Has anyone adopted a child from China?

[CosmicRay]

DH and I are just now beginning to look into the adoption process. We would love to add to our family a precious child from China. We have so many questions and wondered how long the whole process took for people. What your experience was like and if you had any suggestions of an adoption agency. We've already found several, but don't know how to choose. I'm sure with agency info you'd need to PM me. I look forward to hearing any advice and info.

[2Epcot]

My wife and I don't have any kids, but we've had a discussion on adopting a child from China. My wife was born in China, and I enjoyed my time in the country. I've often thought it would be nice to raise a Chinese child. I don't know anything really about the process other then my wife telling me it is very expensive. I recently saw a story on the news that China is making the requirements for the parents stricter then they used to be in the past. In the story it said some parents are going to other countries to adopt where the process is easier. Maybe someone will know more, or have gone through it ... Good luck!

[MouseNut1]

We are in process. The paper work takes about 6 months to get together and get it to China. Once your paper work is logged into China your looking, at, right now, 20-24 months before your matched. Chinese naturals have a quicker turn around time. However I think both parents have to be of Chinese origin. The rumor is that due to so many applicants the time my be increased to 30 months. Our log in date was April 4th 2007 so we are counting the days. The adoption agency we went through was Chinese Children International Adoption agency. There website is www.chinesechildren.org. Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

MouseNut1

[Becky'sMom]

Becky is from China...she is 4 years old and will be going to Disney for the 3rd time next week!
We were lucky, even though our paperwork was in process during the whole SARS scare, we had Becky in our arms 16 months after filling out our first application. We brought her home in Dec of 2003 when she was 9 months old.
I've heard the wait time is 24 months or more now...and that's AFTER your paperwok is logged in in China. There are also new restrictions....age limits, weight limits, no more single parent adoption, etc. But if you meet all the requirements and can bear to wait it out, I highly reccommend it...Becky is the light of our lives...can't imagine life without her.
Our agency is called New Life...but it's a small agency, difficult to deal with if you live outside of the New York area...though if they are convenient geographically, I would reccommend them. Others I've heard good things about are Gladney's, CCAI and Harrah's.
Good Luck!

[kakn7294]

I can't offer much in advice, but I can tell you a little about the experiences of 3 people who adopted outside of the US. My neighbor and a doctor at work have both adopted 2 daughters each from China. The first 2 adoptions took about 1 1/2 years each, the neighbor's second adoption took a little over a year (paperwork only had to be updated 3 years ago) but the doctor's second adoption took nearly 2 years due to stricter regulations the second time around - this was less than 2 years ago. I do not know what agencies they used. My cousin adopted from Russia but that was 8 years ago. The process was about 1 to 1 1/2 years long and they adopted a boy although the sex of the baby wasn't why they went with Russia - they chose Russia because the process was supposed to be shorter than China's even at that time. Good luck to you whatever you choose - may God bless you with a child to love!

[DisneyDog]

My 8 year old neice is from China. She has been a part of our family since she was 4 months old. BIL and SIL were promised an older child. However, when they arrived in China and met her, it was obvious that something was wrong. The child was profoundly deaf and dehydrated and had other problems as well. The adoption agency was trying to hide these problems so that the little girl could go to a good home (can't blame them for that, really). Due to the dehydration issue, the child would not have survived the flight back to America. Therefore, they scrambled and found a young baby for them (my neice). It was quite a harrowing experience for them, being over in a foreign country, not speaking a word of the language, having to deal with government issues, etcc... Luckily, our neice is happy and healthy and all worked out fine in the end. She's a wonderful girl. She and my DS4 are both only children, and they act like brother and sister together.

[MindyMouse]

We started the adoption process back in March of last year. Our intention was to initially adopt from China. The wait was super long last year, anywhere from 18 to 24 months. We weren't so sure we wanted to wait that long. We started to then pursue an adoption from Liberia. The wait was much, much shorter at only 6 to 8 months.

It's certainly an exciting experience. I wish you the best of luck with your decision!