# Which country now



## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

Sorry I guess the answer is in here someplace and if I could properly use the search engine I would find it.

Through all the IVF, stuff the plan B is adoption in the UK with the final sure backstop of adoption from China.

We have gone thru all the steps now and ended up at the adoption from China route [Since my wife is Chinese this is perfect anyway] only to find out we are too late as China has radically reduced its program [unofficial estimate is that we would get a child around 2017].

So what countries are left to consider?


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## CherryWoo (Nov 1, 2007)

Hi Chris, have PMed you. Didn't want you thinking that you have no replies.
Jen


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## superal (May 27, 2005)

Can I ask why you haven't thought about here.....England, Scotland Wales??

I think that is just as good as any place to start.

Don't be put off at the first call you make about adoption as SS will tell you there are no babies for adoption, if that is what you would ideally like..............you will see from the members list that a majority of us were very lucky to have been placed with babies & toddlers.

Love
Andrea
x


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## GretaGarbo (Oct 14, 2007)

Hi,

This website may be helpful to you - http://www.internationaladoptionguide.co.uk/

In particular, this page, which details what countries are available to adopt from - http://www.internationaladoptionguide.co.uk/genericPage.jsp?genericPageValue=Adoption%20Options

Good luck,

Greta.

/links


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

Thanks for the replies and PMs.

Yes we tried locally, long waiting list and since we are a mixed race couple we are at the bottom of the list unless our particular mix comes up, which is just about unheard of. Local agency did not even want to put us thru the process, suggested we go IC. 

I guess a table of options would be good, this list is some of the bigger donor countries over the last few years.

China              Effectivley Closed                    ~15K
Russia            Issues with alcoholism              ~35K
HK                  Only special needs available          ?
Thailand          ?                                              ?
Guatemala      Closed                                      ?
Khazakhstan    ?                                          ~30K
Nepal              Closed                                      ?
USA                ?                                              ?

Can ppl fill in the gaps?

I guess an associated wquestion be, in what countries is surrogacy legal and practised?


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## ♥ M J ♥ (Apr 17, 2004)

Hi Chris

Hope you dont think me rude however can i ask what "mixed race" you are as a couple as i know alot of LAs who need "non white couples"

xx


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

Chinese and English, hence the interest in China.


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## keemjay (Jan 19, 2004)

I'm really surprised, chinese/english isnt such a difficult mix is it  on our prep course there was a couple who were indian/german which i think would be a  very hard mix to find.
you may have tried this already but what about your surrounding LA's..you dont HAVE to stay in your own county and another neighbouring county may be more open minded 

kj x


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

It was the neighbouring authority who didn't need us, our local authority are a bit slow, it seemed like half the people in the meeting we went to in neighbouring areas were from our area.

The problems I guess (well its not really a problem in reality) is that the Chinese community tend to move children around the extended family, so not many come up for adoption.

I tried a scatter gun approach to various London LAs, they generally said the same thing, no chance.

Chris


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## ♥JJ1♥ (Feb 11, 2006)

My friend is mixed race Caribbean and Welsh/UK and single but she was told to apply to a LA not necessaruly her own LA where the population mix reflected her culture. She is lucky as in her LA had 64 children reflecting her mix awaiting adoption but they had a couple from Noth Yorkshire of the same mix as hers where they had placed a child.  Is it worth contact a LA where there are large Chinese communities in the UK?

I work in paediatrics and neonates and sometime we are left with the babies to care for whilst they are placed for long term fostering/adoption if they are relinquished at birth and we have had chinese babies in the past. They get spoilt by all the nurses and lots of cuddles.
L x

L x


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

I did try a few London LAs, they held little hope, but the 50 mile thing was a problem for all of them.

Which area are you in?


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## zemer (Dec 18, 2006)

Hi Chriss

you can add Thailand as well and I think there is no fee involved and Ukraine but i dont know anything about the fees.


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## Viva (May 16, 2005)

Hi Chris, 
Have you contacted any voluntary agencies such as Barnardo's or Catholic Childrens society? They have no children to place as such so put you straight on the adoption register, they often have experience of working with parents who have specific needs in relation to the children they wish to adopt such as ethnicity.
Just a thought.
All the best with your journey.
Viva


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## sara1 (Jul 28, 2008)

Hi Chris,
We r considering adopting from china but didn't know about the long waiting time - thought it was around 3-4 years.  Just wondering where u heard of the long waiting times.  I know that they have changed their criteria but this was supposed to limit Americans from adopting so many children and if u fit the new criteria I thought the wait wouldn't be too long! Find the times a bit of putting maybe have to reconsider  

Sara1


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

Could be complete gibberish of course, but it backs up what PACT said.

http://chinaadoptionforecast.com/

/links


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## sjm78 (May 22, 2007)

Hi 
Just thought i would let you know there was a chinese/white scottish couple on our prep course who were approved on the same day as us. I would keep contacting different authorities there may be children waiting for a match outside of your area.
Sarah


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

We will go thru the process, but the idea of getting matched across the country has a  problem.

Should a LA go to another area or a voluntary agency they have to pay the inter-agency fee, which is just under 20K, so they only go outside if they really have to.

While there are some mixtures they have trouble placing, I don't think Cuacasian/Chinese is one of them.

