Kids need homes

I have mixed feelings about “Religion and foster care” (June 22). In a perfect world, with many resources for all the children who need temporary or permanent new homes, it would be ideal for them to be placed within their racial and religious backgrounds. But we live in a very imperfect world. There are far too many children lingering with unfit parents, or with kinship families who are unfit to raise them.

Considering how many children, many of whom are either mentally or physically damaged, need a permanent home, with people who will love them as their own, it seems very trivial to hold out in a way that will detain a child’s adoption. I am against anything that will impede a child’s future just because some of us place such an emphasis on religion and ethnicity.

When my late husband and I adopted the second two of our adopted children, they already had lingered in foster care for four years. There was no reason for all that time to have passed, and it affected their lives hugely. In the life of a child who has an uncertain future, even one month is too long to wait for a home.

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In a perfect world, there would be an equal number of needy children and homes that want them, all with families of the right color, race, and creed. Unfortunately we do not live in that world.