Adopting newborn at 52 years old?

[Anonymous]

The news broke today that Hoda Kotb from The Today Show has adopted an 8 day old baby. I'm happy for her, but 52 and a single parent seems extremely old and frankly, unfair to the child.

No doubt, her daughter will have a great life with nannies, a nice lifestyle, hopefully a good inheritance. But it does seem awfully old to be starting your family, especially as a single parent where your chlid is left with a guardian if you die. She'll be 70 when her daughter graduates high school.

It's not easy to adopt a healthy infant, so it also feels like her money/fame is making it possible for her to get a child others wouldn't have the same chance at.

Thoughts? Should there be an upper age limit on adopting infants? (There already is with many international adoptions, not sure about domestic/foster care.)

[Anonymous]

She looks like she is in great health, probably has financial stability/to great wealth. George Clooney is 55. Are you questioning his ability to parent twins??

[Anonymous]

You don't know her history. Maybe she tried ivf for many years unsuccessfully. You have no idea how long ago she started the adoption process either. I don't view it as any different than a woman who carries a de pregnancy. It's not common at that age, but not unheard of either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She looks like she is in great health, probably has financial stability/to great wealth. George Clooney is 55. Are you questioning his ability to parent twins??

He's married to and having the children with a woman who is 39. If he was adopting as a single parent at 55, then yes, I would think that was a poor decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't know her history. Maybe she tried ivf for many years unsuccessfully. You have no idea how long ago she started the adoption process either. I don't view it as any different than a woman who carries a de pregnancy. It's not common at that age, but not unheard of either.

I will definitely say I think it's better to adopt at 52 than insist on carrying a DE pregnancy or use a surrogate.

[Anonymous]

Good for her. She seems like she'd make a great mother.

[Anonymous]

The only annoying thing about this to me is that it's her fame/money that made this happen. You and I would never be able to adopt a healthy newborn as a single person at 52.
I have several friends waiting for newborns for years and years and they're under 40 and married and financially stable. It's exceedingly difficult to adopt a healthy newborn in this country.

[Anonymous]

A woman I know adopted a newborn at that age. Her husband was 60. They already had a child.

For all the reasons you cite, I thought it was way too risky, but, it's not my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The news broke today that Hoda Kotb from The Today Show has adopted an 8 day old baby. I'm happy for her, but 52 and a single parent seems extremely old and frankly, unfair to the child.

No doubt, her daughter will have a great life with nannies, a nice lifestyle, hopefully a good inheritance. But it does seem awfully old to be starting your family, especially as a single parent where your chlid is left with a guardian if you die. She'll be 70 when her daughter graduates high school.

It's not easy to adopt a healthy infant, so it also feels like her money/fame is making it possible for her to get a child others wouldn't have the same chance at.

Thoughts? Should there be an upper age limit on adopting infants? (There already is with many international adoptions, not sure about domestic/foster care.)

I don't know about the fame part, but it's very expensive to adopt for anybody. How her having the $ is unfair to others wanting to adopt? It's the system that requires all that money that's discriminatory to people of modest means.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I have just been chosen by a birthmother to adopt her baby boy due in 5 weeks. We are 48 and 50. This is after a long process of miscarriage and IVF. We are healthy, take care of ourselves and have the means. Are we too old? As far as we can tell the pregnancy is healthy and so is our soon to be little boy. We've gotten medical records and have email exchanges and Skype meetings with our birthmother.

[Anonymous]

"Thoughts?". You are stupid, a horrible person or both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I have just been chosen by a birthmother to adopt her baby boy due in 5 weeks. We are 48 and 50. This is after a long process of miscarriage and IVF. We are healthy, take care of ourselves and have the means. Are we too old? As far as we can tell the pregnancy is healthy and so is our soon to be little boy. We've gotten medical records and have email exchanges and Skype meetings with our birthmother.

There's 2 of you, and the younger is 4 years younger than Hoda, which isn't insignificant. It would still be too old for me personally, but I think it's much more reasonable when there are 2 parents. I wish you nothing but the best - congratulations!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Thoughts?". You are stupid, a horrible person or both.

Are countries and agencies that put age limits on adoption stupid/horrible?

[Anonymous]

I don't know that this is any different than other less-than-ideal situations involving newborns including parents who bring children into relationships where the marriage is toxic, or parents who do not have the financial means to care for a baby. Is it perfect? No.

[Anonymous]

A woman in my office just bot pregnant at 48, and has a healthy baby girl. What would you have had her do?