China Special Needs Children

Christian World Adoption is honored to be able to help the precious children who are waiting to find their forever families. Please read carefully the important information below regarding the process for adoption of a special needs child from China.

Requirements for Potential Parents

To adopt a special needs child, China (CCAA) has provided these guidelines:

• Married couples age 30-55, and married at least 2 years.
• No more than two previous marriages per applicant. If either has been divorced, then current marriage must be for at least 5 years.
• Both parents in good physical and mental health.
• If there is a history of medications for mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, mania, or neurosis, etc. medications must have been discontinued at least 2 years previously.
• Both parents with a body mass index of 40 or less.
• Family should have above average financial resources (more than the typical $10,000 per person/annually).
• Married couples can have no more than five minor age children living in the home.
• Family must have medical insurance that would cover adopted child’s special needs condition.
• Either husband or wife must have a stable job. Income must meet or exceed the standard formula of $10,000 per family member (including the child to be adopted) annually, and cannot include sources such as welfare, relief funds, pensions, unemployment insurance, or government subsidies. The family’s net worth must be at least $80,000.
• Both applicants must have achieved at least a high school education or vocational training at the same level.
• Applicants shall have no criminal history. Exceptions to this policy may be made in cases where there are fewer than three criminal records of ‘slight severity’, and these occurred at least 10 years ago.
• Applicants shall have no history of alcohol abuse. Exceptions may be made if the applicant stopped drinking at least 10 years ago.
• Applicants shall have no history of taking opium, morphine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, or history of abusing prescription medications.

The information on any child provided to you via email is all that will be available to families deciding whether to accept a child or not. A family cannot expect additional pictures, additional information, daily schedule information, updated sizes, more recent medical information, etc. immediately in order to help them decide to accept a child or not. A family must be able to make a decision to adopt a child based on the information provided. We understand families see a photo, fall in love, and find it extremely difficult to be patient. We fully understand that having a photo of ‘your child’ means you want them in your family as quick as possible. We want this for you as well. The process for a special needs child is greatly expedited by CCAA. However, it is not possible for a family to speed up the process beyond what is necessary for CCAA to handle their required steps. CCAA processes over 15,000 adoptions per year and they have an excellent procedure in place. Once a family has submitted the required dossier and it is logged into CCAA, the family can expect their travel announcement in approximately 4 months. Then, approximately one month later, the family will travel to China.

Adoption of a Special Needs Child from CCAA’s General List and/or Adoption of a Special Needs Child from CWA’s Private List

Most of the special needs children available from China will now be placed on CCAA’s General List, although CWA does continue to receive a private list of children.. For adoption of one of these children, the process is as follows:

1. Families must apply with CWA and begin their paperwork/dossier. Once the dossier is approximately half completed (or more), ONLY THEN can a family consider one of the many children on the general list, or on CWA’s private list.
    
2. As a client of CWA, you will be given preferential treatment. When children are available or added to the list, you will be notified immediately with a list of the children including date of birth, medical diagnosis, province in China where the child lives. If you see a child in which you might be interested, you can request their medical information and photos.

Per CCAA regulations, the family then has 48 hours for getting a doctor’s opinion on your “chosen” child’s medical papers, submitting to CWA your translated LOI (Letter of Intent to adopt SN children) and forms. CWA has only 48 hours to block a child’s file. Once this 48 hours has passed, the child is automatically available again if the family has not acted to begin the adoption. Most importantly, CCAA requires all dossier paperwork be submitted within 3 months of accepting a child from the waiting child list. Here are some ways that may help you make this process happen in this short amount of time:

(a) Make a list of your acceptable SN conditions; do a lot of research/inquiries on the internet, gather info from doctors, friends or families that have children with those conditions;

(b) Line up the doctors and specialists of your acceptable SN conditions and make them aware that they have only hours to give you their opinions. There are doctors in the US that specialize in evaluating the medicals on international children available for adoption. This is difficult, but doable.

Therefore, as you can see, once you are a client of CWA, you will have access to both the general list of children as well as those assigned solely to CWA for placement. If you have additional questions about China special needs adoption, then please contact:

Carol Nelson
Director of Intake
Christian World Adoption
888-972-3678
Email