toddlers and pre-school age children find permanent homes. Other specialized social workers within DPSS assist in the actual matching and placement of a child from the foster system to the adoptive parents. (Department of Public Social Services 1)

Adoption was a scary word for me to comprehend at one point in my life. Over the last eight years, I have concluded that being an adoptive parent is the most rewarding life experience ever. I cannot even begin to explain the feeling I get when my children come up to me and call me “Mommy”. I have saved them from what would have otherwise been a life of “hell”. I believe that every parent should have to go through the same kind of parenting courses before they give birth to a child. I’m not saying that they must get a license (as the adoptive parents need to get), but that they go through at least half of the scrutiny that adoptive parents go through, so maybe there would not be so many children “in the system” in the first place.
The adoptive social workers do an amazing job in so far as being the guides for which adoptive parents need to rely on. They are there to assist, teach, and even do the final placement of a child into your home. The CPS social worker, at the other end of the spectrum, has a very difficult job. Taking a child out of his/her home due to violence, abuse or neglect, or away from his/her mother in the hospital because the child was born addicted to a drug(s), for instance, is heart wrenching. The social workers and I do have the same interests as far as making sure that all little souls deserve the very best care, love and devotion they need to thrive and grow into healthy productive human beings.

I happened to be extremely lucky with the experience of adopting through the county. My husband and I were able to adopt both of our children, who happen to be blood siblings, before they were 4 months old. This gave them the benefit of having a secure and nurturing environment as infants. They were spared from being stuck in the foster/group home system. I believe my desires are being met day by day and year by year. It has been over ten years since I began my journey and just yesterday my daughter came home from school with a flyer inviting parents to attend a 15 hour – ten session Parent Education Course presented by Catholic Charities San Bernadino/Riverside (Cooperative Parenting). Therefore, little by little, I believe our society is finally starting to head in the right direction - by teaching our parents how to parent.

Works Cited
Department of Public Social Services. 2006. 26 March 2009
<http://dpss.co.riverside.ca.us/ChildProtectiveServices.aspx>.
Catholic Charities San Bernadino/Riverside, 2009. Cooperative Parenting.
Father’s Heart Ranch. 2007. 21 April 2009
< http://www.fathersheartranch.com/>
State of California Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division.
Foster Family Home Orientation. Riverside, 1998.