Archie’s Adoption
In 2017, an eight-day-old newborn named Archie joined our Cambodia foster care program. He was handed to wonderful foster parents who were already fostering two older children. Quickly, Baby Archie won their hearts, and the entire family found themselves in love with this precious baby boy.
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The Gift of Family: India Foster Care
So many times, things that are “normal” or “routine” can be taken for granted or overlooked. The gift of a family is no different. Consider a child’s life without a family to support him or her.
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Three Brothers, Together Again in Foster Care
For a young child, the gift of a loving family is truly invaluable. In a perfect world, every child would be able to be raised within their biological family, but that is, unfortunately, not always a viable option. In these instances, the role of foster care becomes key. A loving foster care family provides stability, love, and a feeling of belonging for children whose biological families are no longer living or who are unable to provide for them due to any number of circumstances.
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Gabby Gives Back
Sixteen years ago, Gabby McElwain was born in China and then taken to an orphanage. LWB had recently set up foster care in her city, and we were very happy when she could move into a wonderful foster family instead of being confined to an orphanage crib. For over a year, she experienced the love of a family who cared for and cherished her.
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Why International Adoption Still Matters
When Russia announced it was closing its international adoption program, social media exploded with opinions. Friends would forward me articles on international adoption and say, “Don’t read the comments section!” So of course I did. And I would read the words posted from people vehemently opposed to international adoption and wonder where our humanity has gone.
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New Challenges
I ended Friday’s blog by saying that the shift in orphanage populations has significantly changed the responsibilities of nannies over the years. A decade ago, the nannies were caring for 10-15 children at a time in the main baby rooms….but on the whole, these were primarily “healthy” babies. Now they are often caring for the same number of children, but ones who have medical needs. Their jobs can be difficult indeed. I will never forget walking into a rural orphanage in a western province and seeing a nanny thread a worn looking rubber tube down the throat of a baby with cleft.
Read MoreBirth Defects
The first two reasons for the shift in orphanage populations in China are both positive ones – an evolving attitude towards girls and the sharp increase in domestic adoption. The third major reason, however, is quite sad.
Birth defects in China have risen 70% in the last decade. (See Source 1). Mr. Jiang Fan, of the National Population and Family Planning Commission stated that birth defects now affect one in ten households in China, with a child being born every 30 seconds with a medical need. Read more.
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Domestic Adoption on the Rise
A second main reason for the shift in orphanage populations is that domestic adoption has increased substantially in China. Many people point to the Sichuan earthquake as one of the major turning points, as the topic of adoption was discussed extensively due to the number of children orphaned in the quake. Thousands of people posted online that they were open to adopting a child.
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The Adoption of Boys
I wanted to add an extra day to this blog series because a reader asked about why there are so many more older boys available for adoption now than there were in the past. Again, I don’t have any way to look at the entire adoption system as a whole and can only go off of the orphanages we have worked with for years, but I do have some thoughts on why more older boys are now available.
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Changing Attitudes
Yesterday we discussed that the orphanage populations in China have shifted dramatically in the last decade. The reasons for this are many, but today I would like to talk about the changing attitudes of the younger generation of adults. When most Western people think of China in the past, they think of a fairly closed society, where traditional thinking had been passed down generation after generation, especially in rural areas.
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