China's Growing Wait Time

Even though I adopted my second daughter last May, I admit to still reading the Rumor Queen's blog found here http://chinaadopttalk.com/as I am still intriqued with what's happening in the adoption community. I can't tell you how thoroughly surprised I am by the wait times. The wait for my first daughter wasn't bad at all. From start to finish, it was about a year and a half. The wait for her Little Sister was excruciating because we were initially told it would only be 6-8 months. It actually took 24 months from start to finish. Now, families are told to expect a wait of 2-3 years. I feel so bad for them. I never thought the wait time would get to this point. Adoptive father and researcher, Brian Stuy http://research-china.blogspot.com/ believes that China still has many babies who need to be adopted, but the majority of them are labeled, special needs. Brian states, "Many of these special needs present unsurmountable financial problems to domestic families, but are of little consequence to families with medical care opportunities in the West. Thus, I believe the CCAA should expedite SN referrals, allow prospective adoptive families greater access to special needs children, and do everything possible to migrate the 14,000 annual international adoptions into the Special Needs program." As an adoptive parent of two Non-SN babies, I can tell you that no child is perfect. My oldest daughter has moderate to severe eczema and the little one has behavioral problems. In addition, I have friends and family members with biological children who have medical or behavioral problems as well. That's life! Why not consider adopting a SN child? If I were in a position to do it, I would definitely submit paperwork for a third child, one this time classified as "SN," however, that is not in the cards for me. Living as a single parent with two children is all I can handle at this time.