Relatively easy Western adoptions of Chinese babies have been replaced by time-consuming paperwork, but two American expats say it's well worth the effort to raise their adopted babies in Shanghai.
Adopting a Chinese baby has become almost commonplace in the West when natural and aided conceptions have failed, and when families want to embrace another child.
And, it is also an option closer to home with some expats extending their families by adopting a Chinese child.
Now, two American expat families who have opened their homes and hearts tell of their experiences becoming adoptive parents.
A family to share
"After having two biological children, we felt if we wanted a larger family, we would expand through adoption since there were so many babies in the world who needed families," says American Robert Hulse who, with his wife Holly, adopted a third child in Shanghai.
Hulse and his wife moved here from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1999. He says the family "had settled into a routine of four but, once in China, the desire to expand came to us. We felt that with some experience, we could offer a Chinese child not only a loving family but also a family that would be able to share stories about their country of origin."
Five years later the family got their fifth member, a six-month-old son they named Jason, joining Chelsea, 12, and Austin, 10.
Hulse is a 7th-grade teacher at Concordia International School. His wife is general manager of the wire business in Asia for Bekaert of Belgium. Both speak good Chinese.
When you apply to adopt in China, you can request a certain age range, gender preference, and even health attributes -- you can specify you are willing to care for a child with a disability or problem, say a hare-lip.
They had one son and one daughter, so they requested a healthy boy or girl between six and 18 months. "We were told to expect a girl."
China has many girls available for adoption because of the preference for boys. A 2005 survey by the China Civil Affairs Department found there were 573,000 orphans in officially recognized institutions - the actual number is believed to be higher.
Initially, the Hulses felt it would be good to choose their baby.
"We had friends who adopted from Russia and they chose their children from photos or videos. However, after a few orphanage visits, we realized how hard it would be if you could choose."
Although it may seem unusual to adopt a boy from China, the father explains, "when we visited the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute various times during our first few years here, we were surprised to see that more than one third of the children were boys." Many of them, however, had problems and disabilities, including learning problems, cleft palates and cerebral palsy.
"Our son was born in Chuansha, near Pudong International Airport. His birth mother had some serious health issues and could not care for him."
The overall adoption process took the Hulses just under 12 months.
The entire family had to have physical exams, get official copies of their birth certificates and marriage license, and send photos to an adoption agency. Various Chinese government agencies were involved.
Police checks were run everywhere they had lived in the past 10 years. Child abuse registry clearances were needed to show they had no history of child abuse. They had to get letters from employers, references from friends and family and write autobiographies. Some of these requirements were for the Chinese government and some for the US government.
They needed proof of income, but were reluctant to discuss it. It appears, however, that at least US$25,000 a year is needed to support an adopted child in the United States.
It took six months to complete the paperwork. In March 2004, they took the dossier to Beijing and their application was accepted in August.
Living in Shanghai made some of the logistics easier, but getting official documents from the US proved more challenging.
"It was strange to us that there are so many people in the US who have children and do not have to pass any requirements to become a parent yet there are so many requirements one must pass in order to adopt," says Hulse.
Experiencing times when the wait seemed to last forever, "the most difficult part was spending three weeks from the time of referral/acceptance until we were given permission to pick up Jason, knowing he was sleeping each night in an orphanage only 30 minutes away when we just wanted to bring him home and hold him in our arms."
Now, of course, the wait seems irrelevant, the American says. "Jason is home with us forever and it feels as if he has always been right here."
Explaining how his biological children adapted to their new sibling, Hulse says, "Our daughter was initially very supportive and excited to have a baby sister. Our son was less so but still supportive. When we got news that the baby was a boy, our son grew extremely excited and our daughter was devastated."
However, on the day they went to pick up Jason, "they both fell in love the moment the caretaker brought Jason into the room. There are surely times when the older kids miss the attention they got before, but I could not ask for them to be more loving, caring, protective, adoring and helpful."
Most reactions to their adopting a Chinese child have been positive, although occasionally they have had a bad experience.
