Testimonial: Adoption in China: more convincing results, but longer wait...

At the end of February, I attended an information session given by the company Let's Form a Family, one of the organizations with which you can do business for adoption in China.

In China, it is illegal to abandon a child, so children who are put up for adoption will always have an unknown past for the adopters, since the biological parents will never be identified. Contrary to what one might think, 30% of children put up for adoption are boys. However, it is impossible for adoptive parents to choose the sex of the child to foster.

What I took away from the process:

You have to be 30 years old to apply, but they seem very open to discussing the medical form. I find it all very encouraging.

The only “catch” is that once we file our application, there is a waiting period of 7 to 8 years (not including the extra year before darling turns 30). But the positive aspect of this long waiting list is that as soon as the request is accepted, you are sure to find a child, you just have to live with the wait.

Another aspect to consider, for us who would like a large family, we can only file one adoption application at a time at the government agency (the SAI). So during these 8 years of waiting, I will not be able to make other requests and will have to wait 1 year after the arrival of the child to file a new one.

However, the volunteer (who adopted 2 children in China) tells us about the possibility of adopting a child with special needs. A grid is given to us on the different types of needs, and we check the ones we are ready to accept. I must say that I am quite surprised at the Sears catalog of possibilities: imperforated anus, ear malformation, congenital heart defect, hepatitis B carrier, physical malformation (and we have the choice of each type), androgynism, cerebral palsy, and so on.

Well, now I'm going to sound lazy, but you know, an adoption in China is around $30,000, and there's no “discount” in choosing a child with special needs. In addition, they are generally put up for adoption older than children in regular adoption. Why am I taking note of the information on this subject anyway? The waiting period my friends varies from 6 months to 2 years after the acceptance of the request. In addition, the volunteer mother of 2 Chinese tells us about her experience: she had her daughter regularly adopted, her guy adopted children with special needs. He had a labial-platinum crack that had been operated on before she went to look for him. She suggests that we leave with the Sears list and do our research on each special need, and set our boundaries as a couple. However, what you need to know is that when you receive a child proposal, you have 48 hours to accept or refuse the child (without being penalized for a future match in case of refusal) You must therefore have a doctor who will be available “rush” to help us make a decision based on the child's medical file.

Well, that's a lot of information for me to digest. I understand that I will have to start seriously learning about international adoption, that this is a big project. Am I ready to live with these deadlines, or to embark with a child with special needs? And what does the man think?

Considering the possibility of a child with specific needs makes me reconsider my refusal to consider adoption in Quebec. In my prejudiced head, all the children who picked up at the DPJ were problem children. But what if that option could be the right one?

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