Monday, August 14, 2006

Amazing Statistic

We found out this weekend after meeting with a local adoption agency that there is a waiting list of 110 willing SD couples for every unwanted child that enters the adoption pool.

2 comments:

Liz said...

Amazing. I guess that refutes the theory that no one wants to adopt. This is a first-fruits. I believe the lists of people waiting to adopt are about to multiply.

Keep up the good work! We are praying for you!!

Randy Bohlender said...

Matt

I've read this post for a couple of days, and the statistic mystifies me because I can't quite figure out what it means.

It sounds as if there are 110 couples waiting to adopt every available child...which is possible, I suppose (especially knowing that Kelsey and I are in the 'waiting' line ourselves). But what happens when that baby is adopted? Do the 109 who were not given the child disappear? Certainly they get in line for other children.

My guess is that in many cases, there really are 110 couples who would take the child, but 100 of those couples would take the next child that came along as well. If there technically were 110 per child and South Dakota adopted out 5 kids in a week, sending the 109 unchosen couples to the back of the line, that means that by Friday, there would be 595 couples in line for the next child. Inside of a month it would be 2000+ couples competing for the first child of the next month.

I should never have read Freakonomics.

The only reason I'm saying all this that it furthers the myth that it's hard to adopt. We're learning it's not that hard - we will have this done in less than six months. Loving people can find babies and provide a home for them.

Randy