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New! Journeys of
the Heart China Special Needs Adoption Program promises short
waiting times!
Journeys of the Heart is fortunate to be one
of the few adoption agencies accredited by the China Center of
Adoption Affairs to place special need children. Due to our
excellent relationship with CCAA, we are able to place special
needs children.
Learn more about new adoption opportunities
from Journeys of the Heart!
Please Click Here
China special needs
Special:
Update for waiting families
Journeys of the Heart
(JOH) is proud of and dedicated to our China Child
Adoption Program, which started in 1994. Our fees are very
competitive, particularly with the services we provide: personal
service, attention to detail, a great track record in adoptions
and an excellent relationship with the China Center of Adoption
Affairs (CCAA). The CCAA is the department in China's central
government that administers all adoptions by foreigners in
China. While Journeys places mostly healthy infants from China,
Journeys is proud to be one of the few agencies selected by the
CCAA to assist in placing older and special needs children. If
you are interested in adopting a Chinese child through Journeys,
we have many happy parents who would be pleased to speak with
you.
Over the last few years, the interest in
adopting Chinese children has increased dramatically. It is no
wonder - they are found to be among the healthiest babies of any
internationally adopted population and most show few emotional
effects from their time in an orphanage. The Chinese
government's policy of allowing their families to have only one
child has meant a phenomena of many abandoned baby girls who
reside in orphanages throughout the country. Generally, women in
China do not drink or use drugs and most people have an adequate
and healthy diet, making this a unique and superior prenatal
environment.
After a family's application is sent to China
the wait for a referral is about 41 months at this time.
The trip to China is generally two weeks long, starting with a
few days in Beijing to visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden
City. At least one parent must travel to adopt the child. For
groups of seven families or more, an agency escort accompanies
your group to make sure all goes well and to help with any
issues that may arise. Smaller groups are well taken care
of by the JOH travel coordinators.
The CCAA refers healthy infants for adoption
to married couples between the ages of 30 and 45. If both
parents are over the age of 45 (in the case of a couple), China
will refer healthy children who are likely to be at least one
year old. If parents are between 50 and 55 years old, China will
refer only special need children. China does not allow persons
under the age of 30 to adopt. Babies are generally between 8-14
months old at time of referral.
There are a few infant boys available for
adoption who may have special needs. Adopting parents who
request a child who has special need will be put on a "fast
track," meaning that the time frame to process the adoption
should be cut one-third to one-half less.
For families with Chinese heritage, CCAA will
expedite the referral process and the time frame should be less
than the normal waiting time.
Journeys has taken steps to make sure our
program is among the best. Journeys' staff in Beijing advocates
for families and makes regular visits to the CCAA.
Journeys arranges all travel so that families
can accurately budget their travel portion of the trip. Our
guide in Beijing quickly and expertly makes any travel
arrangements within China and gets competitive prices even with
little advance notice. We utilize top notch travel guides in
China who know the adoption process and what to see while you
are there. We arrange for a complete travel package that
includes all in country travel, hotels, guides, sightseeing when
possible, all for- About $110 per day per person. Our friendly
and knowledgeable guide meets the families when they arrive in
Beijing. Local guides assist in different areas we visit.
We help make travel arrangements to get to and from China.
Families who wish to use frequent flier programs for the
international portion of the flights can make such arrangements.
A Journeys' representative who has experience
in adopting and/or traveling to China accompanies groups to
provide additional support when there are 7 or more families in
the group. In the rare situation when problems occur, the guides
and escort work hard to solve them quickly. The guides and
escort also assist the family in completing the child's
immigration paperwork, communicating with provincial officials,
providing shopping tips, sightseeing ideas and your overall
support.
Relief programs by JOH have made substantial
501 (c)(3) Donations to China's orphanages and waiting children,
supported surgeries and purchased air conditioning and heat
units that help the waiting children survive the hottest of
summers and the below freezing winters. JOH continues to give to
orphanages in this way through the Love the Children Fund.
For more information on this program, contact
Gabriel Marcu at:
gabriel@journeysoftheheart.net
or (503) 681-3075
Get the most up
to date information on our
INTERNATIONAL or DOMESTIC Child
Adoption Programs emailed to you, including fees,
timelines and new programs!
Learn more click
here.
Special Note: Rules Apply To All Adoption Agencies Working In China
I.
The adopters are a couple of one male and one female with a stable
marital relationship. In case that both the husband and wife do not have
any ex-marriage, the length of marriage has to reach two years. In case
that either the husband or wife has ex-marriages (not more than 2), the
length of the current marriage has to reach 5 years.
II.
Both the husband and wife have reached the age of 30 years and are under
50.
For
adoption of special needs child, both of them should have reached the
age of 30 and are under 55.
III.
Both the husband and wife are fully healthy physically and mentally, and
do not have the following conditions:
-
AIDS
-
mental handicap
-
infectious disease within infective
stage
-
binocular blind or binocular
parallax or monocular blind and with no ocular prosthesis
-
binaural hearing loss or language
function loss; adoption of special needs children who have identical
conditions will be exempt from this limitation
-
non-function or dysfunction of limbs
or trunk caused by impairment, incompleteness, numbness or
deformation; severe facial deformation
-
severe diseases which requires long
term treatment and which affect life expectancy, like malignant
tumor, lupus erythematosus, nephrosis, epilepsy, and etc.
-
post-surgery of major organs
transplantation, not yet 10 years
-
schizophrenia
-
medication for severe mental
disorders, like depression, mania, or anxiety neurosis, and etc,
stopped not more than 2 years
-
BMI (BMI=weight (kg)/ height2 (m2)
)> 40
IV.
Either the husband or wife holds a stable occupation. The family annual
income reaches $10,000 for each family member, including the prospective
adoptee and the family net assets value should reach $80,000.
The
family annual income does not include welfare income, like relief fund,
pension, unemployment insurance, or government subsidy, and etc.
V.
Both the husband and wife have received education of or above the level
of senior high school, or vocational skills training of the same level.
VI.
The number of children in family under the age of 18 years does not
reach 5, and the youngest one should have reached the age of 1 year.
Adoption of special needs children will be exempt from the limitation of
"the number of children in family under the age of 18 years does not
reach 5".
VII.
Both the husband and wife have never come under any criminal sanction.
And they behave honorably with good moral characters, and abide by
regulations and laws. Both of them do not accord with the following
situations:
-
have a history of domestic violence,
sex abuse, abandonment or abuse of children (even if they are not
consequently arrested or criminated)
-
have a history of taking narcotics
like opium, morphine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine,
and etc, and medication for mental diseases, which are able to
arouse addiction among human beings
-
have a history of alcohol abuse and
have given up drinking not more than 10 years ago
Adoption application will be given consideration on a case by case basis
when either the husband or the wife has less than 3 criminal records of
slight severity with no severe outcomes, and the time for correction of
wrong has reached 10 years, or has less than 5 records of traffic law
violation with no severe outcomes.
VIII. The adopters are able to have a correct cognition of adoption, and
expect to provide a warm family for the orphaned children (or children
with handicap and disability) via adoption and to meet the needs of the
children adopted for the sake of a good development of them. They have a
correct cognition of inter-country adoption as well and are fully
mentally-prepared for the potential risks within inter-country-adoption
and for the situations of children adopted as potential diseases,
developmental delay, post-placement maladjustment, and etc.
IX.
The adopters make in the adoption application letter clear promises of
being able to accept post-placement follow-ups and offer post-placement
reports as required.
X.
The fixed number of year or age that appears in this letter shall be
dated from the day when the adoption application documents are logged in
at the CCAA |
