Step One: Assessment: Part Two: What Kind of Children Are Available.

In doing an assessment, it is important to combine the specifics regarding what kind of children you are looking for with the reality of what kind of children are available.

The Adoption and Foster Care Reporting and Analysis System (AFCARS) gives the following information about the 114,000 children who were waiting to be adopted in September of 2005 (the last time a report was completed).

Here is what they report:

53% were male, 47% were female

51% of those children had been in foster care for more than 30 months, and 87% had been in foster care for more than 12 months.

40% were Caucasian, 15% Hispanic, and 36% African American.

63% were over the age of five.

60% of the children were adopted by their foster parents.

I don't see data that connects the two, but based on my experience a large majority of the 37% of children adopted under the age of 5 were a part of the 60% who were adopted by their foster parents.

So, if you are planning to adopt without fostering and you are hoping for a girl, under the age of five, who is caucasian and whose foster parents aren't already planning to adopt her, you can see where the odds lie.