Program Update

 

China – The China adoption program continues to remain stable and is efficiently run by the China Center For Adoption Affairs (CCAA).  There have been changes in parent eligibility criteria (effective for dossiers, aka: country applications, registered in China 5/1/07 or later) as described below.  The most current group to receive child assignments waited an average of 15 months from log in date to child assignment.  From the time of child assignment families have routinely been departing for China in 6 to 8 weeks.   In 2006 in the standard China program, children have arrived home from the provinces of Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan and Yunnan.  Please click here to view a chart depicting the percentages of children arriving from each of these 6 home provinces.  Nine Special Waiting Child Program families recently returned home with their children.  Happily, after travel permission was received we were able to quickly schedule a trip for families who received child assignments on November 2, 2006.  This group left on Sunday, December 3rd and was able to return with their children before the holidays!  Families whose dossiers were logged in by CCAA between August 26, 2005 through September 7, 2005 received child assignments from Guangxi Province on November 30th and await travel permission.  Families logged in by CCAA on September 8, 2005 and later await the good news of their child referrals.

China has been the country placing more children internationally for adoption than any other foreign country and the number of adoption applications has been rising dramatically over the past years.  As a result, the waiting times for the adoptive placement of a child have risen.  In an effort to reduce the number of adoptive parent applications, the Chinese government plans to more carefully screen and evaluate prospective adoptive parents in continuing attempts to select what they believe are the most qualified parents possible to adopt children.  "Preference” or "priority" will be given to prospective adoptive parents who meet China’s adoption regulations and who also fall within published additional evaluative criteria and qualifications.  The date when the higher level of scrutiny is expected to take effect is currently May 1, 2007 (based upon the login date of the dossier, aka: country application).   CCAA has indicated that dossiers logged in prior to May 1st will not be impacted by the new system of preferences.  Please visit our China Program Description to learn more. 

The U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou has remained very efficient and generally available for scheduling appointments whenever requested.  We continue to monitor waiting times for each group and will report these times (usually the same or next day of a group's receipt of child assignments) to each family enrolled in the China adoption program.  Families are notified via e-mail and if they do not have an e-mail account notification is done via regular U.S. mail.   This enables each family to follow the process and better predict their child assignment date.  The children continue to be generally healthy and the adoption processing in China continues to go very smoothly.

China Special Waiting Child Program – Since this program was incepted 80 families have been united with their children, 36 families are completing paperwork, scheduled to depart or awaiting travel permission.  We anticipate translation and posting of new child referrals the week of January 8th.   We encourage all of our families to visit our program description to learn more about the children who wait. Waiting times from submission of dossier to travel in this program are estimated to be between three to four months from login of the dossier. For families whose dossiers have already been logged in and reviewed by CCAA, travel has occurred as quickly as 6 weeks from submission of a letter of intent to adopt a child. 

CCAA recently announced plans to re-structure the special needs program.  It is possible that in the future, in lieu of referring children to agencies, CCAA will post children's information on its' web site.  As more information becomes available we will keep our current families and those who are on our Special Waiting Child e-mail list informed.

Effective May 1, 2007, guidelines for parents have also changed in the Special Waiting Child program.  Please visit the program description to learn more.

Guatemala Program - Our Guatemala program has been growing by leaps and bounds.  Most of the children needing families are less than 3 months old at the time of child referral. The children are typically born to poor single women, many of whom live in the rural areas of Guatemala. When economic circumstances make it impossible to care for a child, it is common for many birth mothers to make the decision to relinquish the child. This is often done early in their pregnancy and when it occurs, the expectant mother is usually given a medical exam and provided with regular care until birth. Immediately after birth, the newborn is typically placed in foster care until the adoption process can be completed. The vast majority of the children are of a mixed "mestizo" ethnic background, usually a combination of Spanish and Mayan Indian. Many infants are under 3 months of age at the time they are assigned to an adopting family. At the time of child assignment, a photograph and general health report are typically provided. Both boys and girls are available for adoption; however there have been more boys available than girls. Adoptive parents may choose a boy or girl, and if a girl is selected, the assignment process could be slightly extended by 4-6 weeks.  Families up to age 55 are eligible for this program and total processing times generally range from 10 to 14 months.  To learn more about the Guatemala program please click here.

Colombia Program - We are seeking families for this program which is a perfect match for many families, including those seeking to adopt sibling groups.

Most of the children available for adoption have been voluntarily placed in the orphanage due to poor economic conditions in their families of origin. Many of these orphanages are public and approximately 2/3 of the children are from the Bogota area. Please click here to learn more about Bogota. Most children are of Spanish or mixed Spanish/South American Indian descent. The youngest children available are 3-to-6 months old at the time of child assignment and children as old as young teens also await families. Colombia currently has over 4,000 children waiting for families who are either older (age 9 and older), part of sibling groups, or who have special needs. When a child is assigned, generally, photograph(s), a general health report, results of certain blood tests (including a test for Hepatitis B and HIV), and brief written social/developmental description of the child are provided.

The Colombian Institute of Family Welfare processes all adoptions and prefers that parents do not specify the gender of the child, however if you already have a child or children of one gender in the household, consideration may be given. Families wishing to adopt sibling sets can request a set with both a boy and a girl. Requests for a sibling set of 2 or 3 children can be matched as quickly as  2 to 4 months. The time for a match will likely increase if gender preferences are stated and if younger children are requested.  Time frames in this program vary.  Please click here to learn more.

For more information about La Vida’s standard China, Guatemala or Colombia programs, please call Lisa Johnson at 610-688-8008.  For more information about the China Special Waiting Child Program please call Amanda Young at 610-688-8008.  You may also e-mail us at info@lavida.org.