Laila Azzeh, The Jordan Times

AMMAN — The foster care system in Jordan suffers from many “loopholes” that complicate the lives of parents and children involved in the process, foster families said on Tuesday.

Islamic and Jordanian laws ban adoption, but allow foster parenting, in which the child retains his or her original family name, or the one given by the state.

With around 180 foster parents waiting for their turn to obtain guardianship permission, families said procedures take a long time to be finalised, sometimes long enough for them to change their minds.

“I was more excited to become a parent when I first applied to adopt a child two-and-a-half years ago… my husband and I are getting older now and our life has taken another course since then,” a woman, who preferred anonymity, told The Jordan Times on Tuesday

During a seminar held by the National Council for Family Affairs on the sidelines of a ceremony to acquaint foster parents with the “Foster Care Guidebook”, she claimed that some people who applied after her and her husband, obtained guardianship before them.

According to officials from the Social Development Ministry, families who apply for foster care are given numbers according to the date of their application.

“They told me to wait for a maximum of nine months when I first applied. We have to rethink the entire decision to foster a child now,” the 36-year-old woman said.

Challenges facing foster parents and children do not stop when custody is permitted, but continue throughout the children’s lives.

“Foster children should at least be given the first and second name of their guardian so that they do not face discrimination… I have to explain why my child’s name is so different from his father’s each time I travel or even take him to the hospital. This is too embarrassing for us,” another woman said.

However, cleric Mansour Tawalbeh noted that Islam bans granting children their guardians’ name for many considerations, but called for facilitating procedures related to fostering.

Foster parents highlighted other problems such as the inability to include their “adopted” children under their health insurance or withdraw money from bank accounts they open for the children.

“It makes me feel like a stranger to my son when I cannot withdraw money from the bank account I opened for him when I need to,” a parent said.

Mansour said giving money or property to a foster child is considered an “endowment” and thus, parents are not allowed to retrieve them before the child reaches 18 years of age and grants his/her legal consent.

According to the Ministry of Social Development, since its establishment in 1967, a total of 858 children have been fostered in the Kingdom, with an average of 50-60 cases each year.

Families who wish to raise the children must meet certain criteria in terms of age, religion and financial situation.

Under the law, children of unknown identity are automatically considered Muslims, and Christian parents are not allowed to raise them.