China's Special Needs Children

that sucks!! I have nothing in my past, not even a speeding ticket (knock on wood) but my hubby does have 2 minor in possession charges from when he was younger!! DARN HIM!!!!!!!!!!! But we could adopt a regular child from China still right, if that is the country we choose??

This is from the CCAA website on "Can foreigners subjected to criminal punishment adopt children from China?" "Whether or not foreigners have any criminal punishment constitute an important part for judging whether the adoption applicants have acquired the ability to raise and educate the adoptees. In general, the CCAA shall not accept adoptive applications submitted by foreign adoption applicants who have been subjected to criminal punishment. However, in the light of the circumstances, consideration may be given to those who have committed minor offenses and have really shown repentance and no longer committed offenses and no longer committed offences ever since." We are proof that they do adopt to somebody with a minor offense from many years ago (it has been 11 years). We did have to submit a letter of remorse with our dossier, though. However, I don't know if they plan on enforcing the same restrictions for NSN children in the future.

I used to escort many families for healthy children and SN children, before their travel, I would follow up the kids' update report. Your doctor's explanaination in somehow are correct, but for another important reason, is that people in the countryside could offer to fix their child defects, so they choose to quit. As law regulates, it's illegal to abandon baby, so they would choose orphange and some public space for abandon, so that babies are easily to be found. Special Needs like Down Sydrome, Spina Bifida, kind of nerve system illness would honestly be reported by orphanage, but it does exist some cases that when parents come, they found out this problem without being pre-informed, mostly because some sydrom does not show up,or because lack of staff, they don't have that detail oberservation. Once these unfixable problems are found, you could submit the decline for re-match. As to your age problem, you'd better consult the related law or some big agency for this issue. Helen [URL="http://www.china-fun.net"]China Fun[/URL]: this is my website for adoptive famlies and people who are interested in China to have culture share.

Christy, are you sure your agency waives fees for SN or is it only that some SN children who are hard to place have grants that take care of some of the expenses. You might double check.

Hi. I'm new and probably not adopting for a few years because my husband and I are finishing up grad school. Our kids are 4 and 2. I'm wondering if things that have been expunged from your record could still somehow come up. My husband spent a night in jail for public drunkeness his freshman year of college. It's been expunged; would that still be a problem?

Even when a person has had his/her local record expunged, the offense sometimes shows up on the FBI fingerprint check. For this reason, it is extremely important that your husband disclose any arrest to your homestudy social worker before the homestudy report goes to the USCIS. In the homestudy process, the USCIS requires the social worker to ask the person specifically if he/she has a criminal record. If the person says "no", and it is recorded in the homestudy (as it must be for the USCIS), and if the FBI fingerprint check subsequently shows an arrest, that could very well cause the USCIS to deny 171-H/797-C approval. If the person tells the social worker about an early and relatively minor event, and gets the necessary documentation, the social worker will need to mention it briefly in the homestudy report. But then there is no risk that the USCIS will deny approval if it happens to show up in the FBI fingerprint check. Only time will tell how strict China will be with its new guidelines about minor, long ago infractions of laws, which took effect in May, 2007. I think it will take many more months until agencies can be sure exactly how the new guidelines will be enforced. In the past, China would accept people with a minor offense that didn't involve children or violence, that occurred in the teen or young adult years, and that was not a sign of an ongoing problem like alcohol abuse. And agencies could talk to China, in advance, about the acceptability of a person who -- for example -- got a DUI less than ten years ago, to see if this otherwise perfect candidate had to be disqualified; in most cases, he/she was allowed to proceed. Today, China is saying that it's going to be much more strict than it was previously, and I think that many agencies are being much more cautious, as a result. I suspect that some agencies will still see if they can talk to the CCAA and get permission to submit a dossier of someone who did a dumb thing at 19, but who has been a solid citizen for the past 15 years and meets all the other adoption requirements beautifully. When you are ready to adopt, who knows what the situation will be like? There is no guarantee that China will even be open to adoption, though it probably will be. There is no guarantee that there will be a lot of kids with no special needs or only minor special needs to adopt, given the new emphasis on preventing abandonments and encouraging domestic adoptions. There is no guarantee that the policies and guidelines in place now will be in place then. One thing is clear. If you don't qualify for China, and you may not, there are lots of other countries with children who need families, and you will almost certainly qualify for one of them. Sharon

