What do you do, when your adopted young adult child can’t take care of themselves, you don’t want to put them out on the street, and you’re out of options? 

Tamera from Kansas City, MO writes:

I have a 23-year-old adopted mood disordered son and he is not moving forward in life. He's had a history of stealing and lying, being video game addicted, and since he graduated high school has stolen from us more than one time more than $1,000 by taking our debit numbers. This was before we got apps on our phones to lock our card up. He keeps losing jobs and he has been fired from his ninth job recently. He needs to be reevaluated at his age to try to get him on social security disability and my insurance does not provide anyone who will do this. They told me I could go with someone out of network, and they would pay for it and I sent him one time, and then they denied it and would not pay for it.

He was in an orphanage in a foreign country for his first year of life. I don't know the mental health history of his family. I do feel bad for him. I do feel like we're enabling him because we feel bad for him. I know that he is not responsible enough to live on his own or to hold down a job. He barely got through High School, and he does not take medication anymore. We are too kind to throw him out on the street at a homeless shelter in downtown Kansas City and I don't have anything else to do. He has no other friends and no family wants him because of his stealing and lying. We really did not sign up for this when we adopted him. His sister who we also adopted from the same orphanage but much younger is doing great. She is a senior in high school and is a 4.0 student. We cannot really afford to take care of him in our retirement years. I just don't know what to do.

Neil along with co-host Robin respond to this mother’s dilemma and discuss how adoption conditions and accurate assessments will impact child development. But all is not lost as critical next steps are offered up.