WKSU: Part 1: Intro to Adoption, page 3

The same poll that suggests many Americans are open to adoption, also indicates a willingness among parents to adopt older children. But respondents, particularly white adults, are afraid that children in foster care have medical or behavioral problems. The result, according to Kolaric, is that there are not enough infants of any race to fill the demand, and there are thousands of older children who need permanent families...

Kolaric: I know in Cuyahoga County alone there's 2,000 children waiting just locally. All counties have different numbers of children available but it's ridiculous how many kids are waiting and people don't seem to care. To us it's a huge crisis, these children don't have homes.

But children in foster care have been through difficult situations. They wouldn't be available for adoption if the county had not determined that things were so bad with their biological parents that they had to be removed. Jacqueline McCray handles foster care recruitment for Cuyahoga County...

McCray: Children end up in foster care due to issues of abuse and neglect and some of the main contributing factors to that are the problems of drugs throughout the community and throughout the country. Um, there's also issues in terms of domestic violence in the home, issues of a parent's mental and emotional stability. Those are some factors that lead to abuse or neglect situations. But, basically, I believe one of the most prevalent reasons we see children coming into our care is for the issues related to drug abuse and other chemical dependency.

pictured from L to R: Krissy Bessemer-Kolaric, Jennifer Bessemer-Marando, co-owners A Child's Waiting

State and federal governments have taken steps recently to make it easier to adopt children in foster care. The federal government provides a ten thousand dollar tax credit to all adopting parents, and the state provides a 250 dollar a month adoption subsidy which some counties increase. In Cuyahoga County for example, parents who adopt from the county can receive 560 dollars a month until the adopted child turns 18. Adults who want to become foster parents or adopt are required to take a 24 hour training course, and allow a home study. Kolaric says for most families, the incentives help, but they're not the point...

Kolaric: There are some very special families out there that come in looking specifically for children that have special needs or have behavioral problems or are older. And these families...sometimes they have a religious calling, they feel that it's God's word for them to do this. Some families just feel that they would be a good parent or that they have already been a good parent and they want to continue helping children.