Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 841, Adopting a Child.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 841.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Become a member of ESL Podcast and download the Learning Guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Scott and Roberta about adopting a child.
Let's get started.
Hi.
I thought I'd stop by to pick up those chairs I wanted to borrow.
Oh, sure.
Here they are.
What are you doing?
I'm looking through the material we got on adoption.
Are you and Robert thinking about adopting a child?
Yeah, we are.
We've been thinking about it for a long time and we think we might be ready now.
Have you decided on an international or domestic adoption?
We're going domestic.
That means going through the foster care system, right?
Yeah, it's going to be a lot of work getting our house ready and all of the paperwork done.
But after we pass inspection, we'll just need to wait for a call from a social worker with a placement.
We hope it'll happen quickly.
I thought people had to wait months or years for a baby.
They may, but we're asking for a waiting child, maybe even one with special needs.
We may even take more than one child, someone with siblings.
Wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
Wouldn't you rather do a private adoption?
Then you can call the shots and even have a closed adoption, if that's what you want.
We don't mind an open adoption, actually.
We've given it a lot of thought and we think it's best if the child knows who his or her birth parents are.
That way, they won't always be wondering.
I hope everything goes smoothly.
I'm sure you'll both make great parents.
We're not so sure but we'll do our best.
By the way, you can keep those chairs.
Really?
Why?
You have no children, and they're a hazard.
We need to childproof this house, and we're starting with those chairs.
Hey, that's great.
That big screen TV looks dangerous.
I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands, too.
Hands off the TV.
Scott begins our dialogue by saying to Roberta I thought I'd stop by to pick up those chairs I wanted to borrow.
To stop by means to go to a place, usually on your way to another place.
Though not always.
To pick up here means to collect from, to get from.
Scott is picking up some chairs.
Roberta says, oh sure, here they are.
Here you can take them.
Scott says, what are you doing?
Roberta says, none of your business, Scott.
No.
She doesn't say that.
She says Adoption is the process of bringing a child into your family who is not biologically yours.
That is, you're not the mother or the father.
But for many different reasons, the mother and or father is not able to or not willing to keep the child.
And so the child may go to another family and become part of that family.
We call that process adoption, A-D-O-P-T-I-O-N.
Scott says are you and Robert thinking about adopting a child?
Roberta is married to Robert, I guess.
That's convenient.
Roberta says yeah, we are.
We've been thinking about it for a long time and we think we might be ready now.
Scott says, have you decided on an international or domestic adoption?
Domestic D-O-M-E-S-T-I-C means within one country, usually the country where you are living.
So a domestic adoption in the United States would be adopting a child from the United States who was born here.
An international adoption, of course, would be adopting a child from a different country.
Roberta answers we're going domestic, meaning we are going to go for a domestic adoption.
Scott says that means going through the foster care system, right?
The foster care system is the government system that takes care of children whose parents can't take care of them.
Usually in the foster care system, a child is taken from its mother or father and put into what we call a foster home.
They're not adopted, at least they don't have to be adopted by that family.
Foster parents take care of children who are not their own, but don't adopt them, or at least they're not required to adopt them.
To adopt someone means to make them legally part of your family.
Roberta says, yeah.
It's going to be a lot of work getting our house ready and all of the paperwork done, all of the forms that they have to fill out.
But after we pass inspection, we'll just need to wait for a call from a social worker with a placement.
To pass means to be approved.
Inspection is a detailed examination of whether someone has done what they were supposed to do.
If you are going to be a foster parent in the united states, in most places you have to prepare your home.
You have to go to a lot of interviews, you have to be investigated by the government And the government will usually send someone to inspect your home, to look at your house, to make sure it's safe for a child to be there.
That's why Roberta says after we pass inspection.
© transcript Emily Beynon.
Social workers take care of placing children into foster families, children who need someone to take care of them.
That's what a social worker does, or at least one of the things a social worker does.
A placement...
P-L-A-C-E-M-E-N-T is an arrangement, in this case for a child to live with a foster family.
So once you are approved as a foster family, then you wait until the government has someone that needs taking care of.
They may call you and say tomorrow we're going to bring by a five-year-old girl, or next week you are going to have a ten-year-old boy, and so forth.
By agreeing to be a foster family, you agree to take the child that the government wants, Although there's some choice there in some cases, I would guess.
Scott says, It's true that in the United States the adoption process takes a very long time, especially if you are adopting domestically.
It's quicker in many instances, in many cases, if you adopt internationally.
Roberta says there may...
But we're asking for a waiting child, maybe even one with special needs.
A waiting child is a child who is waiting to be adopted.
Sometimes the child is first put into a foster family.
If the foster family is also interested in adopting, they can, in some cases, adopt that child.
