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Since 2004
By Helen Davidson and Amy Hawkins
for The Guardian
Americans Lauren and Harrison Smith met in China as students, and discussed their desire to adopt from the country early on in their relationship. As soon as they reached the minimum age of 30, the couple put together their applications and submitted for inspections of their home in Kunming, the capital of south-west China’s Yunnan province, where they lived with their two-year-old daughter.
“In September 2019, we saw our son’s picture for the first time and were able to submit a letter of intent to adopt him,” Lauren told the Guardian.
The boy, who the couple named Benaiah, had been given up by his parents at the age of 15 months, after suffering a head injury. Lauren assumed the parents had loved him in that first year of life but didn’t have the capacity to care for him. The couple received all approvals except permission to travel and collect Benaiah. But before the Smiths were able to continue with the adoption process, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, they were forced to return to the US. Months of delays stretched into years.
“In our years of waiting, we have created family traditions for our son … He has come to know us as mama and baba and knows his sisters as jiejie and meimei,” said Lauren, referring to the Chinese terms for older sister and younger sister.
Then, on 4 September, Lauren got a call that changed everything: “My phone started to ring, I looked and saw it was our adoption agency case worker and my heart started to race. ‘This is it!’ I thought, but as soon as I heard her voice I knew this call wasn’t a call of good news.”
The call reported that a Chinese government spokesperson, answering a question from a journalist, had just confirmed that after 35 years the country was ending international adoptions of Chinese children. Only those applicants who had been approved for travel to collect their child would be finalised.
The spokesperson, Mao Ning, did not explain the decision other than to say that it was in line with the spirit of relevant international conventions. “We express our appreciation to those foreign governments and families, who wish to adopt Chinese children, for their good intention and the love and kindness they have shown,” Mao added.
The news confirmed what some had suspected was coming for years, after watching a decline in the number of children being put up for adoption, combined with a China which is trying to reverse falling birthrates.
For couples midway through the adoption process, the announcement was crushing.
“Corinne met our six children [through video calls], saw her home and the room that we had prepared for her, and experienced the excitement our children felt in preparation for her arrival,” said Anne and John Contant, about the young girl with special needs they were matched with in 2019.
“Our daughter is turning nine years old next month. She should have been home almost five years ago. We are still just as committed to bringing Corinne home now as when we were matched with her in the fall of 2019. Our family is devastated by the announcement.”
Source: South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3282574/chinas-35-million-leftover-men-spark-foreign-brides-idea-tackle-gender-imbalance
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