Speaking of manageable special needs, my little sister has port-wine stain (a birthmark) on the right side of her face and on her legs, and congenital glaucoma in the right eye (result of the birthmark being on her eyelids). I have 2 friends, one home for a couple of years, and one about to be DTC for a little boy, who have/are going to have children with facial birthmarks and that is the child's only special need. Crazy, huh? Monica

They definitely will not let you submit your dossier before 30 but good news is they let you apply and start to get things ready at 29 1/2. We are 30 and 33 and honestly the tiem worked to our favor..we wanted to get settled, lower our debt (still trying) and I want to be a stay at home mom. I am a stay at home wife now. As for special needs I know I was surprised how they labeled them as well but be aware thet usually a missing finger or birthmark is not their only problem. I know a lot of people that came home only to find that there were more serious issues. Some of the orphanges don't look into any further "needs" once they find one or two. A couple of agencies I talked to told me this. You just want to be prepared. We are going on the Non special needs list and will jump on it a few yrs. from now if they wait looks like it will be over 5 yrs. Youc an trund down a referral after talking to your dr. We wanted this child to be our first but will probably have a biological child while we wait. Not all agencies let you do this though and the biological child has to be a yr. old by the time of your China referral. As for everythinh else hang in there you could see a shorter wait time when you do eventually apply:)

My wife & I are considering a Special Needs adoption from China. We've previously completed a SN adoption from VN. Would love to get any agency recommendations, process, information, etc. from anyone who has adopted thru a China Waiting Child/Special Needs program. Please PM if you have any information you can share. Thanks!

LockStock, I sent you a PM.

Thank you so much for the info. We have a lot of big decisions to make, and it's always helpful to get a firsthand account from someone who's already gone through the process.

Let me just add a couple of things. 1. CHINA does not discount fees. The same orphanage donation is required for NSN and SN children, because the funds go to offsent the costs of caring for your child before adoption and other children who may never be adopted. If anything, the cost of caring for SN children is greater than the cost of caring for NSN children, as they need more medical care and therapies and, often, things like special foods, special bottles, and so on. 2. Individual agencies, at their discretion, may discount or eliminate THEIR portion of the total fees, in order to get kids with special needs adopted. However, these discounts are rarely given for kids with very minor SNs; they are usually reserved for kids that are truly "hard to place" because they have conditions such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation, severe cerebral palsy, and so on. 3. The agencies that are best able to discount fees are those with a strong donor base, because the agencies have to survive somehow, if they don't get paid for placing children. Look for agencies that have a strong reputation for promoting special needs adoptions. 4. Do remember that an agency can offset only its component of total fees, It cannot discount fees that must be paid to others, such as airlines, hotels, the USCIS, the orphanage donation, the homestudy provider, etc. The agency fee is NOT the major component of an adoption's costs. Sharon

Thanks for the reply, sak9645. Fortunately, my wife & I weren't exporing SN adoption as a way to lower fees. My employer is extremely generous in regards to adoption reimbursement, and matches the amount of the federal tax credit. So as it stands today, the first $23,300 is covered either by my employer or by the tax credit. The only concern for us is paying the costs up front and waiting until the adoption is finalized to be reimbursed (well....there's also the thought that the tax credit could be reduced after 2009).

Unfortunately, you do have to wait until your adoption is considered final until you can file for the tax credit. If you both travel, that will be in the year you actually receive your adoption decree in China. If only one parent travels, that is supposed to be the year in which readoption/recognition occurs in the U.S. (often a year later), although there is a "safe harbor" that might protect you if you file in the year of the actual adoption. Do be aware that you do not pay all of the fees at once. In many cases, with an NSN adoption or an adoption in which China chooses a child with the special need you specify, you pay the final installment of your adoption fees after you receive your referral, so you have quite a while to accumulate the funds. Some families still do find it difficult to pay the full costs of their adoption before they receive employer benefits and the tax credit. In many cases, they try to obtain a loan from family members, which they pay off when they get the tax credit. In others, they attempt to secure a loan from an adoption-friendly bank and pay it back after the adoption. Some people, who have a 401-K or similar plan through their employers, can borrow against the funds in it, at a very low interest rate, and this works very well. Sharon

I also would like to add that these types of medical problems are also consider special needs in other countries too. If you don't qualify for China you may want to look at Taiwan.