Why China?

There are several reasons I chose to adopt from China, as opposed to another country. (and domestic is another whole topic!) Mainly, I knew I wanted a daughter and I knew that China had mostly baby girls in their orphanages. I also knew that China accepted applications from single parents (though that has now changed, but I was already in the process and "grandfathered" in, thank goodness) - some other countries do not accept single parents. But mostly, I was always drawn to China for some reason - the culture, the mystery, and I've always thought the children are beautiful. Along the way, I also learned that adopting from China is one of the least expensive programs in international adoption - so that practical aspect was a small part of my decision, too. At my age (at the time I began the process I was 43), I still qualified for their youngest babies, too -- which means between 8 and 14 months old. I looked into several other countries before I made my final decision, but in the end my heart was still set on China.

Also, in case you are not familiar with it, below is some text I took from another website about China's "One Child Policy":

China's One Child Policy: First, a bit of background to understand how the One Child Policy came about: In the 1950s, Mao Tse-Tung urged his people to have lots of children to strengthen the country. The population growth from this edict led the government in the 1970s to be worried that China would be unable to feed her citizens. So, the Chinese government implemented the One Child Policy in 1979.The goal of this policy was to keep China's population below 1.3 billion by the year 2000. Today, China is home to over 1.2 billion people. Couples who violate the One Child Policy are subject to fines (equal to three years' salary!), community ostracism, and even jail time.

Baby boys are more valued in Chinese society than are baby girls because boys carry on the ancestral name, inheritance laws pass property on to sons, and sons are responsible for taking care of aged parents. Because of this many couples will abandon baby girls. A heartbreakingly cruel choice, yes, and an event that happens all too often - hundreds of thousands of baby girls are abandoned every year in China.

The babies are abandoned in public places (such as busy streets, railway stations, and in front of public buildings) so they will be found quickly. The babies are abandoned as infants - usually when they are only a few days old. In addition to little girls, handicapped babies and sick babies (both boys and girls) are also abandoned because most parents in China don't have the money to provide for their special needs. Once found, the abandoned babies are given a medical exam and then taken to orphanages. While the numbers of such adopted orphans has been growing, it still represents only a small percentage of the number of children abandoned annually.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The last sentence above may not be exactly accurate any longer - no one is sure how many babies are now being abandoned and what the percentage is that are actually adopted. There has been a HUGE slow-down in the number of Referrals (babies matched to parents) from China in the past year and a half -- of course, RIGHT after my paperwork was filed in China, was when China announced they would be "slowing down" the process... At the time I applied in Aug. of 2005, it was taking about 6-7 months from your "Log-in Date" (LID) - which is when your paperwork is filed - to getting your Referral from China (being matched to a baby). In Nov. of 2005, China said it would slow down to approximately an 8-12 month wait. Well, I have now been waiting 20 months - and still waiting! What we in the U.S. do NOT know is the true reasons for this major slow-down... but believe there are multiple factors at work. Some of them include:
- China says they received a huge increase in the number of applications (dossiers) in 2005
- China says they do not have as many "paper ready" babies because not as many are being abandoned
- Babies are not being abandoned because the economy is better and more families are able to afford to keep their child; in some provinces, the One Child Policy has been relaxed and some families are allowed to have a second child if the first is a girl; abortions have increased - they are legal and inexpensive; and ultrasounds have now become more widely available, even in rural areas, and some women may choose abortion if they find out they are having a girl.
- Some people also believe that China has a "quota system" in place and that they only allow so many babies to be adopted by foreigners each month/year (though no one knows for certain if this is true and/or what the current "quota" is
- Some also believe there are "political" reasons, like the 2008 Olympics in Beijing --and not wanting tourists and visitors to see so many Americans (and other foreigners) in China adopting Chinese babies -- that would not "look good."

No one knows for sure. The U.S. adoption agencies are between a rock and a hard place, too, as they have to keep their good relations with the Chinese government - which shares VERY little information - and then they have the parents, who are their clients, desperate for information, especially as this very lengthy wait continues to increase. So the waiting parents don't get much information from their adoption agencies, as they claim they do not have it (from China).