[Godsdghtr2006]

My DH and I are in the process of adoption and working towards China, but I have been reading alot about the slowdowns w/ the CCAA and the wait times. Do you think the slow down means that in the future there will be less and less baby girls available to adopt in China?
I was just wondering and would appreciate any feedback you have on this topic.
I have even seriously considered possibly switching countries to avoid a long wait(but don't know haven't really looked into it) but other countries may have a long wait as well. Also I want as young of a child as possible since I am first time mother.
Don't know what the right thing to do is right now.

Any help, comments, suggestions?

[cungar]

There are still tens of thousands of girls in orphanages in China. The slowdown is because there are not as many ready to be adopted as there are people applying every month. This is explained here:

http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp

[Chinagirl2007]

Hi, you are smart to ask these questions now. I actually do think that there are probably going to be fewer babies available for adoption from China in the future, that is just my sense. I do not know if there are fewer babies being abandoned, or if there are just fewer babies being put up for INTERNATIONAL adoption. But the drastic increase in wait times, and the not-too-optimistic forecasts coming out of some agencies lead me to believe that wait times will not go back to 6 months again any time soon.

My husband and i are committed to China as we have already put 8 months into it ( 6 months of paperwork and 2 months since DTC) but my concern now is that we had hoped/planned to adopt another baby from China 2 years after our first and I really have no idea of where the China program will be in 3 years. That is something to keep in mind if you plan for a sibling and you want her to be from the same country...

It'll be easy enough for you to find out specifics about Gautemala/ Korea/Russia on this board and on those specific boards. By my understanding is that, with the exception of Russia, which i believe has a similar or longer wait timeline to China, Guatemala and Korea have shorter wait times now. And the babies there are usually younger than in China, i.e. closer to 6 months with Guatemala and Korea. With China, the babies are usually in the 8-14 month range.

As you have probably already discovered, China is the least expensive of most of the IA programs, so that is something to keep in mind too.

Good luck with your decision, its a tough one!

[DaniWestRN]

If you are interested in other programs don't forget Ethiopia. It is as cheap as China if that is an issue, the children are as young as 9 weeks on home coming, and while the average timeframe is increaseing it is still around 9 months start of paperwork to baby home.
We had a very positive experience with Ethiopia for DD#1 and sometimes I'm so torn about adopting form China for #2. However, I really feel my daughter is in China so we will wait.

[kenzseth]

This is interesting to me because when we started the process we were trying to decide between Guatemala and China. At the time, the wait was pretty similar and now things have changed. That being said, China remains one of the more predictable programs. When you are LID you know it and you should get referral with everyone else who is LID at the same time. I know that some other countries vary drastically case by case. I guess the bottom line for us is that China is where we felt drawn to. It wasn't easy to get to that bottom line though.

[Momof2boysinOH]

Originally Posted by Chinagirl2007

Guatemala and Korea have shorter wait times now. And the babies there are usually younger than in China, i.e. closer to 6 months with Guatemala and Korea.

I have a friend who is adopting from Korea and was told the wait for referral has actually increased. Her agency works with Eastern Social Welfare Society in Korea. I believe those U.S. agencies working with Korea Social Services (KSS) are the ones with no wait because there are more children than adoptive parents available. Unlike other international adoption programs, Korea requires adoptive parents use only agencies authorized in their state of residence. So if you happen to live in a state that has an agency working with Eastern, the current wait for referral is 10-15 months. Families then wait another 3-6 months for travel. I read somewhere that Korea is planning to completely phase out international adoption. They are working hard on promoting domestic adoption and also starting up social programs to encourage birthmothers to keep their babies.

[Chinagirl2007]

Originally Posted by Momof2boysinOH

I read somewhere that Korea is planning to completely phase out international adoption. They are working hard on promoting domestic adoption and also starting up social programs to encourage birthmothers to keep their babies.

I have read the same thing about China, so they do sound very similar. China also wants to slowly faze out international adoption in favor of domestic adoption.

In my state, Korean wait times are about 5 months, so, yes, you would have to check your individual state, it could be more in some states, less in others...

[SofiasMom]

I don't know the reason for the longer wait period. It would be wonderful if the reason was that there were less babies being abandoned or that domestic adoption was finally taking off. But I really don't think that is the case. China has 3 billion people and only about 200 orphanages send paperwork to CCAA for international adoption. Although China is catching up economically at a very fast rate, there is still a large rural population which is not benefiting; and hundreds of orphanages are not financially able or willing to send dossiers to Beijing.

[cungar]

China's population is 1.3 billion.

[sak9645]

At present, and for the foreseeable future, there is going to be a need for international adoption of Chinese children.

While the Chinese government is seeking to encourage domestic adoption, the cultural change required for people accustomed to thinking of the "blood tie" as important will be enormous, and won't happen over the short term.

China is becoming more strict in its requirements for foreign adoptive parents, but not because of any lessening of the number of children available for adoption. China simply realizes that its program is very popular, and that young, healthy, married couples are willing to adopt Chinese children.

Therefore, it feels that it can choose the very best situations for its children in need of homes, and it defines the "best" as being situations that replicate the typical biological family in China.

China is claiming a slowdown in the volume of children whose dossiers have been given to the CCAA, at this time. However, the reduction in volume is NOT related to an unavailability of children.

