New China regs in a nutshell from IAAP:

1. The adopters must be a male and female couple with a stable marriage. If this is the first marriage for the couple they must have been married two years before submitting a dossier. If the husband or wife has been divorced they must now have been married for at least 5 years. They can have no more than two divorces.

2. Both Husband and wife must be at least 30 years old and under the age of 50. For parents adopting special needs children they must both be at lease 30 years old and both must also be under 55.

3. Both parents must be physically and mentally healthy and... more

A quick one here, as I've just come across something I've not noticed before in stories about the change to China's adoption rules.

The Voice of America is reporting that new requirements that will limit adoptions to married couples of a certain age under a certain weight making above a certain amount of money and not depressed about anything may not be engraved in stone.

In fact, the closing paragraph suggests there may be room for negotiation.

The China Adoption Center says before the final version of the rules are set, it will consider any feedback from international adoption... more

The upcoming changes in adoption rules for China have me thinking even more than usual about the world's children, how those who have no one are dealt with, and what perceptions exist these days. Without doubt, 2006 was a year when massive amounts of media coverage about international adoption was churned out ad nauseam, but interestingly enough, the actual numbers of children adopted by Americans went down.

Who would have predicted that?

Some... more

I have no way of knowing how people come to my blog -- by bookmark, direct link or from the "what's new" portal of adoptionblogs.com. This site has expanded a lot recently with the addition of bloggers and new categories. There's so much info there now that I'm having a tough time keeping up, and just keeping track of where my own posts ... both here and on the Older Parent Blog ... sit in relation to other new posts... more

I wrote the other day about adoption in Mongolia, and I often post about issues in China, so this headline,"China's adoption of Genghis Khan infuriates Mongolians" grabbed my attention, and I thought I'd pass along the story even if the use of the word adoption is not in the sense we normally use here. According to the... more

Over on the Older Parent Blog, I've been writing about time passing too quickly and trying to come up with ways of slowing things down a bit. I know I'm not alone in feeling like the world is spinning far too fast, out of control even, and a story from the BBC confirms this.

New Year's Eve in Nantes, France saw hundreds of demonstrators marching against the calendar... more

Continued from here where I was hesitating to spout off about the new China adoption rules ...

There are a significant number of people writing now about the new rules being a valid way for China to address the issue of supply and demand. Comments like the following are very common:

It seems to me be more of an issue with not enough "healthy" babies to meet the demand. There is an increase in domestic adoption... more

Anyone venturing into the international adoption world this week, even if putting only a toe into the territory, will have heard about China's new adoption rules that will go into effect on 1 May 2007. According to reports, soon to be taken off the list of possible adoptive parents are singles, the disabled, those on anti-depressant meds, the very chubby, the not-rich-enough, and more.

The yack-yack on groups and forums is a back-and-forth... more

I'm up to the FOURTH wrinkle on my forehead trying to get the book ready for a Friday deadline, so am tossing this blog post together like a last-minute salad for guests I forgot were coming.

Cleaning out the vegetable drawer and nosing around my desktop are far too similar activities these days, and I apologize for the leftovers.

Tidbit number one:

Brian Stuy of China adoption opinion fame published a post on his blog that has folks all over the Web pondering and discussing.

He's taken on the issue of birth mothers and remorse.

When I interviewed the two birthmothers last... more

Along with having just about everything else wrong with the country, Zimbabwe now has the world's highest percentage of children orphaned by AIDS, according to UNICEF. Almost one in every four children ... 1.6 million ... has lost at lease one parent to the virus, not surprising when you learn that 3,000 people are dying of AIDS every week.

UNICEF said it had received... more