# ASIAN CHILDREN



## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Hi I hope that this is not a silly question but does anyone know if new born babies of indian asian origin are available for adoption? I have tried to find out but am not having much luck


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## Iman (Oct 11, 2007)

Hi Jane

There are certainly Indian origin children ( I presume you mean here in the UK) available for Adoption. 

As for new-borns - newborns of any ethnic origin are pretty rare. Even if a child is born and its immediatly decided that Adoption will happen, it takes ages fo the court order and assessment and placement order and stuff to happen before the child can be 'available' for Adoption. We have been advised that the youngest age we would probably be able to adopt because of this, is about 9 months old. Obviously you might find a child who is relinquished for adoption so its a lot shorter process and can be sorted out prior to birth but about 95% of children available for adotion nowadays are not relinquished but are removed from their parents as their parent/family has been deemed not fit to parent them.

Hope that helps you in some way  -sorry it might not be entirely what you want to hear.

x


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

yes that's great. Thanks for the info.

I'm just new to this but one other thing i was wondering about was if you have to go to your local authority for adoption where are the children from? Are they from that same local authority area? It might sound silly but I'm just thinking how it might be ackward if a mother who had to give her baby up for adoption see's you around town or something and knows where her child is adopted to.

x


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2010)

Its rare for children to be placed too close to birth famlies - here children are usually placed in a different LA and there is a consortium of LAs who work together; the home LA does the approval and post adoption suport.  

For a variety of reasons we do live close to our BF and its a problem - we are even thinking of moving away.  

Bop


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Yes i can imagine. Thanks for the info.


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## Suzie (Jan 22, 2004)

Hi

There are many different policies in each LA  We adopted C from our LA and his birth family live about 5 miles away! and know what we look like etc as we were his foster carers first!
It all depends on the childs situation and whether social services deem there is any risk to have the child adopted in the same LA. It does happen and we have so far had no issues 

Bonita - Be my parent is a magazine that shows children that the social worker for a reason are finding them hard to place. Usually the older children that are finding it hard to find a family.  

Although there are less numbers of asian children in the care system there are some. It might mean a longer wait when matched to find the right child for you.

Goodluck with your journey

x


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Thanks for the replies girls. To be honest i was already thinking that there would be so very few asian children up for adoption in the uk. Worth still talking about with my LA i guess but i kind of feel i shouldn't get my hopes up. We've been ttc for years and years now and i'm not sure i could take the wait for what seems like could be more and more years on the chance we may get an asian child lete alone as one of you said an asian baby.

jane
x


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## Iman (Oct 11, 2007)

Hi jane

suggest talking it through with your LA or an agency. What type of Asian background are you looking for? south -east Asian? or a child with origins from elsewhere? Also, would you be able to consider a child who was mixed race - i.e. white and asian? Also, what about the religion of the child? Hindu / Muslim / none etc? if you discuss the specifics with a social worker you may be pleasantly surprised - we are talking in very general terms here so its actually hard to be accurate for exactly the type of child you are after, you see....dont be disheartened! 

good luck xxx


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Thanks Iman

I am indian sikh. I'd be happy with a mixed race child but not discussed that with hubby - my gutt feeling is he wouldn't be so happy with it and would maybe prefer to adopt from india. 

Anyone out there had luck adopting a sikh baby/child?

Jane
x


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Will do Bonita thanks. Are you sikh yourself?


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## kittykat1234 (Jan 15, 2010)

Hi Janesmith,

I attended my first information day yday and one of the topics was dual heritage children and children from different back grounds. I know your not wanting to adopt a different back ground/ethnic child but it touched on the sikh and hindu children available.The sw said there are NEVER any sikh or hindu children available as there are always family members available to take them on. As for babies, like Iman said, cause it usually takes between 9-12 months for the child to be released for adoption, the youngest you would prob be able to adopt is about 12 months with the occasional being slightly younger, but this is almost always dual heritage children of african decent as one of the cultures or white babies. 

