Monday, September 22, 2014

The future of the China program (?)

I wish to draw your attention to the following blog post:
The fact is, and this [conversation with the Director of the CCCWA] is paraphrased but stayed pretty true as we even recorded part of it, “China wants to keeps its girls. We need our girls. We have let too many of them go. Our children in general. We are still for now adopting children out. But these will only be the girls, well, the children, who have great medical needs. America is very good about this. You have many doctors and many people to help these children. Your families will love these children. Some agencies work very hard to place these children and we are glad to have them find homes..."
As the author goes on to state, this promises to be very hard on the people who are waiting - hoping - to adopt from China.  Their wait may be even longer than they expect, and the child(ren) that they are eventually matched with may have even more significant medical problems than they foresee... or can handle.

But I think that we may all at bottom be pretty happy about this for the sake of the children and birth families.  Adoption from China has been possible because of some pretty severe problems in that long-suffering country, and it seems that the Chinese are starting to get them under control.  Hopefully, there will soon be no more scenes like these in China, though that may well mean that American families (including ours) will suffer great disappointment.

This is disappointment that I think I can live with.

2 comments:

  1. I think it's good news, if families are given the opportunity to stay together instead of having to give up children. I hope that families will be able to have more than one child, that medical needs will be met in country instead of parents being forced to give up their children so that they will be adopted and receive help in another country. I hope that families will take a look at the special needs program because many, many of the needs are doable. I like the No Hands but Ours blog (http://www.nohandsbutours.com) because it helps give a realistic portrayal of various special needs so that families can determine what is possible for them to handle.

    When my husband and I started our adoption process, we were only open to a few special needs. The girl we're trying to adopt is healthy, just older. But as time went on, as we waited and waited and waited (ahem, we can stop waiting any time now :) ), we started doing research and familiarizing ourselves with various special needs. Surprisingly (or not) our "acceptable" list is more than twice as long now as it was back at the beginning. When we adopt next time, the paragraph with acceptable special needs will be much longer. I hope that families will be willing to educate themselves on special needs adoptions so that children are not left in orphanages without families.

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    1. "[W]e started doing research and familiarizing ourselves with various special needs. Surprisingly (or not) our "acceptable" list is more than twice as long now as it was back at the beginning."

      It is much the same with us. Mark you, it was very hard - VERY hard - to see our little girl come out of surgery, and it will be hard in the future when she has others (unfortunately, her special need can't be fixed with only one). However, having seen at first hand what American medicine can do and having gotten to know something about the experiences of other families, we are comfortable with more than we were when we started.

      I am given to understand that China is increasingly able to provide the same sort of care that we take for granted here in the United States. I'm glad to know it. Like you, I would rather see children stay with their birth families and not have to be given up simply because the parent(s) can't get them treatment that, in many cases, would be fairly simple to fix in a modern hospital.

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