Dear President,

“The sun will come out tomorrow...” sings orphan Annie, the hopeful optimist she is. Maybe it will for her and her crew of orphans all trying to be adopted, but not for all real life orphans in the United States. They all want parents, love, and shelter. For orphans living in the United States, orphanages are often a less popular option than group homes or foster care. There are about 120,000 orphans in the United States, and 400,000 children live in foster homes. Nearly 50,000 children in foster care were adopted in 2011. “By the 1950’s, more orphans lived in foster care than in orphanages”. It is not uncommon for children living in foster care to leave the system due to “aging out” or reaching the age of 18 and becoming an adult without ever being adopted. Many parents are only looking to adopt children and babies instead of teenagers. There are many reasons kids are put into foster care including abusive relations with parents, poor living area, and sometimes lack of parents are the cause of being placed in a better home.

There are still problems within the foster care system though. There are horror stories, albeit rare cases, of foster parents’ homes actually being worse than the one the child had left. A way to solve this is by funding more orphanages to separate those orphan children who would be homeless from those who are only removed from their home. There is currently too much variation in the system and this causes confusion over which resources need to be funded and why. Some children in foster care need services for the sexually abused, others may need services for behavioral disorders. In addition to that they may also need services for orphans. It would be all the more organized if the children who need the homes were all grouped together somehow-- perhaps in an orphanage. Now, I’m not suggesting segregation in any way. Simply, a more organized form of funding and care for those in need of it.

Many adults are looking to adopt or to give their children up for adoption because they cannot afford to raise him or her, but instead they abort the children instead of carrying them all the way through the pregnancy and into adoption. Part of the reason is that there are not many good adoption agencies or orphanages around and many people do not want their child to be susceptible to foster care. To change this state of despair over homeless and parentless children, we need to either add more orphanages or fix the foster care system (or both). Orphanages should not even closely resemble that of Annie’s with Mrs. Hannegin sending the children off to do her bidding at every step. Neither should foster care. It is all meant to be a temporary solution to the could-be-easily-fixed problem of not having any parents. Once a child is in at least one of the systems, they can be adopted rather quickly by the numerous couples looking to adopt a baby or child. “About 135,000 children were adopted in the United States last year.” “...The percentage of infants given up for adoption has declined from 9 percent of those born before 1973 to 1 percent of those born between 1996 and 2002.” Part of this reason is the amount of abortions performed within these years, and the number of intended vs unintended pregnancies.

There are still many parentless children though who need homes and families. They are lonely and sad, you could help them. You could get them the help that they need by funding orphanages or fixing the foster care system. They need your help, will you help them?

Sincerely,

Emma Klubertanz 

WORKS CITED

Adoptions, Inc. American. "American Adoptions -- America's Adoption Agency." Orphanages in America. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Adoptions, Inc. American. "American Adoptions -- America's Adoption Agency." Orphanages in America. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Fosterclub. "Statistics on Foster Care." FosterClub. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <https://www.fosterclub.com/article/statistics-foster-care>.