As most of you have brought to my attention, there have been daily reports in newspapers and on the major news networks about China's new regulations. In these reports, there is a lot of sensationalism going on and inaccurate reporting. I'm trying to ignore the reports, because the inaccurate reporting really fires me up.
Paula Zahn in particular had a "panel" this week on China's new Adoption Regulations and not one person on the panel, had any link to international adoption. Specifically, the panelists turned the discussion into how Americans are racists because we aren't adopting African-American and Hispanic children in the US and that we are going to China because we want to ensure our children will be beautiful, smart and artistic. Paula has had 2 more panels this week trying to correct the first report because adoptive families called her out on poor journalism, specifically not checking her facts. I bet she received over 1,000 emails/calls.
The reporters are choosing to emphasize on the fact that if couples are fat, they can't adopt. Families being rejected have a BMI over 40. In the US, a BMI of 30-35 is considered obese, so a 40 BMI is extreme obese. Take into consideration that obesity can shorten a lifespan by 10-15 years in conjunction with the fact that the average age of the couples is 40 when they are adopting, it's safe to say that these 30-40 BMI'ers may not see their children graduate. This is what the journalists are leaving out; they want to go on and on about how awful China is, but are leaving out the whys behind the regulations.
Here are 2, very severe reasons why China is being pickier:
1. There have been 30+ families in the last year, upon returning to the US, decided the child received is not what they "wanted", developmentally, emotionally etc. The family "disrupted" the adoption, which means they called their agency and said they needed to find another home for the child.
2. Several children have died at the hands of their parents after the adoption. This is why China is saying a person can't be bi-polar or have been on psychiatric medication in the past 2 years.
With the mass family adoption applications in China, they are trying to make sure the children are going to the best, safest environments. While China picked a bad time to be picky, they should have been from the beginning. Hindsight is 20/20. Think of the disrupted adoptions and children who have died at the hand of a parent. These children already had a rough start in life and they were supposedly placed in "safe" forever families.
The correct regulations that have come into affect are outlined here, on our website, in previous posts, which was gathered from our agency's report from China. Once specific rumor is that only handicapped/special needs children are being assigned to families. It has not been addressed to us, by our agency that we may not receive a healthy child as requested. When you give birth there are no guarantees of a healthy baby, and there are also no guarantees in adoption. Two weeks ago, several families received their referrals and there were no reports that unhealthy children were received. There were two reports of boys given to couples requesting a girl.
We are not concerned and feel whatever happens is destiny. Who knows, maybe Emma will end up being Emmett. LOL. It's all in God's hands...
