Huh. A report was released on why my county has a model CYF (Children, Youth & Families) system in our country. I was skimming through the report and noticed that the county was praised for feeling that “Adoption is a failure” in a case. It felt like a punch in the stomach. I understand when a child is removed from his/her parent(s) the initial goal is always to reunify that family. I also understand that it is, on paper at least, always best for a child to be raise by his/her biological family. But I know that there are many instances when that isn’t even close to the best thing. The best thing is for the child to be in a stable family. When a child ends up in foster case waiting to be reunified, he/she is often moved from family to family with shelters in between. And often the parents just can’t get their acts together and after trying to go home a half dozen times the parental rights might be terminated. That’s never a cause to celebrate for the parents but it means that the child can now be adopted. And if that child is lucky enough to be adopted, a stable family can finally be formed. And really, the child is the one that we are the most concerned about, right?
Why can’t adoption simply be a different kind of success?

I would love to get into this topic further, but I like the paycheck I receive every 2 weeks. Feel free to discuss further in the comments section.