I am very open to adopting a dual heritage child and as young as possible and was told yday that due to my age as long as i can show how i would represent the childs back ground into its life on a daily basis then i stand a good chance and a baby too! I am looking at between 9mnths to 2 yrs to be realistic and in my LA which is Birmingham it stands a very high chance. I am white british.

Re- placing the children away from their birth families, again we spoke about this yday and all that was said is what all your replies have come back with, that it totally depends on this childs situation and how at risk they are being close to their birth families. If at risk they will be placed a distance away.

Hope this has helped and anything else please ask as this site has been soooooooooo helpful to me so far, so i would love to now start helping others! My advice also would be to read as many books as you can, go on as many websites as you can, join Be my parent and Adoption Uk (if you havn't already) as they have a very good message board forum too and ask ask ask as much as you can as thats how i have learnt sooooooooooooooooo much so fast!!

Best of luck xxx


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## angel555 (Apr 7, 2008)

Hi! Can I jump in to ask if you would apply through the VA or LA when wanting to adopt from abroad? My understanding is that applying through the VA is quciker. If we want to go abroad to adopt, does it make a difference which one we go through?

Thanks


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Kittykat thanks for the info. Its really useful and good to know what to expect. Adoption from India doesn't seem to be without its problems either so guess its all a balancing act.

I heard it takes a year to get through the adoption process and be approved in the UK is that right?

Jane
x


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## kittykat1234 (Jan 15, 2010)

Hi Janesmith,

Yer its looking like its about a yr although they say between 6-8 months as thats the government guide time but its the matching process that seems to take the time. If everything goes pretty smoothly then yes its about a yr.

How are you getting on?

Where are you at with everything?

xxx


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## janesmith488 (Jun 15, 2009)

Hi Kittykat

I'm just looking into all the options at the moment, surrogacy, adoption or donor sperm. Then need to make a decision as to what route to take so gathering up as much info on everything as i can.

jane
x


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## covenant (Apr 14, 2010)

Hi,
I've only joined up as i was doing a search on Sikh children needing adopting and this thread came up in Google!

I'm Sikh, and ever since I can remember long before I got married, I always wanted to adopt, I was very fortunate that my Wife also felt the same way, however as fate would gave it, the Good Lord Blessed us with three children and we put our plans on the back burner. When the youngest was about 11, my wife reminded me of our earlier plans, and we started the ball rolling with our local authority regarding getting approved for adoption. Home studies, medicals, police checks, extremely personal interviews with not only ourselves, but our children, and our relatives including grandparents followed. It took time, as our brilliant Social Worker allocated to our Case advised us that there were so few Sikh children needing adopting and in our Authority it was unlikely for any to become available. 

During the approval process we discovered through the BAAF that a Sikh baby girl had come up for adoption in the midlands but as we had not been approved at this stage we lost out. Extremely disappointed, we continued with our plans.

I was trawling through the web one day, and a local Authority had a Sikh Girl up for adoption, When we made our enquiries, we discovered that the little one had a sister.  Fortunately by this time we were coming to the end of our approval process, and we then applied to the other local authority  to take both sisters as our own. 

What I would say is that Sikh children will come up rarely, mainly families step in (one of the advantages of our extended families systems). On the rare occasion, Sikh children from mixed marriages come up. Additionally, due to the stigma of unmarried mothers, often a pregnant girl will be forced to give up her child for adoption as was the case with the first child we were interested in. The BAAF magazine is excellent as they occasionally have Asian children seeking new families. You do need to be aware of the cultural needs of such children, and the days have gone where the authority was simple glad to get rid of children to anyone who wanted them. Life story work is essential, and there is great pressure to ensure that as far as possible ( subject to the traumatic reasons as to why the child was placed for adoption in the first place) the Child keeps regular contact with parents and Siblings.  

Anyway, five years later, the Girls are as natural to us as our own children, My Boys adore them and they get teased mercilessly as well as pestering their big brothers all the time!

Hope this helps.


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## wynnster (Jun 6, 2003)

Thankyou covenant for taking the time to post your story of great encouragement


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