If I was going to adopt, I could give a f*ck about the child's gender or skin color. The age thing is tricky, though, if you adopt older than a certain age there is an increased chance that kid is going to have some serious mental/behavioral issues later in life. I knew a few kids growing up that were adopted in the US between the ages of 5 and 7 years old (mostly of Asian descent) that turned out to be real nasty people. One guy in particular, was always in and out of jail, started selling drugs when we were in like 7th grade and continued on out of high school. I heard a rumor through the grapevine some time back that he ended up killing a guy over some stupid shit, although no one was able to pin it on him. One of my good friends was this kid's next door neighbor growing up, they were best friends before the other guy went bad. Anyway, this buddy of mine works as a paralegal for a law firm here in downtown Seattle. He takes the bus to and from work but the nearest hub is a nice walk away from his building. He told me recently on his way to the bus after work one day he passed by some vagrant sitting on the ground with a sign, and a cup, you know the drill. He did a double take at this dude and told me that it was that guy we grew up with, there was zero doubt in his mind. He lived next door to the dude for 10 years and hung out with him almost every day for a lot of that time period-- he said there was no way he'd forget the guy's face. He didn't say anything to him since no one we know has talked to him in years, but my friend said he looked really bad, was missing all his teeth, etc. The other kids I knew that were adopted old like that didn't end up quite so bad but most turned out fairly shady. Based on these personal experiences alone, if I were to adopt, I'd probably go as young as possible. Beyond that, any other traits mean nothing to me.
