Adoption means different things to different people, and often, how one views adoption depends on where one stands within the adoption triad: adoptee, adoptive parent, or birth parent. Usually perspective comes from life experiences, however, this past decade has brought about many new trends which have changed adoption and changed perspectives of adoption. Here's a look back at the top trends in the adoption community over the past decade.
- Celebrity Adoptions It was almost like adopting a baby was the latest fashion accessory in Hollywood, because adoption seemed to be everywhere. When we think about celebrity adoption it's hard not to focus on a few big names who have adopted recently namely Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Madonna. But a quick look back over this past decade and we find, Meg Ryan, Ewan McGregor, Goran Visnjic, Katherine Heigl, and Nia Vardalos. And those are just the ones who completed adoptions, there were many more rumored to be interested in adoption like Brittany Spears, Ricky Martin and even Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.
- Reality Shows for Every Aspect of Adoption Whether you want to adopt a baby, place a baby for adoption, or find a baby you placed years ago, there's a reality TV show for you. One of the first adoption reunion shows, Who's Your Daddy, brought the idea of adoption reunions out into the open, but it only lasted one season. While 20/20 did their own little version of reality TV when 5 families basically competed to adopt a 16-year-old's infant. Find My Family on ABC first aired in the Fall of 2009, with mixed feelings from many in the adoption community. MTV's I'm Placing My Baby for Adoption followed a couple of young ladies as they explored their parenting options. While reality TV is entertaining, is it right to air a family's most personal and emotional moments for the whole world to see? We learned from the Heene family in 2009, when the world feared for the "Balloon Boy's" safety that sometimes all the attention can be a bit addictive.
- Social Networking for Adoption Reunion or Placement of a Child This was the decade to be connected. Perhaps not emotionally, but definitely virtually with Web sites like MySpace and Facebook, it was easy to do too. It was also a way to be reunited or find lost family members separated by adoption as we read about different families enjoying adoption reunions via MySpace this past decade. Some prospective adoptive families also utilized social networking as a way to locate expectant mothers looking to place their infants for adoption. Unfortunately, social networking Web sites like Craigslist became a way to sell infants for adoption too.
- Adoption, Movies and Controversy Another interesting trend was adoption on the big screen. With the ease of social media bringing about faster ways to share public opinion, controversy spread quickly over movies with adoption themes. While Juno, about a pregnant teen struggling to decide whether to place her infant for adoption, was a hit on Oscar night, that feeling was not mutual among other members of the adoption triad. Many birth mothers and adoptees disliked the movie stating that they wished it highlighted more on the difficulty of such a decision for the birth mother after placement. Scary movie Orphan frightened many, but angered others with its old, "adoptees are crazy" plot line and worried if it would negatively impact older child adoptions. The trailer's tag line, "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own." was changed by the production company after many in the adoption community shared concerns.
- Gay Adoptions More Prevalent and Accepted The issue of gay adoption has become more out in the open this past decade with numerous States trying to decide how to handle gay adoption. While most areas approve gay adoption, there are still several States that do not allow it. No matter where you stand on this controversial issue, there is no denying that this decade had a lot of change going on with gay adoption rights.
- Numerous Changes in International Adoptions This decade also marked changes within international adoptions. The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption coming into force in April 1, 2008 for the United States changed the international adoption process for many countries. China became stricter on prospective adoptive parents, even caring about how much they weigh, and Russia slowed adoptions for awhile due to making changes in the agency accreditation process. Guatemala shut down completely in January 2008, due to controversial practices and allegations of government corruption.
- Openness in Adoption More and more people were seeing the benefits of participating in open adoptions. After many years of having only closed adoptions and secrecy, it was a welcome change to see this adoption trend. Openness in adoption is not just reserved for relationships, but also in adoption records. Many continued to fight different State legislatures for open adoption records, allowing adoptees the right to their original birth certificates and basic information. We'll see how this develops over the next decade.
- Legislature Changes from the Helpful to the Humorous Change often begins with the law and there were many changes in adoption law this past decade. Laws that impacted gay adoption positively and negatively received many comments from both sides of the fence. While law changes that impacted the safety of children, like Masha's Law, were welcome by all. Then there were the changes that just made us shake our heads, especially the Nebraska Safe Haven law which allowed parents the option of dropping off their unruly children, up to the age of 18, at Nebraska area hospitals without fear of prosecution. Many of those abandoned in Nebraska were teenagers. Of course this law needed to be reworked as these new Nebraskans became a drain on their already overworked foster care system. The new law states that an infant must be under the age of 30 days.
