More than 20,000 Chinese Ready to Adopt Quake Orphans

This little baby, resting peacefully in the arms of a rescue worker, is one of the estimated 5498 children that have been orphaned by China's brutal May 12 earthquake. 

According to Internet stories, one mother who died while holding her baby left him a text message in her phone, "Dear baby, if I die, you must remember that I love you!" 

While the youngest orphans probably won't have more than a simple text message or their current clothes to remind them of their birth parents, there are more than 20,000 prospective parents throughout China who are eager to invite these children into their homes. 

Despite the high demand to adopt, on Sunday China's Ministry of Civil Affairs told citizens to be patient with the adoption process.  Officials want to ensure that children are, in fact, true orphans before placing them with another family.  They say that family reunions are happening every day.

For those who want to adopt new orphans, the Shanghaiist blog and China Daily have provided some of the hotlines to call, as well as adoption laws and regulations.  One volunteer in Chengdu said that phones have been ringing consistently, as thousands of people have made adoption inquiries.  

Joshua Zhong, Co-Founder and President of the Chinese Children Adoption International, the largest Chinese adoption agency in the U.S., says that his agency has experienced a spike in adoption requests following the earthquake. 

"On a regular day we get about 10 packages," he says.  "Now we get about 40 to 50, so a lot of people are interested."  Despite the growing interests in Chinese adoptions in the U.S., however, most potential adoptive parents of children orphaned by the earthquake will be in China.  

Last May, regulations with Chinese-overseas adoptions have made it significantly more difficult for international couples to adopt from China.  U.S.-China adoptions have decreased from a peak of 7,906 in 2005 to 5,453 last year. 

Over the past year, adoption agencies have seen about a 50% decrease in applications for adoption from China.  Part of this drop is due to fewer eligible parents, including those who are under 30, over 50, obese, or single.  The long wait time to adopt a Chinese orphan is another problem. 

Mike Stone with America World Adoption says that after last May's regulations, the wait time for those who want to adopt from China has risen from a little over a year to three years.  As a result, their Ethiopian adoption program, which generally takes only 12 to 14 months, has become especially popular.     

Although some families might not be able to adopt from China, Zhong doesn't expect the long wait time for Chinese adoptions to continue indefinitely. He says the Chinese government had between 20 and 25,000 adoption applications sent before the new regulations in April, 2007, and it simply couldn't keep up with the outside demand. 

Only about 8,000 international Chinese adoptions are completed each year, so there was an extreme backlog.  Chinese Children Adoption International generally facilitates between 800 to 1,000 adoptions each year, but this year there will be 600 at the most. 

Zhong says, "it would be wrong to assume that the new qualifications take the chance away from people.  That's not the case."  Instead, the lower number of overseas adoptions from China might be a more accurate reflection of higher living standards and greater openness about adoption throughout China.

Adopting children or admitting infertility no longer has the same stigma it used to in China, which is a positive step for adoptive families.

Zhong's mother was adopted by a family in China when she was six, but "she would not talk about adoption."  Today, according to Zhong, "people will become more Americanized.  Publicly telling people they want to adopt is absolutely a new phenomenon."

While Chinese families are ready to adopt, Zhong says there is still a need for Americans to adopt from China.  "I want to see our children go to the Chinese families, but the truth is lots and lots of children have no way to be adopted, because they have special needs.  Sixty to seventy percent of children in orphanages are special needs." 

He has encouraged people to adopt these children, or some of the half a million children sitting in orphanages.  Zhong's daughter Anna, who has a congenital heart disease, was one of those orphans.

Though regulations and paperwork might seem to slow the adoptive process down, it's refreshing to know that authorities will do all that they can to place children in the best possible homes.  More importantly, this vast outpouring of love and empathy for those children orphaned by the earthquake is a hopeful sign that these children will find new loving homes.