House the Children

“Foster care: Extreme Edition” by Curtis Sittenfeld is an article in TIME magazine addressing a new revival in the foster care system. A new system was developed by an agency called foster and adoptive care coalition in the foster care system called Extreme Recruitment. This process includes finding as many families as possible to look into adoption. While this is the main goal of the process there is a much bigger focus that the agency has and that is finding current family members of the foster child to potential adopt them. The workers of this agency work very hard to locate as many family members of the child as they can, this can include ex-spouses of cousins, great aunts or uncles, or even someone married to a third cousin of theirs. This is a huge goal for the agency because it is shown the finding family members to adopt a child is much more beneficial because the family is usually much more aware of any biological problems running in the family such as bipolar disorder, or alcoholism. Many times when distant family members are found they are more than willing to help or adopt the child related to them in the foster care system. This article is shining a very positive light on the idea of foster care and the new ideas and revolutions coming from this process. The corruptness of the foster care system and foster homes is addressed and the article is very informative about those issues but it also shows the possibly positive things of the system by introducing this new “recruitment” system. This revival is important because the idea of having family members adopt foster kids is a very new and outgoing idea that most people would turn down at first. It is great to have this article explain why this is a beneficial idea and how it can change the adoption process and lives of many kids that are living in broken homes. I was very surprised to see such a large an influential article about foster care in such a popular magazine. I think this article will give hope to people who don’t believe or see the benefits of the foster care system. Many times only the brokenness of the system is highlighted because there are so many negatives of foster care but this article truly gives hope because of this idea of revival.

This article from the widely known People magazine shares the story of a writer from the magazine itself and his journey in adopting four Haitian children. Steve Helling went to Haiti multiple times after the enormous earth quake in January of 2010. He was visiting Haiti to cover the news of it for People magazine. While Helling was there he got to see the brokenness in all of the country, community, homes, families, and every individual. Helling witnessed people dying constantly or struggling for their life while having one or multiple limbs amputated. He also experiences many children being treated for horrible diseases such as cholera. This article talks about Mr. and Mrs.Helling and their heart for giving this Haitian children a better life. They also talk about the faith and patience that they had to have while going through the adoption process and how many times they were nervous that the children would never make it to the states. The parents also talk about the struggles of meeting the needs of a family of eight. Also meeting the needs of each individual child and making them feel comfortable in the new family environment. This article really shines a light on adoption which is somewhat surprising because it is a pop culture magazine. I thought it was great that the article discussed the positive and negative things about adoption. It is really important to inform the audience about the struggles of adoption such as patience and faith. I love how this article shows the happiness of the family and how it is possible for people to adopt and introduce these new kids into the family as a brother or sister. Also the article talks about how the Haitian kids slowly but surely made their way as kids in America. They quickly picked up English and learned the ways of American children. Also the article talks about the bond that has been formed because of the new members of the family and integrating them in.

The specific media that I have chosen to address is the article in the website that I linked in my last post.This website contains an article about an incredible famousfamily that the media is all over and many people are aware of these actions. The family that the article is referring to is the Pitt family. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are married and have six kids in which three of the kids are adopted. Their first three children were adopted from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. The dynamics of this family is constantly broadcasted all over the media and most people are very aware of their diversity. The media really glorifies the idea of adoption and shows the benefits and outpouring of love that this family has seen through adoption. Many people do look up to this family because of adoption and the caring nature they have for orphans and underprivileged kids. Many times on magazine covers, on websites, or tv we see this family visiting third world countries and participating in some time of volunteering or acts of service. The media has also shown how accepting this family is of each and every one of their children and for the specific characteristics and passions of each one. Angelina and Brad are very supportive of the choices of each child and how they specifically want to express themselves. These things on magazines and the internet have really made it a very admirable thing that these people have done and many people look up to this family for doing so. Angelina and Brad have learned so many different things from traveling to different countries and experiencing the culture and seeing the brokenness. Not only has this family just seen it but they have contributed to helping it.  I think this family has done and amazing job of showing the beauty of adoption and specifically bringing different people into their environment and accepting them for who they are. 

Adopting a child should not cost more than aborting one