Anecdotal Information

In the past week I've gotten emails from three people who have recently been in China, and who talked with their facilitators quite a bit. All three tell stories of orphanages that are being closed because there are no babies. Or, in one case, two orphanages being combined into one and being set up specifically for special needs, since most babies being abandoned are special needs babies. There are numbers given - how this orphanage used to have around 200 babies and now has about a dozen and most of those children are in foster care. The facilitators also talked about domestic adoptions, and stated that many of the babies are now adopted to local families. The information basically backs up what we are being told - that fewer babies are being abandoned and that domestic adoption is picking up. And, honestly, this is wonderful news. Truly it is. It only sucks if you're in the pipeline hoping to adopt a child. But, now to anylyze the information. As to the orphanages closing, I believe that while this may be the case in some areas of the country, there are other areas of the country where prosperity hasn't quite taken hold and this is not the case. I know that people who have recently been to my daughter's orphanage have seen a lot of babies. So, I do think we need to be aware that (especially in the cities) abandonment is down... but there are areas of the country that, while it very well might be down, there are apparently still a whole lot of babies who are abandoned. Perhaps this means the CCAA needs to change things around - orphanages that were sending paperwork will no longer be sending paperwork, and orphanages that did not in the past need to start. And, if we can believe the rumor from last fall, they started that process sometime around August of last year.