Adoption in China: Are you still eligible?
by Pamela Thomas, Executive Director, Homeland Adoption Services

In 1992, China began its most successful venture in diplomacy perhaps in history as it opened its gates to American families wishing to adopt Chinese children. In the first few years, the numbers of children coming to the United States were few, but as word spread about the needs of the children, the relaxed eligibility requirements and the predictability of the process, the numbers began to rise, peaking in the last few years at approximately 6000-8000 children every year. At current count, there are approximately 60,000 children in U.S. families who were adopted from China.

Americans have held a fascination with China and its people since the 1970s when it opened to the West. As we listened with interest to information about China’s overpopulation and the proposal for a “one child policy, we could not know then that the same policy would, later in life, bring many of us our own children.

As each year brings more and more little ones to join the growing number of families with children from China, the community and culture formed by these families grows stronger and stronger. Probably no group of international adoptees has gained as much attention and benefited from as much post adoption support as this one has. Every state has a chapter of Families with Children from China, an organization which serves to support its members by offering cultural and educational opportunities, as well as by providing aid to children in China’s orphanages. Families who adopt children from China embrace the opportunity to share their child’s heritage, and are invested in helping their child to become culturally competent. Adoption playgroups, language classes, culture camps and homeland trips are all available to these families. There has been an outpouring of interest in helping not only those children whom we have adopted into our own families, but to bring relief through charitable organizations to those who will remain in China’s orphanages. This outpouring of love and concern for China’s orphans has resulted in a mission of diplomacy, benefiting all.

China’s adoption program has been exceedingly popular with Americans because it has become a model in terms of predictability and accountability. Waiting time aside, families know that if they meet certain qualifications, prepare and send their application to the China Center of Adoption Affairs, they have a high likelihood of succeeding in their adoption plans. As the program has become more sophisticated, the information available about the children has become increasingly detailed and reliable. As each adopting family has left a donation for the care of the children left behind, we have seen dramatic improvements in the state run orphanages across China, and, correspondingly, in the condition of the children.

Several years ago, the China Center of Adoption Affairs began a Waiting Child program, designed to place out pre identified babies and children who either had a past medical need rectified, or with a current, typically surgical need. This program has brought hundreds of wonderful children into families in the U.S., where they have been able to receive the love and care they so deserve.

In May, 2007, China will implement new regulations limiting the eligibility of prospective adoptive parents, citing fewer children available for adoption. This announcement has saddened many in the adoption community, including prospective adoptive parents who may no longer, for a variety of reasons, qualify to adopt from China after that date. I hope you will join me on February 20th, 2007, at the AFA’s Online Session, where I will be available to answer your questions about the new regulations, and how they may affect you, as you explore the possibility of adopting a child from China.

For more information www.theafa.org/connections/chat.html