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Originally Posted By MS

My husband and I are in the process of adopting an infant from China.

With the recent , horrible events that we have experienced as a country, we have great anxiety about having to travel to China-although this will not be happening for some time now, we are still anxious about it, more so now.
I wanted to know if anyone knows why China requires travel to their country and Korea does not?

Although we know that the final outcome will be one of great joy and excitement-we are extremely concerned about having to travel there.

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Originally Posted By Debby

I may be incorrect on this. I know that the adoption for China is Finalized (performed) in China. That is why you have to travel. I believe the Korean adoptions are finalized in the US, so they are not required to travel.

Personally, I prefer to go to China so I can tell my daughter things that I know of & have experienced in her homeland.

Debby

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Originally Posted By MS

Debby-

Thanks for the info-you are probably right... I think that the adoptions are finalized in China.
We are looking forward to being able to tell our child about their homeland and have gotten all kinds of books that talk about China,etc... we are just anxious now with the aftermaths of Sept 11th.

Thanks for the info!

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Originally Posted By Joan Schenberg

In current times, I can understand why you are anxious about travel. Before we adopted our daughter over 5 years ago, I also wished we did not have to travel. The travel is priceless in more ways than one.

First, it creates a memory surrounding the adoption, you have been to where your child started off. When your child is older, having travelled to where she is from means you can tell her some things about her birthplace, what you saw, what the people were like, etc.

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Originally Posted By Sharon

I agree with the poster who pointed out that the Chinese adoptions must be finalized there, while Korean adoptions are finalized in the U.S. In fact, relatively few countries permit escort; finalization overseas is the norm. The foreign countries generally feel that it is good practice for them to see the families who will be raising the children who are adopted.

I also agree with the poster that the travel is, for many families, a highlight of the adoption process. The travel allows you to see your child's home city and homeland and form memories that will be extremely important as you raise her to feel good about her heritage. I loved my trip to China and speak of it often as one of the highlights of my life -- and my adoption album is full of pictures of my daughter at various places in her hometown and Guangzhou.

One thing you should know is that, despite the fact that the Chinese government and the American government don't always see eye to eye on everything, the Chinese people tend to be surprisingly pro-America. Don't be surprised if people run up to you to practice their English and help you. Don't be surprised if your child is repeatedly called "lucky baby" because she is going to America.

I had some really beautiful encounters with the Chinese people. For example, my group was at the Zoo in Guangzhou one morning, with our new children. In May, southern China tends to get sudden, brief rainstorms and that day was no exception; one minute it was sunny, and then all of a sudden it commenced to pour. As I was holding my daughter in my arms and looking about for shelter, an elderly woman came up to me, and insisted on holding her umbrella over us. She actually RAN with us to the shelter of a food concession, then disappeared into the crowd before I could do more than smile at her.