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My name is Eric. My wife, Jackie, and I live not far from Atlanta, GA. We're in the process of adopting a little girl from China, and this is my record of that process.
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Hi there! I really haven’t ever “blogged” before but found your site while researching why the wait times for adoption from China can vary so much. I think it’s really great that both you and your wife are keeping records of your feelings during this process. After reading through your posts I don’t see many, but some reference to God’s part in this. Brother I’m in the same boat regarding fertility problems (secondary infertility, we have a 9 year-old). This “heart for adoption” is not for everybody. God has blessed you both with this beautiful desire to expand your family and raise for him a baby girl who needs a mom and dad. God bless you both and good luck!
Comment by Elizabeth Bradley May 8, 2006 @ 6:37 pmElizabeth,
Thanks for the comment. You’re the first! And you’re right, I need to get going on the posts.
We do feel that God’s led us to this, that this is how our family is meant to be put together.
You don’t mention it specifically, but I assume that you’re adopting also? If so, good luck with it, and may God bless you too.
Eric
Comment by Eric May 9, 2006 @ 2:37 pmI really respect you and Jackie’s decision to adopt a Chinese girl. This is a very interesting situation for a couple to be in and I have a few thoughts about it:
I assume the pool of Chinese children up for international adoptions mostly consists of poor Chinese families who willingly give their child up so that the child will grow up with more opportunities. Could you address this concern in a future post?
Also, I am interested in whether or not the girl’s parents will still be in contact with her or ever have the chance of reuniting if only for emotional fulfillment.
As a student of the Chinese language, I am curious if you and Jackie speak Chinese or plan to have the girl learn Chinese. If not, I would strongly consider options to do so.
Comment by peter August 18, 2006 @ 4:04 amPeter,
Thanks for stopping by.
If you look at some of my postings about the book Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son, some of them indirectly address why so many Chinese girls are available for adoption.
It does seem to be poorer and rural families, but they seem to decide on this course because of government pressure to maintain a small family size.
Anyway, as you pointed out, that would be better talking about in another posting. And don’t I need some of those?
So far it is unlikely that she will ever have contact with her birth family. China requires the parents to abandon the child before it can be adopted, but abandoning children is illegal there. So birth parents can’t really say, “I want to continue a relationship with my child.”
That said, I would imagine that DNA and other technologies will soon advance to the point that she will able to reunite with her birth parents, and I think that would be great.
No, unfortunately Jackie and I barely speak English. We are shopping around right now for Mandarin classes, and I plan to continue trying to learn the language myself. And of course, we’ll make sure our daughter learns her birth language also.
Hmm. I better get back on schedule for posting….
Eric
Comment by Eric August 18, 2006 @ 12:53 pmAn excellent resource to learn chinese is available as free mp3 downloads at http://www.chinesepod.com
Best of luck and I’m interested to hear how this progresses.
Take care.
Comment by pablo August 18, 2006 @ 2:49 pm