Chris


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## dawny36 (Mar 28, 2007)

Hi Chris,

It sounds like you have a real problem here and I can feel your frustration, ? you have obviously done your research.  I'm wondering would you consider a child that just reflects your ethnicity? I dont know how feasible this would be.  My teenage son is mixed race (afro-carribean birth father and I am white british) my husband of 16 years is white british and we would of been considered for mixed race children as they felt we would be able to promote their ethnicity in a positive way with a good role model, we did however decide to adopt a child that reflected our ethnicity.

Hope this makes sense and I can fully appreciate why you would want to adopt a child that reflects both of you, just trying to look at it in a different way.

Good luck in your journey

Dawny


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

For us, Caucasian and/or Chinese would be fine, the child would have to look like at least one of us.

But this process is for the benefit of the child, so the LA would/should match better matches ahead of us.

Chris


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## dawny36 (Mar 28, 2007)

Hi Chris,

I fully understand that the process is in the best interest of the child but whose to say this is always about ethnicity? I know there can be issues with placing a white child with non white parents or vice-versa but there will be other factors that comes into the 'ideal match' for the child other than the ethnicity. When we were matched it was lots of other reasons that we were 'chosen' over other couples for eg; our age, past life experiences and my profession, sometimes a Form F stands out over another Form F and sometimes the link worker or the child social worker just has a gut feeling about a certain couple if that makes sense.

Hope this helps a little and I hope it works out for you, 

Dawny


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## droogie (Aug 15, 2007)

ChrisA - I just found this thread as DH and I are looking into our options. We're currently still persuing treatment but told our chances are slim. DH is Malaysian/Nepalese and I'm white so we're too wondering what our chances are.

It all seems quite contradictory - I've read in some places we could be considered for white, chinese or mixed children and elsewhere that we'd be in for a long wait, or not be taken on.

I was wondering if you've found out any more information since the last posts on here

Heather


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

Hi Droogie,

If you live in an area with a large Chinese population you may have a chance, but in other areas there are very few Chinese or mixed kids, of course no one can or will tell you for definite, but my impression is that we/you are not going to be high on the list for White kids.

Across the country any Chinese/mixed kids are not difficult for LAs to place, evident by the many hundred Chinese kids inter-country adopted. So LAs have little need to put these kids out to the national list (for which they incurr an inter-agency fee).

China which used to pass on so many children has now all but stopped meaning you will get an estimated date out in 2017 or later.

Sorry not much good news (news is not the right term really as there are no facts to be had). Hard as it may to believe, IVF is actually cheaper, easier and quicker - assuming it works for you.

On a more positive note, China does prioritize inter-country adoption for foreign Chinese adoptors, I am unsure if they would extend that to Nepalese, so the 2017 estimates may be radically reduced, but then there is no evidence for that either.

Chris


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## Spaykay (Nov 29, 2006)

Hi there

I live in Spain so this might not be relevant, but it takes about 3 years to adopt from China over here so I can't see why from England it would take so much longer. We have friends that adopted from china a year ago and it took 2 and a half years, my friend now waiting was told 2 years and has now been set back another year (who knows if she will be set back again). However, 9 years has not been mentioned at all. They are quite strict on requirements, age, weight, past physcolgical records etc. 

I will be adopting from abroad (Ethiopia) as in Spain the lists are closed. We are a white English and white Spanish (so more brown really) couple and so our child would not share any ethnicity with us. We have spoken to couples who have done the same as us and I have asked people of a black race as to how they think the child may feel growing up with white parents and advice is that so long as the child's race is celebrated and not ignored then it should be fine.

I hope you find an answer soon as I think mixed race familes can only be positive, so I hope you aren't presented with too many problems because of this. 

Kay xxx


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## ChrisA (May 12, 2005)

Hi Kay,

The Chinese govt seems to have recently changed its policy, the first stage was new restrictions on income BMI etc, but since then they have just slowed down the rate of processing forms significantly.

Of course there are no facts, but you can see on this site some people have analyzed what is going on http://chinaadoptionforecast.com/.

Chris

/links


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## Spaykay (Nov 29, 2006)

Sorry about that hun   It's such a frustrating journey.

Kay xxx


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## Freddie2 (Feb 1, 2007)

Hi chris

we looked into international adoption a couple of years ago.  we were going to pursue it but when we asked our LA to do our HS they persuaded us to go the domestic route - we were very happy to do so and were very surprised indeed as when we had approached them 6 months previously about domestic adoption they had been very negative.

Anyway, when looking into international adoption we found an organisation called OASIS to be very helpful.  There is also an organisation which runs an intercountry adoption helpline (think it may be called ICA).  There's also a one day course run by one of these organisations in Barnet on intercountry adoption. I'm sure they will be able to give you a very good steer on countries open for international adoption and costs and time frames.  Also there is a very helpful message board specifically on international adoption on yahoo.  People on there I'm sure will be able to share experiences.

Interestingly our LA in South London did have a chinese baby available for adoption very recently.  They took a while to find suitable adopters but have literally last week found a Chinese couple.  I also recall seeing a half Vietnamese baby in Be My Parent not that  long ago so there should be options domestically for you too and I really wouldn't rule that out.  Have you thought about a VA?

I'm actually from Italy and my LA saw this as a real bonus.  Although Italian children don't come up that often the fact that I came from a "continental" background helped in matching.  Because of my background they felt that we could be matched with children from other parts of Europe if they couldn't find the perfect ethnic match.  Often children with unusual etnicities aren't matched locally but either are matched via the national register or appear in one of the national adoption magazines (Be My Parent or Adoption UK)

Hope that helps and good luck with everything


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