It's been a year since we started the process, but well worth the wait. We are pleased to announce we have been matched with, and approved as parents for, a 5 year old little girl. Her name is Kaia and she is currently in an orphanage in Shanghai, China. We are currently waiting on the final immigration approval document from the Department of Homeland Security and permission from China to travel. Our goal is to have these by August so that we can make the 2 1/2 week trip in the Fall to pick her up.For those of you curious about the process, here is a link to a website that nicely lays out the process from beginning to end.
http://www.china-adoption-online.com/adopting-a-child.html
If you are in Nevada and would like information on a local agency, we used Premier Adoption for our Home Study: http://www.premieradoption.org/
We used Wide Horizons for Children as our placement agency:
http://www.whfc.org/
Many of you probably are wondering how this all came about and why we chose China. We have attempted to answer these questions as well as some others below:
Q: When did you first start thinking about adoption?
A: Jim started considering this after the Haiti earthquakes and seeing all the children without families. Kristin quickly jumped on board with the idea.
Q: Why aren't you adopting an American child?
A: Okay, we know this is a sensitive subject for many, but we will try and clarify. Most agencies and adoptions in the U.S. are for infants. Due to our age, this was not really something we wanted to pursue. We next researched adoption through the foster care system. We looked at this closely, and found out that the overwhelming majority of the kids in foster care are NOT available for adoption. After careful consideration, we decided it just wasn't going to work for us.
Q: Why China?
A: After reviewing several countries, their requirements, their reputation for the care of their orphans, and the children available, we selected the China Special Needs program. Special Needs, in this case. refers to children who will be difficult to place due to medical conditions like heart disease, spina bifida, cleft lip/palate, missing limbs, developmental delays, etc. These are just some examples. There are thousands of special needs children in orphanages in China.
Q: Why are you adopting a special needs child when you could get a "healthy" one?
A: Why not?
Q: How did Kaia end up in an Orphanage?
A: She was found at the age of 3.5 in a train station. Her name, date of birth, and origins are unknown. Unfortunately this is all too common in China given the current laws on childbearing. We are not here to state whether we agree or disagree with the laws or the resulting actions of desperate parents, so please, no hate mail. To protect her privacy, we will remove this section of the post before she comes home.
Q: What is Kaia's special need?
A: We would be happy to discuss this offline, but for her privacy will not be publishing this here. But seriously, please feel free to ask, it is not a big deal and we are fine sharing this with friends.
Q: Are there only girls available in China?
A: No, there are many boys available for adoption in China.
Q: Will she speak any English?
A: Nope. Should be interesting. =) We will be trying to learn some basic Mandarin, but hopefully she will pick up English quickly so we don't embarrass ourselves too badly.
