"Adoptees find last chance on ranch"
No one appears to keep data on adoption disruption. While a statistically rare occurrence among the approximately 20,000 foreign-born children adopted by Americans each year, such relinquishment is happening with increasing frequency, experts said.
One Ohio adoption agency reports receiving up to five calls a day from parents about disruptions, up from one or two a month a few years ago.
"No one knew the magnitude of the problem," said Sterkel, 60. "The horror stories just keep on coming." While dissolutions of domestic adoptions are not unheard of, it is among the international population where experts are seeing a most troubling spike.
Why is this happening?
Moreover, many parents were unprepared for the challenges, either because they were so eager to be Mom and Dad or because agencies glossed over their charges' complex medical histories — or omitted them.
While some people may have undertaken parenthood with unrealistic expectations, more typically they are deeply committed but ill-equipped to cope with profoundly damaged children. Either due to fetal alcohol syndrome, mental illness, attachment disorders — or a combination of all three — the youngsters can't function in a family, though they show no outward signs of disability.
Exactly.
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