I particularly love it when Dear Birth Mother letters say things like, "We know how hard this must be for you."

Karen you lost me at number 10.

I have traveled around the world.... spending the most time in England, Czech, Slovia, Poland, Ukraine, Canada, Mexico.

The American standard of living is among the highest in the world. We are the most productive workers in he world. This is why we have the highest standard of living.

And for all complaints about health care, we have almost the best health care in the world. I believe Sweden, Netherlands beats us in health care.

We provide free school for children. This is something many countries struggle to provide. Our schools really are a marvel. They cloth, fed and education children.

Our University system is a marvel as well...drawing people from around the world.

Downside is we don't take as much vacation as... any other country.

I know many, many people who say America is a improvement over their native country.

Could you explain what you are talking about?

I believe that Heather meant as far as adoption is concerned, and adoption practices that America is no different.

Amen to your first comment Jan!

Sorry, Angela, but being someone who has opted to live elsewhere, my take on American life is different.

I'm not sure what the "highest standard of living" actually is, but it's certainly not across the board in the US. There are a lot of people living in horrid conditions in America. Many of the schools are dangerous drug havens where students are more likely to get arrested than graduate.

The pressures and stresses that come with the consumer mentality for stuff, stuff and more stuff has children plugged into machines for hours at a stretch and disapppointed if they don't get a new thing to plug into every few months.

I could go on and on, but won't in this little space. Suffice it to say that there are many people who find life outside the US preferable, rewarding, safe, real, healthier, etc., and all though patriotism is a good thing, many Americans are just a tad too haughty and more than a bit condescending in their views of the rest of the world in comparison.

There's a lot to be admired outside the good old USA.

I'll take on defending #10, probably putting words in Heather's mouth that she did not mean ;) . I've travelled in many other countries as well, and, in fact, live in another country. I don't have any plans to move back and absolutely no desire to raise my children there. Yes, many people have a high standard of living. But, many more don't. And they didn't get that way just by diddling around - it is very, very possible to work your butt off in America and be unable to make ends meet. Yes, America has good healthcare, if you can afford it. I never could, DINK couple with college degrees and all. America also has an increasingly comsumerism based..umm..not culture, exactly, but...environment(?)aura? all-pervading-atmosphere?. And free schools that far too often teach kids very little of what they need to know. And a rate of consumption that is hurting the both the county and the world. and and and and...I could go one, but will leave it there.

The thing is, a high standard of living for the well off does not make a great country. It makes a country with an ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor and a well-earned reputation world-wide of putting itself far and away above everyone else, regardless of how that impacts the rest of the world.

Now, I know I sound terribly anti-America here, so allow me to say that there are things that I love about the States and which I miss. Like every other country, you take the good with the bad. It's just that there is easily as much good in every place I've ever been as there is in America. There seems to me absolutely no reason to believe that a home with a family in the US is better than a home with a family elsewhere, and it rubs my fur very much the wrong way when I read about how lucky these kids are to grow up in the US. It's great that they are growing up in a family, but it seems to me that, given that basic needs are met, there is no reason to think that a family in one country is better than one in another.

The assumption that all kids in orphanages were unwanted

Oh, this is so true! In Russia 90% of the children are not able to be adopted out of the orphanages because they have family - mothers, fathers, grandparents - who visit them and who want them near. Or at least they won't relinquish them. People in many other countries have such hard lives (I'm not commenting on #10) and live in such poverty we don't understand that for many of them the fact that their child has a bed at night is an improvement.
But for Russia, at least, the 10% who are left = about 70,000 kids...
Adrienne

Hi Angela,
My name is actually Heather. ; )

I too have lived and travelled around the world, and don't agree that the U.S. approach and way of life is necessarily the best one (and I'm not just talking about adoption here). Yes, we are a good country with a high standard of living, but we definitely don't have all the answers. One small example: other countries handle health care much better than we do.

It is normal to love and be proud of your own country, in this case, America. What I dislike is the rah-rah attitude that anyone who comes here ought to be grateful because it must be so much better than where they came from. I also dislike talk that international adoptees are so "lucky" to have gotten out of their home countries and into America. Many people around the world heartily disagree with the notion that America is "best."

I could go on, but I think this is a divisive point, and one that you either get or don't. So I won't try to convince anyone.

Sorry Heather.... :)

Thanks for the clarification. I will post more later.

I think #6 and #7 can be there own.
My own personal:
All birthmoms are druggies and sleep around
All are young.

#2 needs its own massive amount of attention and (wink), I just got word you are the new VP! Maybe #2 can be a heavily raised issue over the next couple of years ;)