The saddest story happened in June when Hulse visited the fabric market with his children and a woman noticed Jason.
She asked how much the expats paid for Jason. "I told her we did not buy him but his parents were unable to take care of him so we adopted him. She said very seriously, 'You are a good person, give me your number. If I have a daughter I don't want, I will call you.' I nearly cried."
Hulse says the Chinese government has new regulations that specify family income requirements for foreigners adopting a Chinese child. "I see this as pragmatic rather than discriminatory. There are many expenses raising a child, so that they want to make sure people are prepared."
Jason has taught us a lot, he concludes. "We have learned you can love a child who joins your family through adoption as much as a birth child. He completes our family."
Their first baby
American Diane Vansant and her husband Kent decided that their first baby would be adopted, and found that the adoption process for Jenna Qing Vansant was complicated, but a positive experience.
Vansant, 46, feels being an expat is an advantage when adopting in China.
"If you just come for two weeks to pick up your baby, you do not have the experience to understand that child's culture," she says.
The Vansants, who arrived here three years ago, plan to stay in Shanghai until 2009 so their Chinese daughter will have a solid grounding and pictures of herself as an infant in her native country.
"For us it would have been hard to just pick her up and not know anything of her culture."
Choosing China as the place to adopt their first child, Vansant continues, "We had heard that the adoption process here was quite respected and had received positive feedback from friends who had been through it themselves. Also there are so many orphaned babies because of the one-child policy." She referred to the preference for males that means in some areas female babies are given up at birth.
Experiencing a smooth adoption process, Vansant and her husband Kent, 36, adopted Jenna when she was only six months old, which is relatively young for an adopted Chinese child.
Both, who are from Shelby Township, Michigan, work for General Motors. "We did all the paperwork in the United States so when we moved here we could be in the waiting process."
After they arrived in November 2004, their paperwork was registered by the China Center of Adoption Affairs in February 2005 and they received Jenna's information in the first week of September 2005.
Now, almost two years later, Jenna has become very Western and has started to communicate. She started out speaking more Mandarin than English.
"Her first words were bu yao (I don't want) because she has lots of playmates in this building where we live and one of them is a little older so she must have picked that up from her. Now we are encouraging English too as we want her to speak both languages."
Having started school in March, the two-year-old can speak a lot of Chinese but less English. "Our goal is that she will be able to speak both languages well before we move back to the States in 2009," says Vansant.
Very respectful of their daughter's culture, she continues, "We saved part of Jenna's original name to preserve some of her heritage. She was named Gao Fuqing while at the orphanage. We saved the 'Qing,' which in Chinese characters means 'celebration'."
However, regardless of her native name, local people are still very inquisitive about the Chinese-American toddler.
"I am always asked whether she is mine and they seem surprised when I say yes. But it is funny as my Chinese friends say she is already very Western. I don't worry about her identity when she is older, there are many other adopted children back home who she can network with and in America Chinese adoption is very common so I don't envisage any problems."
Now the couple is thinking of adopting a second baby.
"We are very fortunate being American because we have the ability to help more than just one child. However, we have not started the process yet because of job demands," says Vansant.
Jenna would benefit from a sibling who shares a similar background, to have a common bond, continues Vansant.
However, because the family is living in China there are additional regulations that affect expats who adopt. "You have to have lived here for one year to adopt a child and then have had that baby a further one year before you can adopt a second. However, we are confident about starting the process in China this time as we know what to expect."
Offering reassurance to people looking to adopt, she concludes, "The process is not complicated, it's just time-consuming." You have to have medical tests, show original copies of certificates such as birth and marriage and go through a home survey with a social worker. Then all the documents have to be translated into Chinese.
Many adoptive parents find support from Families with Children from China (FCC) that offers advice for every stage of the adoption process.
The first step is to find the right adoption agency - FCC can help with referrals to get you started.
However, for both the Hulse and Vansant families, their adoptions went pretty much by the book.
(Shanghai Daily August 22, 2007)
