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I still cant understand why black kids cant be adopted by white adoptive parents if finding black adoptive parents has not been possible.Is it not better for children to have loving parents than stay in foster care.White parents may not be able to identify with their ethnic,cultural differences but they can learn and find out.One of the couples on our prep course were quite happy to adopt children of any race or ethnic background but were told in no uncertain terms on the course,they would only be able to adopt children.Are we the only country that have such strict rules,I'm sure this is not the case in America.

We don't have any rules on this! It certainly happens (some message board members have adopted children of another ethnicity to their own).It is mainly placing SWs who wont' consider families of another ethnicity, it is not a rule, although sometimes it is the PAP's SWs

DH and I adopted three black children placed at 9 months, 9 days and 6 weeks. All of afro/carribean heritage. This was a long time ago as all are adults now. We know the placing authority would not poace black children with white parents now. Our oldest child was turned down by two sets of black parents - one set of carribean origin and one set of african origin. She is of African origin. She was turned down because she was not of exactly the same origin as the african parents - different country of origin and because she was african and not carribean by the other set of prospective parents. We worked hard to learn about the culture and customs of all the countries of origin of our children, had black friends, friends who had adopted black children. We had a neighbour - also our friend - who helped with the management of their hair and advised on products for their skin. I never learned to do the complicated hairstyles -I can just about manage to blow-dry my own hair! - but my neighbour taught my girls to do one another's hair and then their own when they were old enoug. Their skin and hair always looked lovely. They do their own hair very well now ans sometimes go to an african hairdresser if they want something more complicated. My son had his hair cut by the same family and always looked so cute and gorgeous.They are our darling children and we worked hard to help them retain an identity. This was much better for them than staying in care. They are not embarrassed at all by having white parents now they are adults and weren't embarrassed as children either.