U.S. strives to heighten awareness of adoption

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

Last week in the Oval Office, the seven-year old Adam looked uncomfortable. He stared down at the floor, at the ceiling, anywhere but at President Bill Clinton, who had asked him a question.

Adam, who is living in foster care, had come to watch the President deliver his weekly radio address about the new steps his administration is taking to streamline and encourage adoption.

After the radio address and a discussion with adoptive families, Bill invited Adam to sit behind his desk and to explore the nooks and crannies of the Oval Office. Within minutes, Adam came out of his shell. He was full of smiles and questions as he made himself comfortable in the huge leather chair and inspected Bill's coin and badge collection.

I found it difficult to believe that this beaming and vivacious child had no permanent place to call home. Adam is just one of the thousands of children in communities across our country -- children with tremendous capacities to love and bring new joy energy into a home -- who are still waiting for the love of a mother, a father and a family. These children live with few constants but painful memories of neglect or abuse, growing case files and the hope that someday they will join loving, permanent families.

My husband and I have considered adopting ourselves, but as Bill said in a recent interview: "If...we were going to adopt a little baby at our age, if we stayed health, we could raise the child, but I think it is very important for people to bond with an infant, and it would require massive amounts of time that I don't know whether we could guarantee the child at this moment. If you took an older child that would have a bigger, more difficult adjustment period and would think it was a little weird living in the White House, then that also would require a lot of time. So, I'm doubtful that we could do it right here."

We are, however, both committed to doing whatever we can to help move our country's waiting children out of the limbo of foster care. Earlier this year, the President signed a US$5,000 tax credit to help families adopt children.

In 1994, the administration and Congress put an end to racial preferences for adoption, making it illegal to deny or delay any child a loving home simply because the adoptive parents are of a different race. And at the radio address last week, as adoptive families and waiting children watched, the President announced more encouraging news for the tens of thousands of children in our country's foster-care system and the families who could someday offer them love and permanent homes.

Bill issued a new directive that calls upon his administration to take definite steps to double the number of children who are placed in permanent homes, from 27,000 a year today to 54,000 a year by 2002.

By early next year, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala will report to the President on how the federal government can help states set and meet new adoption targets. She will study how local, state and federal authorities can best work together to encourage adoption in all communities, and she'll make recommendations about the laws and regulations that need to be changed or added to ensure children don't get trapped in foster care.

The President has also asked the Secretaries of Treasury, Labor, Commerce and Health and Human Services to launch an all- out effort to heighten public awareness about adoption and recognize those in the private sector, who are committing themselves to this important cause.

There are already many businesses, television stations, foundations and citizens who are working hard to spread the word about waiting children and to support parents who want to adopt.

The National Adoption Center and Children Awaiting Parents maintain a web site called "Faces of Adoption" (www.inetcom.net/adopt/photo.html) with 280 photos of brothers and sisters who need to be adopted together and children between the ages of seven and 16 who are waiting to be adopted.

It also offers comprehensive information on adoption, from support-group list to legislative news and strategies for financial assistance.

During this holiday season, as we make time to be with our families and recognize how much we love and rely on our parents, spouses, children and other relatives, let us all work together to find loving homes for the boys and girls who need them.

-- Creators Syndicate