Roberta mentioned special needs.
Special needs is a term we use to describe children who may have some physical or mental disabilities, some problems.
Maybe they have some physical problems.
Maybe they've had some psychological problems.
That would be a child with special needs.
Roberta says, we may even take more than one child, someone with siblings.
Siblings, S-I-B-L-I-N-G-S, are your brothers and sisters.
I have 10 siblings, 8 brothers, 2 sisters.
Scott says, wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
Wouldn't you rather do a private adoption?
A private adoption is an adoption arranged between a family and the mother or parents of a child without the help of the government, without the government being part of the process, usually without the child going through the foster care system.
Scott says then you could call the shots and even have a closed adoption if that's what you want.
To call the shots.
S-H-O-T-S is an informal expression meaning to be making the decisions, to be the person who makes the important decisions.
The boss calls the shots at his company, for example.
Scott recommends or at least suggests that Roberta and her husband have a closed adoption.
A closed adoption is an adoption where the mother or parents of the child never actually meet the people who are adopting the child.
They may not even know who that family is.
Closed adoptions used to be very common in the United States.
They are less common now.
In fact, I think most adoptions are not closed adoptions if they are domestic adoptions in the U.S.
They are instead open adoptions.
Open adoptions is when the mother or the mother and father know who the parents are.
They may meet with the new adopting couple in order to find out if they like the couple, if that's the family they want their child to be raised in.
Open adoptions are much more common nowadays than they were even 30, 40 years ago.
Roberta says, we don't mind an open adoption, actually.
We don't mind means we're okay with that.
That's not a problem.
We've given it a lot of thought.
We've thought about it.
And we think it's best if the child knows who his or her birth parents are.
Your birth parents are the biological mother and father that you have.
Everyone has a biological mother and father, even if you don't live with them or grow up with them.
It's not possible not to have a biological mother and father.
Roberta says that way they won't always be wondering.
This is a, as you can imagine, a topic that a lot of adopting parents think about, whether they want the child to know who their real or biological, I should say, parents are or not.
Scott says, I hope everything goes smoothly.
I'm sure you'll both make great parents.
Roberta says, we're not so sure, but we'll do our best.
By the way, you can keep those chairs.
Scott says, really?
Why?
Remember, Scott came over to borrow some chairs from Roberta and Robert.
Roberta says, you have no children, and they're a hazard.
They here means the chairs, not children.
Children could be a hazard too, I suppose.
A hazard, H-A-Z-A-R-D, is something that is or could be dangerous.
Roberta says we need to childproof this house.
To childproof, C-H-I-L-D-P-R-O-O-F, one word. means to make an area safe for a baby or for young children, getting rid of things that might be dangerous.
If you have guns in your house, you would probably have to remove them or lock them up in order to childproof your house.
Scott says, hey, that's great.
Scott is joking now saying well, if you have to get rid of things that are dangerous in your house, how about your television?
Which, of course, is not dangerous, unless you watch it.
Some of the programs are potentially hazardous.
Scott says, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands.
To take something off your hands means to take something that another person doesn't want anymore or doesn't need anymore.
Roberta says, hands off the TV.
The expression hands, H-A-N-D-S, off means do not touch, don't come close to.
She, of course, is not going to let Scott take their big screen, their large television, because that's not part of childproofing a house.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hi.
I thought I'd stop by to pick up those chairs I wanted to borrow.
Oh, sure.
Here they are.
What are you doing?
I'm looking through the material we got on adoption.
Are you and Robert thinking about adopting a child?
Yeah, we are.
We've been thinking about it for a long time, and we think we might be ready now.
Have you decided on an international or domestic adoption?
We're going domestic.
That means going through the foster care system, right?
Yeah, it's going to be a lot of work getting our house ready and all of the paperwork done.
But after we pass inspection, we'll just need to wait for a call from a social worker with a placement.
We hope it'll happen quickly.
I thought people had to wait months or years for a baby.
They may, but we're asking for a waiting child, maybe even one with special needs.
We may even take more than one child, someone with siblings.
Wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
Wouldn't you rather do a private adoption?
Then you can call the shots and even have a closed adoption if that's what you want.
We don't mind an open adoption, actually.
We've given it a lot of thought and we think it's best if the child knows who his or her birth parents are.
That way, they won't always be wondering.
I hope everything goes smoothly.
I'm sure you'll both make great parents.
We're not so sure, but we'll do our best.
By the way, you can keep those chairs.
Really?
Why?
You have no children, and they're a hazard.
We need to childproof this house, and we're starting with those chairs.
Hey, that's great.
That big screen TV looks dangerous.
I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands, too.
Hands off the TV!
When it comes to our scripts here on ESL Podcast, the person who calls the shots is our own, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
