Gladney Blog

How Does This Work?

“We would like to adopt a child who needs us - Who are the children needing adoption in China?”

Depending on who you ask, you will get a variety of answers.  As you consider adopting from China – here is some context that we think is helpful and hopeful that shows many families are successfully adopting from China.

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!

MATCHED!

We met Kaelan for the first time when we were in Taiwan last month. He just turned 5 and is a quiet little guy who takes time to warm up in new environments. He was quiet when he first came into the room, but was giggling and smiling by the time he left.

How does this work?

Second only to being matched with a child for adoption, the most exciting part of the international adoption process is traveling to bring your child home! It is important to be prepared for this step. And, just like all parts of the adoption journey, Gladney Center staff will be here to guide and help you as you travel to China.

If you have been following superkids for very long you have heard me say this before, and if you continue following I'm sure I will say it again, but I cannot get over the difference that meeting a child in person makes! I wrote bout Autumn here. I totally fell for her. Her little pictures, videos, everything. Then I met her in person, and y'all... she is the cutest, most fun, darling little 4 year old girl!

Deprive our darling child of his nap and stick him on a plane for 2.5 hours and he’s not so darling. He howled like a banshee nearly all the way to Guangzhou. He wet himself and peed on me. He threw a toy, a cup of water, a pickle covered in mayonnaise, and my phone. The toy beaned the nice man across the aisle. He screamed because he couldn’t go into business class. He screamed because he wanted a Coke. He screamed because he was being held. He screamed because he wasn’t being held. He screamed because the window shades were open. He screamed because he had a seat belt on. He screamed because a nice blanket was placed upon him. He stopped screaming long enough for deplaning and baggage claim. Then in the van to the hotel he lunged forward to grab the stick shift, so I had to hold him again, so he started screaming again. After about thirty minutes, he finally, finally fell asleep. It was 6pm.

Ronan is a darling 20 month old baby boy. He is currently in the Butterfly Home and is well loved and cared for by his caregivers there. His best friend is Hailey and they spend a lot of time playing together.

We get used to children tugging on our heartstrings. It is to be expected in the work that we do. But I am going to say, these little girls embedded themselves in my heart in the time I spent with them! They are beautiful and sweet. They have known heartache in their little lives. In Taiwan we get a lot of birth family history and these precious girls have definitely been through hard things. But their love and affection for each other was immediately obvious.

We ended our trip to Taiwan on a high note. We did not see very many children our second day at Cathwel, but we had productive conversations with staff and feel excited about our continuing partner ship there! As we were leaving we saw one of our sweet little matched kiddos out for a walk in the stroller. When we asked where she was going they said to get her passport photo taken, which just seems so full of hope and promise!

Today we were at Cathwel, our third day seeing children and our first day at Cathwel for this trip. The children came into the room in a steady stream all day long.