How Does This Work?

Over 3,000 children wait in China for adoptive families – but who will become your son or daughter?

When you close your eyes, perhaps you have a vivid picture of who your child may be - a female or male child; a toddler, preschool, or school aged child. Let’s explore the process that leads you from a ‘thought’ about who your child may be to successfully matching with your child!

So how exactly do parents get matched with a child?! Currently most parents adopting from the China program are matching with a child whose profile has been newly released to the Chinese Government’s waiting child database (CCCWA). Let’s focus on this process in more detail below.

The child matching process really begins when you complete a medical conditions checklist. Next, as home study completion nears, our matching caseworker will start to prepare for your family’s future match. We will review your completed medical conditions checklist again with your family and we will reach out to you seeking input on which child you would like our staff to focus our locking efforts toward. Once a file has successfully been locked, parents will review the available file photos and documents including daily routine, personality information, and medical and developmental information. Within 72 hours from file lock, you will need to decide whether to make the decision of adoption. You will complete some child specific documents and Gladney will then upload information about your family to the CCCWA database. CCCWA then will review your family's information and provide a pre-approval determination for your family and child. An update can be requested at matching and again after your official Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) takes place, prior to travel.

Now you have learned about ‘how’ matching takes place, you may ask, “when”?! Based on your openness to a variety of medical needs and gender, you could match very quickly with the finalization of a home study. You may match with a child after home study completion but before your dossier paperwork is shipped to China, or after your dossier has arrived at CCCWA. Most families in the past two years have matched with a child within 3 to 8 months after submitting an application to Gladney Center for Adoption.

Gladney Center has been working with families adopting from China since 1994. Through the years we have maintained a flexible and strong program, including our one-to-one orphanage partnerships that enabled Gladney to send volunteers to several provinces on our well-known Superkids trips. With the process of matching undergoing some changes, and emphasis on the matching of children through the shared database, Gladney continues to feel hope for the children in China who need parents, and for parents who come to us to help make their family grow.  

Ready to get started?! Contact us at 347-443-5557 or superkids@gladney.org to request a medical conditions checklist today!