Tuesday Terms: Adoption Agency Apologist (AAA)

This column will be the discussion of a term that is used in child welfare or adoption.

The AAA is the kind of person who has an excuse for every bad agency practice or infraction, no matter how heinous. Some of the AAAs are more clever than others when concocting the spin about why their adoption agency is a good one despite reports of unethical practices.When someone dares to share their bad experience with an agency, the AAAs leap into attack mode, making themselves available as volunteer spokespeople to refute the charges laid against the agency.

These people are extremely useful tools for agencies because they place just enough disbelief in a prospective client’s mind (and in the mind of anyone who is not knowledgeable about chronic corruption in international adoption) that they cannot believe such a wonderful agency would be capable of such crimes.

Caught trafficking children?The AAA will tell you it was all a misunderstanding.Paperwork forged? The AAA will tell you the agency had no way of knowing and that this isn’t their fault.

Agency caught up in a bad country program? The AAA will dismiss this as a simple mistake, reminding everyone about how many successful adoptions they’ve already had from that country before touting all their other simply marvelous programs.

Adoptive parents kill a child placed with them by their agency? The AAA will have you believe there was no way for the agency to better screen their applicants, pre-adoption.

It is easy to instantly recognize an AAA, as they have their heads buried so far underground nothing will convince them of how utterly wrong their position is.

REFORM Puzzle Piece