Our China Adoption Blogger, Grant, wrote recently about Burma and how the horrid events in that country could eventually impact adoptions from China.

He is no doubt right, and for families waiting ... and waiting and waiting, as the timeframe for adoptions from China just gets longer and longer ... the anxiety levels for parents in the process must be rising through the roof.

As we all know the wait is torture, no matter what, and being aware of global events that through no fault of our own, and completely out of the control of anyone we might happen to have access to, could change absolutely everything makes it about a bazillion times worse on an hourly basis, for months and months and months.

How well I remember watching headlines while waiting for permission to travel for my kids and freaking out with every mention of SARS and Bird Flu, concerned that an outbreak would make it impossible to visit whole sections of the planet, including the part my kids were waiting in.

With my children in Cambodia, I was even that much more aware of how quickly and easily politics could come into play, and how possible an overnight decision made thousands of miles away by people neither knowing nor caring about my children, my family and me could throw a future into doubt and turmoil.

Up until fairly recently China adoption have been smooth and predictable, and even with the new rules and regs that went into effect last May there's not been too many hiccoughs in the process. The Chinese government has called the shots, and there's been little criticism of their system.

Many parents of kids from other countries have wondered just why this is; why China seems to get a pass on human rights abuses, low transparency, conflicting statistics and questionable practices. After all, is that country so squeaky clean in government practices that Cambodia and Guatemala, for example, suffer greatly in comparison?

To be continued in the next post.