Adopting Children in China!

CHINA-CHILD SOURCING FAMILIARISATION

I have never personally sourced a child in China and have absolutely no authority to post this but if you are thinking about or about to go through the process of adopting a child from China and you're thinking that it seems like a too-mammoth and too-scary enterprise, here's something to help you orientate yourself to what you'll be going through:

First off, you will be going to Shamian Dao to do so since this is the only point from which foreigners can adopt.

Samian Dao

This is a small island in the Pearl River in the Mainland Chinese city of Guangzhou and I must tell you that this island is absolutely sublime. If you want to know what you'll be seeing and doing, read the posting in my blog archives by pressing this link:

Shamian Dao

And if that doesn't work, try cut-and-paste of this:

http://travels-with-denise.blogspot.com/2008/04/shamiam-dao-china.html

I think, once you've seen and read all this, you'll realise it's not even marginally a hardship to go stay a while in Shamian Dao. In fact, you'll be considering yourself very blessed indeed.

While there, you will be staying at The White Swan Hotel and it's just lovely so there's no hardship there either.

White Swan Hotel

It takes a while to get your child - and it's getting tougher and longer all the time - so you will get to know this hotel well. And here's a photo of a little triangle of the world you'll also get to know very, very well:

White Swan Hotel as seen from gates of

the China Child Adoption Agency

Right across the road so it couldn't be more convenient. The American Embassy is right next door and most of the other Embassies are in the vicinity too, so they couldn't make it easier for you if they'd tried.

However, they make sure the process of familiarisation with your chosen child is a slow, careful one as well, so here's something else you'll get to know very well too. Friendship Avenue. Late every afternoon, after the heat of the day is well gone, you get to take your new Chinese child out for a stroll. Most people take them for walks along Friendship Avenue:

Friendship Avenue

And/or stop-off at the local Starbucks for a drink and a bite to eat.

Starbucks outdoor area

And, absolutely by sheer co-incidence, there are several Chinese woman - I've wondered if they are sisters because they all look so alike - who run little stores across the road from the Adoption Triangle above, who speak very good English. They are not connected in any way with this process, except for location and the fact that so many of the to-be-adopted children have melt-downs right outside these ladies shops.

I must say the Adoption Agency doesn't appear to do much to orient these kids about what's happening to them, because they all initially look bemused, upset, puzzled or downright terrified, and the new foreign parents-to-be don't yet share a language with the child so can't discover what the problem is, so it's all fraught and horrible until these genuinely sweet and generous ladies get involved and calm the child down.

I have noticed that a lot of foreign adopters then use them to translate when on their subsequent getting-to-know-each-other walks whenever they want to tell their new child something. It isn't a service these ladies are paid to provide, and they only do it out of the goodness of their hearts. I hope you notice and appreciate that these ladies are just lovely and they are obviously very familiar with the entire process, are totally on your side, and will do their darnedest to get it right for you and your new child:

"Will you tell her
I'm her new mommy?"

"Will you tell him his
name is now Michael!"

Gosh, I wouldn't have these fine ladies patience; always so sweet and willing to help out. Nice, nice people!

And that's all I know of the procedure of child adopting in China. Obviously, there is vastly more to it than this, but I've been to Shamian Dao several times now and, from what I've witnessed, this is just a taste of what to expect, and, really, it isn't a hardship in the slightest.

Good luck in your journey!