A little more background..

Years before our daughter was born my husband and I attended an information session held by Children's Bridge. At the session we learned that there are a number of countries that you can adopt from. At that time China was already one of the countries we were interested in adopting from. We learned that China offers an adoption program called the "Waiting Child Program".

This program is for families that are interested in adopting children with special needs (minor handicaps and/or health problems). Some of these minor health problems were correctable, and by accepting a child in this program your wait for a child was sometimes cut in half. We heard that life for the children in this program was often quite horrible. As an example, in China, children with a cleft lip/palate are seen as being cursed. They are not accepted in society and are not able to go to school or get a job. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A common medical condition that can often be fixed was seen as a curse? Right then I wanted more information about the program. The next thing I remember was seeing the cost of an adoption from China in our information book and I looked at my husband in disbelief. I thought right then, we might as well go home because there was no way we could afford to do this. But then, Children's Bridge popped in a little video documenting one family's journey to adoption. Of course this family was adopting a child from China and by the end of the video I was weeping all over the budget information sheet that I had been fretting over only a few minutes prior. I looked over at my husband and this time we both knew there was no turning back now.

Here is a link to the Waiting Children adoption page on the Children's Bridge website. This will give you a better idea of the requirements from us as adoptive parents, the timelines of the program, and the process. http://www.childrensbridge.com/pages/china_wc.html