126: Adoption

Questions about the Video File:

1. Where did his story begin? How?
2. Why did they initially decide to adopt rather than giving birth to their children?
3. What is the biggest fear of those who adopt?

General Questions:

1. Do you know anyone who has adopted a child? How old is the child now? When did they tell the child about it?
2. What are the major reasons people choose to adopt?
3. What do you think about international adoption?
4. What are some of the problems that parents may face when they adopt a child?
5. What are some of the problems that an adopted child may face?
6. If you were going to adopt a child, would you go for a girl or for a boy? Why?
7. Should you tell a child that he/she has been adopted? If so, at what age?
8. Is adoption common in your country or is it frowned upon? Why do people resist adoption?
9. Should a single man or woman be able to adopt a child? Why? Why not?

Related idioms or expressions:

Pouring out of woodwork: if someone pours/comes/crawls out of woodwork they appear in a situation unexpectedly to gain advantage of the situation

• After their parents passed away, family members began to pour out of woodworks to gain financial benefits.

Related Quotes:

• “Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.”     Robert A. Heinlein
• “However motherhood comes to you, it's a miracle.”     Valerie Harper
• “Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn't grow under my heart but in it.”     Fleur Conkling Heyliger

Related Words and Phrases:

adopt (v) to take care of someone else’s child legally as your own children

• They decided to adopt a child from Africa.

adoption (n) the process or condition of adopting a child.

• She decided to put her baby for adoption to guarantee a better future.

orphan (n) a child who has lost her parents

• Being an orphan, he didn’t know how he had to behave with his foster parents.

orphanage (n): a place to take care of orphans.

• It seemed the orphanage wasn’t run properly.

foster (v)  to take care of someone else’s child in your family for a certain period of time but not becoming their legal parents

• They decided to adopt the child they had been fostering for a year now.

passionate (adj): when you are passionate about something you really like it.

• She was passionate about music.

CPS (abreviation) child protective system

• You really need to love children to become a CPS worker..

Bio-mum: biological mother; a woman who gives birth to a child

• Since she was adopted, she didn’t know who was her bio-mum.

willing (adj) eager; wanting to do something because you like it

• I was not sure if he was willing to adopt a child.

sporadically (adv) happening quite often but not regularly

• When she started meeting her friend sporadically, everyone could tell there was something wrong.

Finalize (v) to complete the last phase of a plan, process or business

• They finalized the adoption process in 6 months.

Related Collocations

Foster care (n) a system, usually run by government, to provide children with proper care outside their families in case they are not competent to look after their children.

• She needs a confirmation letter from the rehab that proves she is clean so that she can get her son back from foster care.

Childless couples (v) husbands and wives who can’t or don’t have children

• An old childless couple helped her to get into university.

Parentless children: children who don’t have parents

• Being one of the many parentless children, he managed to attract the attention of a nice couple to adopt him.