Changes

Today we are celebrating Emily’s third Family Day. And, while I am so excited to celebrate this special day with her (the first one that she actually understands the meaning of her Family Day), I feel a bit melancholy and unsettled. I just learned about several changes to China’s international adoption program.

There was a meeting in China last week with officials from the CCAA and international adoption agencies. At this meeting, the CCAA outlined new requirements for foreign adoptive families that will be implemented in 2007. Agencies have started to share this new information, but caution that nothing is firm until the requirements are issued by the CCAA in writing. My guess is that if they are sharing this information and that they received the okay from the CCAA to do so, the new requirements are pretty firm.

The message is that the changes are being driven by an increase in the number of dossiers submitted to the CCAA over the past three years and a decrease in the number of children available for international adoption. In accordance with the Hague Treaty, there is an increased focus on domestic adoption.

In the short term, it looks like it will continue to impact the length of time from DTC to referral. In the long term, fewer families will qualify to adopt a child from China. There are so many thoughts whirling around in my head related to this that I’m not sure how to put them all down in a cohesive manner.

Broken Hearts

There are many dreams that have been shattered with this news. How many families are there who are waiting for their first child with plans and dreams to adopt a Chinese sibling, but for whom this is no longer an option because of the new requirements? How many have just made the decision to adopt from China, but may now need to change their plans and modify their dreams? A dream is not easily modified.

And, I can’t forget the families who hopefully sent their dossier months ago with the belief that they would be celebrating this Christmas with their child only to watch the referral wait grow longer and longer. Their dreams have been badly cracked and I can only imagine their sadness. I read about their grief, frustration, anger and despair on their blogs and can’t find the words to express my sorrow. I want to offer encouragement, but they’re probably tired of hearing it and I don’t blame them one bit.

What About the Children

I completely agree that the priority should be to place children living in orphanages with a family in their birth country. My biggest worry is that there will be far fewer children being placed – internationally and within China – as these changes take place. Are there an equal number of parents in China seeking to adopt as there are foreign families who will now be excluded? Are there fewer children being taken into orphanages throughout China? How many children will be left to grow up in orphanages? We will very likely never know the answers.

There are those who believe that children should never be removed from their birth country. However, I can’t help but wonder what kind of life my daughters would have lived if they had not been adopted. I remember seeing the young woman who was the floor attendant in our hotel in Changsha in 2003. I wondered to myself if our new daughter would have grown up to live a similar life; living in a small room that was more like a closet in a hotel attending to the needs of the guests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If not adopted, I wonder if anyone would have noticed our youngest daughter’s vision impairment and taken the steps necessary to save her vision. What kind of life would a blind girl without a family live?

Do I believe that my family is better than a family in China who could have raised them to be wonderful young women? No. But, until recently there was not an affordable and structured process for domestic adoption in China. The international adoption program established by China met our needs – giving a childless couple, a family and a child without a family, a family. And, as cold as it sounds, it met the needs of the Chinese government.

Now the government finds itself in a new situation and in characteristic Chinese fashion they are taking action. Is it the “right” action? Maybe. Maybe not. Will the families affected by these changes in the China international adoption requirements and the children living in orphanages realize a happy ending…or more accurately, a happy beginning? I pray that the answer is yes. My most fervent prayer is that the thousands of children who are in orphanages will not live out their childhood years in that orphanage.