The Rice Pot is Waiting for Rice

Tonite I attended a very interesting seminar that was sponsored by the FCCNY (Families with Children from China). It was entitled the "Future of Chinese Adoption" and it was a discussion with six panelists about their thoughts and insights as to what was going on. It was held at the Asia Society on Park Ave and 70th Street. Wow! What an insightful and interesting group of people. First off, I met one of the wonderful women in my adoption LID group....Rose! (Audrey we missed you!) She is fabulous and I am so glad we got to meet tonite! There is just so much to say. Much of it was a rehash of what we have been hearing for awhile...wait times are long, there are more dossiers then babies, and most importantly for Rose, Audrey and myself, our families are absolutely "grandfathered" in. The new rules that go into effect on 5/1, will not affect us. We have heard that before, but it was great to hear it in person. Anyway, I took so many notes, I don't know where to start, but I think I'll start where the event ended. A gentleman by the name of Gongzhan Wu, manager of the China Adoption Program at the Gladney Center for Adoption spoke. He had literally just returned from Bejing and had met with the CCAA last week. He read a list of important points. I will list them here. Please remember, these are my notes, and hopefully the information is 100% accurate-the gist of it will be. Mr. Wu met last week with the Executive Director of the CCAA, Mr. Lee last week. Mr. Lee stated that the CCAA was talking about making the changes in the adoption rules for the last two years. They decided to go thru with them because of the increase in the dossiers of prospective parents and the decrease in eligible babies. He made mention (and this fact may not be 100%) that there are 25,000 dossiers and 600 babies per month. Mr. Lee stated to Mr. Wu, that even after the announcement of the rules changes, 100's of dossiers were received. They are aware that there is a real rush to get them in before 5/1/07. Mr. Wu stated that the wait times may continue to get longer in the coming months "at least". The CCAA emphasized that they continue to give priority to what is in the best interest of the child. Mr. Wu explained that there have been some interesting changes in the one child policy. China is not going to penalize families with more then one child, but will actually give families with one child financial benefits, including retirement benefits, and monthly stipends. Domestic adoption is considered a good thing. In fact some of the orphanages find it easier then international. Mr. Wu explained the Domestic adoption policies do not fall under the legislation of the CCAA. This may change, and they make try to combine.The CCAA doesn't have all of the babies, many are in systems that aren't under their control. This they are trying to change. The CCAA is visiting orphanages and encouraging Directors to put their babies up for adoption. Very interestedly, CCAA expected that the rules changes would cause a 15% decrease in dossiers. Many US agencies are reporting a 40% decrease in qualified parents. Also, something I never thought of...there are thousands of illegal adoptions, where infants are found and kept by the finder. The most important thing that Mr. Wu said, "old Chinese expression, The Rice Pot is waiting for Rice"...he said this is what is happening at the CCAA ...they are waiting for the babies. I'll post more on the seminar tomorrow....nite nite.