China Adoption - One Agency's Process

I recently attended a meeting at an adoption agency that specializes in placing children from China. In fact, this agency only places children from China and stated it places over 10% of all the China adoptions in the United States. Here’s what I learned.

References:
One of the best ways to learn about an agency is to talk to adoptive parents who have used it. This agency made this easy, as it supplied me with a welcome packet that included a long list of references, including both phone numbers and email addresses. This impressed me, as I’ve personally spoken to many other agencies that give only a few references. If you’re thinking of adopting from China (or any other country for that matter), I recommend that you make first contact with the reference by sending them an email asking them when you could call. In my experience you can get much more information in a phone conversation than through email, so I truly believe that you’ll find arranging a call worthwhile.

Why Children are Available for Adoption:
Children are often abandoned outside public places such as police stations or hospitals, and indicated that Chinese women abandon their babies due to population control and cultural preference to sons. Because it is a crime in China to abandon your child, no biological parental information is usually known. The children then go into either orphanages or foster care.

The Children’s Health & the Referral:
The China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) overseas all adoptions and selects your child for you. The agency – or any other agency for this matter – does not have a role in this process. This is a significant difference from countries like Russia where your adoption agency actually helps select the referral you will receive. The agency indicated that most of the children are in good health with some delays in gross motor skills. They indicated the children are tested for Hepatitis B, HIV and Syphilis. While you do not get a video of the child (as you may from some other countries) you do get several pictures and the referral. I saw a sample China referral and one interesting thing it listed was the number of teeth that the child had. The agency had indicated that the most of the women in China tended not to drink a lot or smoke. However, always remember you are adopting a unique child (there is no such thing as the “typical” child), so be absolutely sure to have an international adoption doctor review the referral for you.


Also, they did indicate that only a small percentage of singles are allowed to apply for adoption. At this point, singles are on a list for the year 2007 and beyond. Your time frame for your adoption is something to consider if you are single.

Travel to China:
The Agency indicated that most of their families travel in groups of 3-12 families. Typically the families travel to Beijing first and then the province. When the adoptive parents arrived to their hotel, an exclusive Barbie doll was given to them with a Caucasian mom and an Asian child. Beijing does have internet access as well as fast food places as KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s. An interesting thing that this agency said that they would supply (for an additional cost) for you in Beijing was a “baby backpack” including diapers, formula, etc. I had never heard of any other agency doing that. Not a bad idea when carrying heavy luggage across the world. Also, they stated that they can wire money to China for you, preventing you from having to carry large amounts of cash (which is not uncommon in international adoption). While either one parent or both parents could travel to China, the agency indicated that if only one parent travels, you may need to file for readoption in the United States.

Post Placement Visits:
The agency also indicated that most states require a post placement visit shortly after the child comes home to the United States. This is not uncommon. China’s post placement visits are typically at 6 and 12 months from the time you bring your child home.