Not all orphanages in China are eligible to participate in international adoption. An orphanage must be in a province willing to place children internationally, and must meet strict CCAA standards regarding such things as accurate and detailed record-keeping on each child, and the overall quality of care.

In the recent past, there has actually been an INCREASE in the number of orphanages certified to participate in international adoption. As an example, far more children are now coming from orphanages in northern China. In the early days of China adoption, almost all the children were from a few southern provinces.

However, particularly with the recent scandal in Hunan province, the CCAA is making very darn sure that orphanages comply with requirements concerning how babies are obtained, how the mandatory birthmother searches are being done, and so on. In addition, it is trying to upgrade the quality of medical and other information available to prospective parents, so that they can make an informed decision about their ability to parent a particular child.

Some of the requirements are not that easy for an orphanage to meet. In addition, some orphanages continue to be reluctant to send paperwork to the CCAA on children who are over age two or who have minor medical problems, believing that foreigners won't adopt them.

However, my belief is that most of the lengthening of wait times does NOT relate to a lessening of the numbers of available children. It actually relates to the INCREASING number of foreign couples and singles submitting dossiers.

The CCAA has always had a relatively small staff. This is due, in part, to the fact that the CCAA leadership wants to make sure that personal attention is given to each match, and that the staff are supervised closely so that they do not become unduly "cozy" with foreign agencies -- thus, perhaps, giving one preference.

It also knows, I suspect, that the Chinese government is not going to be eager to see a budget request for more staffing of a function that is something of an embarrassment. After all, most countries do not like to admit that they cannot take care of their own vulnerable populations, such as orphans.

As a result, even a modest increase in the number of dossiers submitted in any given month can cause major delays, because the same small staff will have to deal with the increased volume.

Think about it. China processes groups of child dossiers and groups of parent dossiers in the order in which they are received. If there are 100 dossier groups processed before your dossier group gets logged in, all of the families in those hundred groups must be matched with children before your group gets matched.

If the volume of dossiers submitted in any given month increases, either because more agencies submit dossiers or because the number of dossiers in each group increases, it will take a longer time until all the dossiers coming AFTER them are matched.

China placed about 7,900 children with Americans in 2005 -- about 900 more than in 2004. This is about a 12 percent increase. While this may not seem huge, it really is when you think of it in terms of a person with an already busy job being asked to increase his/her workload.

And, of course, the CCAA also gets applications from families in other countries. While I don't have statistics on these other countries, my guess is that all of them combined probably account for another 7,000+ adoptions from China.

So it is reasonable that it may take longer for an individual to go through a stack and get to your dossier. It is also reasonable that, instead of an eight month wait from Log-In Date to referral, there is a ten month wait.

I would urge you not to turn away from China because of a couple of extra months of waiting. If you feel a particular tie to China, like its organized program, etc., by all means, stick with it.

It is normal for all of us to become impatient when waiting for a referral. It is normal for all of us to look at every headline and try to analyze what it means for adoption.

But the fact is that China still has one of the more stable adoption programs around. It has also been surprisingly unaffected by world events, even things like the accidental U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the shooting down of an American spy plane, etc. Applications continued to be processed during the SARS scare, and travel was delayed only briefly. The same will probably be true in this time of avian flu concerns.

The bottom line is that you WILL be a parent, if you qualify. And you WILL be a parent far more quickly than you would if you tried to adopt from certain countries, where the wait can be two years. Moreover, your dossier is unlikely to be "held hostage" to whims of a particular Chinese official, or to events you read about in the paper.

Sharon

[mdaisyq]

Sharon's post is excellent, and I just want to mention that there is now an initiative in China called something like"Girls Matter Too" that is intended to help families keep their female children when they feel pressured to give them up in favor of a male child. I don't know how successful this program is, but it could have an impact on how many baby girls are abandoned.

Orphanages that have never been open to international adoption are starting to place special needs children as a first foray into the process. Our son from Feng Kai, Guangdong Province is the first child to be placed for international adoption (that we know of). Hopefully, he will be the first of many children from there to to be placed for international adoption in the future.

[hirsh mom]

I would also encourage those waiting or thinking of going with China to check out some of the waiting kids. There are alot of kids waiting who have minor, correctable needs. In fact, if we do decide to adopt again, we plan to go this route. Just a thought!

[morsedonna]

Well said Sharon, thanks for all of the information.

[Godsdghtr2006]

Thank you all for your great input and advice. I especially like your post Sharon, that is what I wanted to hear. Alot of you said you felt "led" to the China program and that is the truth. I was just getting a little nervous because of some of the things I was reading on this forum, but Sharon you helped me with that, thanks. I think I am going to stick w/ the China program, because I too feel "led", I had considered Guatemala, our decision was between the two, but after going over and over it, we decided on China. So that is where we will stay. I will keep you all posted.
Thanks again!!

[MissyAmomChina]

Hi,

I think there's been a lot of good information on here. My mind has processed the slow down like this:

China's adoption program is a very predictable, methodical system. It is used to processing x number of adoptions in a window of time. Due a variety of factors (some being other countries programs having difficulty) more people are adopting from China. i.e. More people have gotten in line-and the line has gotten longer........

My heart is with all the families waiting esp. to those who thought it was going to be a 6-9 mos timeframe. I'm in no way trying to diminish the difficulty of the wait.
I can remember all too well how emotionally difficult it is.


Take care,