Why China??

A lot of people wonder "Why China?" The reason is that instituted a one-child policy back in the 80's. This means that a family could have only one child. also does not have social security so it is the responsibility of son's to take care of his parents. When a female grows up and marries, there is no one left to take care of her parents. Because of this, many little girls have been left in an effort to try and conceive a boy. While leaving a child is illegal in , families will go to great lengths to ensure that their little baby girls are left in public places (market place, train stations, hospitals, police stations, etc.) and usually they will travel many miles to do so, so that Chinese authorities cannot trace the baby back to them. There are some exceptions to this rule. In rural areas, parents may have 2 to 3 children as long as one is a female and they can afford to pay the fine associated with going over the child limit. This fine can be upwards of a years pay for a farming family. The other thing that must be noted is that each child born to a family must be registered in order to receive medical care and the right to get an education. Many families cannot afford to pay the fee so they will leave their female child. Some children born with medical issues are also left as the family cannot afford to pay to obtain medical treatment. I am sure many mothers agonize over the decision to leave her precious little girl, but are many times forced into that decision by her husband and her in-law's. There are many orphanages in China, however, not all orphanages are approved to adopt internationally. China has established a central agency known as CCAA ( China Center for Adoption Affairs) in Beijing . All agencies who are approved to adopt through China will send a person's dossier (All the required documents, birth certificate, marriage licenses, letter requesting to adopt, physicals, police clearance, background checks, financial statement, & home study and official US government paperwork) to CCAA. Our agency will send dossier as soon as they have anywhere from 5-10 depending where people are in their paper chasing stage. Sometime they will wait and other times they will not. Our dossier was sent to on February 13, 2006 (what a wonderful Valentine to send to ) along with 9 other families. Once the dossier arrives at CCAA it is placed in stacks by the month and day they came in. Then the long process begins. When orphanages have paper ready babies, they send those records to CCAA, CCAA then reviews dossier and begin to match babies with prospective families. Once a match has been made, then the referral is sent to the agency. The agency then notifies the family. Our agency requires us to read or hear-- depending on if you come to their office or are called by your caseworker--the medical records of the child, once you agree that you will accept the referral then they allow you to see the picture of your baby. The reason behind this is to allow families to know the child's medical history (what little there is) before you see the picture, they do not want you to fall in love with a picture and then hear something in the medical report that maybe you were not prepared to deal with.