An advocacy group hopes first-person narratives of the adoption process will inspire more Minnesotans to consider the choice. The Adoption Option Council of Minnesota launched a new web site last week that invites birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children to tell their stories. According to council executive director Jenny Eldredge, the site's "scrapbook" should promote adoption to prospective families and communities:
Adoption Option's focus is largely encouraging young adults and others with unintended or unwanted pregnancies to consider adoption. The organization among other things provides financial assistance to birth mothers or fathers after they have finalized adoption plans. Eldredge called it a "courageous, loving choice" for women to make their newborns available to hopeful parents.
A separate but equally pressing issue is the 300 to 400 children awaiting adoption in Minnesota's foster care system (whose birth parents' rights have been terminated). Data from the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network show that Minnesota foster children wait 16.5 months for adoptions, while the national average is 14.5 months.
