It is a pleasure to participate in the ProWriters Hub contest in steemalive community. Today, I would be writing on adoption. The issues, challenges, the realities of adoption.

Family is not only those related by blood, they are those that love, care and support you unconditionally. When a child is adopted into a family, he /she becomes a legal member of that family. It becomes the responsibilities of the adoptive parents of the child to care, love and protect the child.

What is adoption.

Adoption is a legal action that creates a parent-child relation between persons not related by blood. It is the act of taking in a child legally and the child becomes a permanent member of your family. Couples without a child might decide to adopt a child.
When a child is abandoned by his/her parents, that child might be taking in by another family through the process of adoption. Adoption is no crime, but it must be done legally, that I all processes involved in adopting a child must be followed.

There is always situation surrounding every adoption, is either the family adopting a child is having difficulty conceiving or a wealthy family decided to adopt a child because the biological parents of the child could not take care of their baby.
In our society today, adopting a child is no longer something be ashamed of, though there is still stigmatization of an adopted child in the society . The way an adopted child is treated by the adopted family has psychological effects on the child.

There are types of adoption. It includes

1. Open adoption: It allows association among the birth parents, adoptive parents and the child they adopted. The adopted child is open to know his or her birth parents.

2. Close adoption: In close adoption, the adopted child does not have any association with the birth parents.

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Issues Faced by adopted Children

Source

Adopted children face some issues when they become aware that they are adopted. Some of this issues include;

• Self Esteem: Adopted child may face issues with self esteem. They feel that the are not good enough. They believe the are different from other children , as a result of that the lack confidence in themselves. Self esteem issue is mostly faced by those that are not treated well by their adopted families. Some find it difficult living a normal life like every other child.

• Rejection: The feeling of rejection is one of the issues faced by an adopted child. Most times they believe that something is wrong with them and get worried that people will always reject them including their adopted parents.

• Feeling of grief and loss: An adopted child grief the absence of his /her biological parents directly or indirectly. The thought of what his /her birth parents and real siblings look like, the kind of life they are living. Wishing to meet his or her real parents physically.

• Identity issue: A child adopted when he/she has come of age always have identity issue. This happens when the child can't find his place in the new family. When a couple adopt a child as the first son, and then the finally give birth to
  a son. The battle of who the real first son is begins.
  

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Legal Implications of adoption.

There are some legal consequence of adoption. These consequences protect the Adopted child, hence the child will become a full member of the adoptive family in all ramification. Some of this implications include:

• The child will legally become the responsibility of the adoptive family. He / she takes up the last name of the adoptive parents.

• The birth parents of the child will no longer have right over the child.

• An adopted child cannot marry the biological children of his/her adoptive parents, because they are regarded as siblings. Marriage between siblings is an offence punishable by law.

• The adopted child has right to inherit from the adoptive parents.They will be included in the family will because they are legally a member of the family.

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How adoption is viewed in my community

I am from Ngor Okpala, in Imo State. Adopting a child as a result of infertility is not really well accepted in my community. My community value family that are blood- tie. They would rather go to any length to proffer a solution to a couple having difficulty concieving than supporting an adoption.
Most couple adopt secretly by faking pregnancy for 9 months, so that people would not be aware that their child is adopted. When other members of the family finally get to know that a child is adopted, they would not regard the child as part of the family. An adopted child is always stigmatized. This is mostly seen when the family inheritance are being shared within the children.
The fear of medical history of an adopted child is one of the reasons most people in my community do not embrace adoption. In as much as thorough medical checkup is done before adopting a child, some people believe that some health conditions comes up later in adulthood, as a result of that they shy away from adoption.

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My view towards adoption

Every woman deserves to be a mother and every child deserves to have a family. To me adoption is not bad. It provides a child an opportunity to live in a happy and caring family, while achieving their life dreams. It also gives a woman an opportunity to be a mother.

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Ways to handle challenges of adoption

There are ways of handling challenges of adoption

• Ensure that proper medical checkup is done before adopting a child.
• Follow the due process of adoption. Adoption must be done legally.
• Love the Child unconditional, constantly remind the child how you much you love and cherish him/her
• Avoid discrimination between your biological children and your adopted children. Love them equally.
  

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Recommendation

I would personally recommend adoption to every couple praying for a child. Every child is a blessing from God. This life is very simple, you don't need to be too hard on yourself because you could not concieve. There are children out there wishing to have a complete family. Take them in and treat them as if they were yours. I also recommend going through the legal process of adoption because it makes the child legally yours and no one can take a legally adopted child away from you.

Conclusion

Adopting a child is a way of helping humanity. It gives hope to a hopeless child. It should be encouraged in our society. Thank you.
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