Adopting from China?

Question

I would love to adopt a baby girl from China someday. If you have, please tell me your pros and cons!!

Answer 1

pros: good for yourself, good fo the child, make your ife so much better

cons: you may not get the child becuase the goverment may deny you, costs alot

Answer 2

We adopted from China almost 2 years ago.

Pros.....

Our agency was forthcoming about expenses. China is coruption free and there were no 'extra' costs along the way.

For the most part the children are healthy. Cases of fetal alcohol syndrome are rare.

Only one trip is required.

China is a beautiful, welcoming country. It was no issue to spend the required time there.

Your child is legally yours before you leave China.

Our child was a US citizen when her passport was stamped in LA.

Though you have to complete a dossier it is pretty straight forward and easy enough to do.

The Chinese people were great. We recieved many thumbs up for adopting. They easily let us know they approved though we didn't speak the same language.

Our daughter is simply wonderful!

cons.....

The wait times have increased a lot. When we started the process the wait time from once your dossier was logged in till referral was around 6 months. Now it is around 2 years and many fear it will increase to 4-5 years for a referral. During that time period many documents have to be redone which increases the overall cost.

Since the wait times have increased many people are adopting special needs children off of waiting child lists so now there is a lot of compition for these children. Our daughter was a special needs child (cleft effected).

Long flight

All post institunionalized children will have some issues whether it is minor attachment problems or full blown RAD. Do your homework and make sure you are up for the challange.

Children from China are abandoned so there is no way to ever find out about the first family, this includes medical issues.

Due to the huge intrest in China adoptions, China has impossed many new strict rules such as no obeseity, no antidepressents, certain income guidlines as well as assets.

Answer 3

I admire you for wanting to adopt, and it is something I have considered as well.  I have never started the process of adoption, but I have visited many web-sites on the matter, and have found them very helpful:

http://www.cwa.org/china-adoption.htm

http://www.chinaadoptionagency.org/

These are just a few I have been to. Be sure you visit legitimate web-sites that end in ".org", and not ".com".  That will help you to avoid being caught up in an adoption scam.

I am sure the process is very time consuming, emotional and expensive, but it is all worth it in the end.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

We adopted internationally (though not from China).  If you are considering any international adoption and want an idea of what the process entails, I recommend the book "How to Adopt Internationally".  It breaks down the steps you need to take, including things like agency selection, motivations for adoption and even a section on every country with an international adoption program.  It does not go much into parenting or cultural challenges with international adoption, but for a cut and dried look at the bureaucracy, there's no better resource.

Answer 5

Hmmm, that's hard to categorize. I would adopt from China over and over and over again if I could. My agency was wonderful, the procress (though long) was very efficient. I love that you travel in groups, we became very close with ours. I loved travelling to China. I loved the people and the culture, though obviously not the communist government.

The Cons are the timelines, which are spiralling out of control. If you send in your dossier now, you need to prepare yourself for a possible 4-5 year wait. So along with that heartache comes anxiousness and uncertainty due to the fact that the CCAA tends to remain tight-lipped about their plans and you are left at your agencies mercy with regards to info or rumour mill sites.

Also, you should research your agency very carefully as they are your ears into the CCAA and some are wonderful, like mine is, and some are lousy communicators who treat their prospective parents like they are nuisance.

Good luck with your decision.

Answer 6

You should visit

www.informedadoptions.com