| The past few decades have brought a previously | | | | choice and hope to ultimately parent their child with a |
| never seen and a remarkable increase in the number | | | | partner. Others are not only comfortable with being |
| of families headed by single mothers. Yet unlike the | | | | single but choose to remain single throughout the |
| stereotypical images conjured up by the general | | | | adoption process and the raising of a child to |
| population of an un-wed, poverty-stricken, | | | | adulthood. Faced with the reality of a ticking biological |
| uneducated, and abandoned young teen or woman | | | | clock, numerous of them have unsuccessfully pursued |
| facing parenthood alone and ostracized, an increasing | | | | intrauterine insemination with donor sperm &/or |
| number of successful single well-educated | | | | donor egg prior to pursuing adoption as the road to |
| professional women in their 30s and 40s are arriving | | | | parenthood.Whereas friends, family, and society may |
| at motherhood by choice and through | | | | embrace the married adoptive couple for rescuing or |
| adoption.Advocates note the number of both | | | | adopting a child and elevate them to the status of |
| domestic and international adoptions have been | | | | saints, single mothers are not always so readily |
| steadily increasing over the last decade. However, | | | | lauded for their desire and plan to pursue |
| compared to their married counterparts, citing the | | | | motherhood through adoption. Detractors and critics |
| process of international adoption as less lengthy and | | | | will accuse the single mother of selfishness for not |
| the likelihood of adopting a younger child much | | | | providing the adoptive child a father and an intact |
| greater, single women are more likely to pursue | | | | home. Others will erroneously point to and cite |
| international adoption over domestic adoption. With | | | | statistics linking single motherhood to a variety of |
| domestic adoption, birth mothers are more likely to | | | | potential social ills for their child. To pursue the |
| select couples over singles for their babies and age is | | | | consideration and possibility of adoption, a single |
| a greater consideration with most agencies.Not unlike | | | | woman may even have to develop newfound |
| their married counterparts who pursue adoption, | | | | courage to conquer her own inner demons and |
| single women often pursue motherhood citing the | | | | alleviate her own previously held thoughts and beliefs |
| same need and desire to love and nurture a child of | | | | about adoption.After investing so much financially and |
| their own. However, unlike married couples, the single | | | | personally in fertility treatments or traveling around |
| woman faces the arduous process and costs of | | | | the world to finalize the legalities of adoption, both |
| adoption alone and with the reality she may end up | | | | married and single adoptive parents may struggle |
| raising her child alone without a father or | | | | with high expectations and transition to sharing their |
| partner.Many single mothers who adopt will openly | | | | lives with a child. Single mothers can feel guilt and |
| share although they have chosen motherhood at this | | | | shame when they long for moments of solitude and |
| point in their lives; they are not necessarily single by | | | | the independence of their former single lives. |