One of my best friends just adopted a baby girl from China a few weeks ago... Her heart is filled.

i think it's better to adopt some poor abandoned kid then it is to to add more to the allready crowded world..

same for pets.

it's my firm belief that unless we voluntary reduce in force, mother nature will do it for us, the hard way...

and it does make sense, because we keep hearing crap bout reducing emissions, reducing everything, to levels before 1960 1970 and so on..but nobody has the balls to say that we better reduce ourselves... it's the best way to reduce all the other crap.

My niece and nephew are Korean, adopted as infants through Holt International. I was looking forward to learning Korean from them but they don't speak a lick of it. Darndest thing

Very very very risky, the older they are.

A friend adopted a 9 m.o. Chinese girl, great experience all around. She's a wonderful kid in every way. The only holdover issue they had was that she would panic cry when left in a crib. Apparently orphanages leave the kids in cribs alone way too much.

OTOH, friends of my parents had a very different experience adopting from Russia. They did all the right research, paid lots of money, etc, and the orphanage that looked and sounded great turned out to be a hellhole of neglect. The child they were supposed to adopt was malnourished to the point of brain damage and barely responded to people. A horrifying experience.

Personally I find it infuriating that these countries that can't even care for their own children put so many barriers and costs in the way of loving families adopting their unwanted. Russia and China should be paying American families to adopt their kids, not the other way around.

Excellent point. I think it's sad that there are people all over the world living in horrible conditions and dying from disease or starvation, but and this may be viewed as harsh, cold, crazy, whatever, I think we have more than enough people in the world and the people that are dying because they live in places that can't support them is not actually a bad thing. It's nature. Just like disease and natural disasters.

I understand the whole adopting the cute Chinese girl thing. On the other hand it makes me sad that there are thousands of black children in the U.S. that won't be adopted because they are black. Keep in mind if you adopt a child that is in the Division of Family Services system the govt. will pay you to adopt the child.

Have you looked a European birthrates lately? If it keeps up - there will not be any Europeans. Will the world be better off then?:(

according to most hardcore neocons on the board, that would be an obvious YES ! :D:D

either way , the birthrates should go down world wide,
this also means that borders ought to stay closed for immigrations, period, or else those who do the reduction will just get more immigration...

either way , we do it , or Mother Nature does it the hard way...we will reduce in force, no doubt in my mind

With that one child rule - China has got to be a sad place. No Aunts, No Uncles, no Cousins.. Who do they argue with over the holidays??

lol

but imagine this: as a man , you never have to worry about the hormones of your wife, blackmailing you into more offspring, through enforced abstenance...

"no honey , 1 is enough
i will report your ass to the authorities if you dont' knock it off, mmmkay?? no get back to your stove and cook me some noodles..!"

since the g/f is chinese ancestry, has family in china and is a native speaker, going with a china adoption makes sense. we would likely do a dual language house: she speaks mandarin to her, I speak english. we have friends with a baby on the way and the husband is german native, wife is us and they're going to do an analogous setup. evidently it is a great way to become bilingual. also since the g/f knows the language and the culture/country, logistics would be easier.

but a long way off from even seriously thinking about it...just gathering data.

How sad? Sad enough to adopt a child?

Adoption is kind of like riding the bus. All kinds of people will go out of their way to tell you that public transportation is a good thing....FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO so that they can drive their car in less traffic! It’s quite different to actually ride the bus.

What's behind many of the comments about domestic vs. foreign adoption is a "beggars can't be choosers" attitude. However, when you adopt, the reality is that you need to make difficult choices. My wife and I wanted what every parent wants: A healthy infant that can't be taken away from us.

This is 100% true. You will also get to deal with all the pros and cons of domestic adoption as well as the US government agencies that run it. You may also end up with a teenage mother or father, or one of their extended family that at some point in the future decides that they want to be a part of your child's life. And a court may agree with them.

Adoptive parents need to choose a system that is right for them. Foreign adoption was right for my family, plain and simple. And domestic adoption is right for many families, too.

Pretty crazy that China lets so many girls out of the country. They already have 119 boys for every 100 girls there. With a military twice the size of ours and an economy that has to create 25 million new jobs per year just to keep up with the kids coming out of schools, that place looks ripe for disaster. What will millions of underemployed, armed men do when there are not enough women? Not even all the starving N. Korean refugees would satisfy the demand.

I would imagine that getting through the adoption red tape would be darn near impossible if you remain b/f & g/f.

I think adoption is the supreme offering to humanity - especially when you yank a kid from desperate circumstances (poverty, no education, foster/orphan homes) into a situation where the sky is the limit with regards to love, support, and opportunity.

That said, I agree with another poster here, there are lots of adoption candidates right here in the U.S. If the child ended up being black or hispanic - just think how rich your family would be with the diversity! Talk about the melting pot...

Have two coworkers who went through the Chinese adoption...one has two girls and he had to take 2 months off from work to get everything resolved. Not to mention the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Another coworker adopted a young girl from South America (not sure which country). She's had 5 or 6 surgeries so far to correct various issues.

Be sure you know what you're getting into.

Also consider this: as a member of the intellectual elite, it is your DUTY to breed as often as possible, because the Joe and Jane Sixpacks of the world are breeding like fruit flies. Look around you. Before you know it we'll be drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool.

My wife and I are currently in the process of adopting a little girl from from Guatemala. We started the process August of 2005 and hope to have her home in the next few months. She was born May 6th, 2006.

There are pro's and con's for domestic and foreign adoptions as welll as pros and cons to each different country for foreign adoption. WAY to much to cover in an email.

The process is long and complicated and tons of paperwork and sending documents to Secretary of States for verification and to Guatemalan Embassy, etc. etc. You will get to know your local Notary very welll!

I can offer some more specific advise if you want it on how to make the process smoother. Remember that there is only so much you can do to make things happen, its a waiting game, the key is to make happen the things you can.

Ours costs for this will be in the $22,000 range, not including travel, but we only have to go to Guatemala once and only for @ 4 days.

If you think that $22,000 is a lot of money or that I am "buying" a child, look at what the cost to have a child in the US would be and to pay for that child's well being for the first 9 months of its life and you will see that this is not that far out of line, it just that most people have insurance and therefore never see the actual cost of having a child.

Below is a picture of baby Gianna.

Erik
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160654739.jpg

We were looking at international adoption, but ended up going domestic route. Right about uncertinty and stressing out for the legal risk period, but well worth it. Here is our daughter Lily.

Congrats white87911! Gianna is adorable! Hope your next couple months fly by!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160658780.jpg

Raising and caring for another male´s offspring is arguably the ultimate altruistic exercise. At least as an isolated phenomenon, it goes against everything good ol´Charles Darwin postulated.

Contemplating adopting a baby moves you several steps up the ladder in my book, my friend.

I am not criticizing anyone for adopting a foreign child. Here is a picture of me and my little girl (I kinda like riding the bus):

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1160659876.jpg

Geez, we all thought you were much younger, Kurt. ;)