The Challenges of Bi-Racial Foster Parenting

Today on Midday, a conversation about foster parenting and adoption.According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 63 percent of children adopted from foster care go to white families. White families also make up 71 percent of the total number of adoptive parents in the U.S. And transracial or interracial adoptions now account for more than 40 percent of adoptions in the U.S.How has the conversation around interracial adoption changed over the years? And what are some of the rewards and challenges for parents who are children raising children of a different race than themselves? Tom is joined by two journalists, and adoptive mothers, who share their own experiences with adoption. Yvonne Wenger is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. She and her husband Artie are the adoptive parents of a toddler named Adeline, who originally came into their home as a foster child. Yvonne shared her family’s experiences with foster parenting and adoption in a wonderful and affecting series for The Sun called “The Wait.----Joan Jacobson is a former Baltimore Sun reporter who is the adoptive mother of two young African American men. Joan and her husband, the labor historian Bill Barry, are white.This segment was streamed on WYPR's Facebook Page.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.