Why we chose Chinese adoption

Most of you know why we chose China for adoption, primarily because we wanted a baby girl and thousands of baby girls are relinquished to Chinese orphanages each year. (The Chinese goverment forbids more than one child per household due to the huge Chinese population, and levies harsh fines on anyone with multiple children. Boys are the preferred sex since they're culturally expected to provide for elderly parents. Only rich Chinese citizens can afford the large fines, so most folks leave their infant girls in public areas like bus stations where the police are sure to find them.

The other major reasons we chose Chinese adoption were...a shorter timeframe for placement (at least 6 months less than domestic adoption), the adoption is final (biological parents don't have the option of changing their minds), and the babies are very healthy. That, and there's a large group in our county of these blended Chinese-American families, and they meet monthly with their children, creating a strong cultural network.

This decision to adopt internationally was a very difficult one, but we feel great about it, and hope you do, too. Now that we're in the final countdown, we hope to be "matched" with Emily sometime in May 2005. That's when the Chinese government actually chooses Emily for us from the thousands of little girls available in orphanges throughout China. We receive our first photo of Emily shortly afterwards. Then the travel arrangements begin--we travel to China 5-8 weeks later to adopt Emily! Emily will be between 9-12 months old when we get her. We're so excited!!