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China Adoption Today

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For several years, Americans have adopted more children from China than from any other country. Agencies recommend China to their clients as having a stable and predictable adoption process. Well, the good news is, it’s still stable and predictable. The bad news is, the time families wait for a referral is now measured in years instead of months. In December 2006, I wrote about China’s imposition of new requirements for adoptive parents. Most notably, these stipulated that singles were no longer eligible to adopt (China had been a popular option with single mothers until that time), and neither were people … Continue reading →

Book Review: The White Swan Express

As the sun rises over North America, four diverse households greet the day anticipating the same great event. At the same time, the moon rises over China, and four little ones go to sleep. They are dressed exactly alike, but Wu Li sleeps on her back with “her arms stretched wide like the branches of a tree”. Qian Ye yawns and curls into a ball. Li Shen snuggles on her side; Chun Mei Ni rolls over and smiles in her sleep. The girls have their own delicate features too, shown in the illustrations by Meilo So, which are simple yet … Continue reading →

International Adoption Options for Single Men

Just as there are women out there who’ve never found their partner but have always wanted a child, there are men in that position also. However, different countries have different criteria for adoptive parents, and most countries either do not allow singles to adopt or allow only single women to do so. Single men can usually adopt from the U.S. child welfare system, probably the most common option for single men. International adoption opportunity are fewer: China, one of the two countries having the largest numbers of children adopted by U.S. parents, used to permit single parents to adopt (including … Continue reading →

Adoption Programs You’ve Never Heard Of

In fiscal year 2008, Guatemala, China and Russia were countries with the first, second, and third most adoptions to the United States, according to U.S. State Department figures. In fourth place was Ethiopia, in fifth South Korea, in sixth Vietnam, in seventh Ukraine, in eighth Kazakhstan, in ninth India, in tenth Columbia. The 2007 rankings were much the same: China and Guatemala switched first and second place, the countries in third through ninth place were the same, and in FY 2007 Liberia was in tenth place instead of Columbia. The Country Guidelines tab on the Rainbow Kids website lists some … Continue reading →

Prospective Parents Health: Possible Impacts on International Adoption

My last blog began to address a reader’s questions about whether health conditions would disqualify someone from adopting. In that blog I talked about possible impacts on domestic infant adoption and adoption from state foster care. This blog will talk about possible impacts a health condition could have in pursuing international adoption. For international adoption, someone with a serious health issue may very well be disqualified by certain countries. Other countries can set their own standards on who is eligible to adopt. They often do not have the same anti-discrimination laws we do. Various countries have set conditions that their … Continue reading →

Considerations in Adopting When You Already Have Children: Shared or Different Heritages

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In the past days I’ve been writing about how your adoption decisions may be different when you have children already in your family to consider. One of these questions is whether you want your children to share the same ethnicity? Many parents believe that their child will feel a deeper sense of belonging if there is someone in the family who looks like them. I admit to sometimes wishing I looked like others in my family, and I wasn’t even adopted. However, a recent article in Adoptive Families magazine suggests that it may be less necessary than was formerly believed. … Continue reading →

What Will Really Happen to Adoption in China, Post-Quake?

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The Chinese government says it is drafting plans for adoptions of quake orphans, and phones at local Civil Affairs Bureaus are ringing off the hook. One Western newspaper even estimated that there are more Chinese calling about adopting than there are orphans. It remains to be seen what will happen. Do Chinese parents calling about adoption today still see it as offering to foster children, or do they truly understand adoption as making a child a permanent part of your family tree? Perhaps they do. Perhaps the restrictions on bearing children have left more people wanting to love more children … Continue reading →

International Adoption Programs Open to Single Parents

As I mentioned in my last blogs, U.S. adoptions are open to single men and single women. In international adoption, two of the more well-known countries with adoption programs welcoming single parents have had big changes in their adoption programs recently. China has announced that it will no longer be open to single parents. Guatemalan adoptions are in flux as we wait to see whether Guatemala will comply with the Hague Convention on International Adoption. If it does not, adoptions to the U.S. (a signee of the Hague document) will cease. Although there is hope that adoptions currently in progress … Continue reading →

Mixed Feelings about Countries Closing

This month, Korea released figures showing that sixty percent of adoptions of Korean children were domestic adoptions by Korean families, rather than overseas adoptions. This is a large increase, and a big step toward a goal which the Korean government and Korean agencies have been working toward for a long time. Korea has for many years been gradually reducing the number of overseas adoptions, leading some adoptive parents to worry about Korea “closing” to adoption by parents from other countries. China also has changed policies to make it easier for Chinese residents to adopt children. Last winter China also announced … Continue reading →

Radioactivity Less Dangerous to Animals Then Man?

Okay, this is a spooky thought: what if there was a radioactive wasteland too toxic for humans to live in but that animals had adapted to? Not only were they able to live there, but some species were thriving because man was no longer interfering with their environment? Sound like the plot of a science fiction book? Might make a good one, but it’s actually based on fact. The place? Chernobyl. Chernobyl fascinates me. I think because it scares me so much. It was just an ordinary day that went horribly wrong and left that part of Russia uninhabitable for … Continue reading →