General Information

What is a "Waiting Child"?

A child is generally considered to be "waiting" or "hard to place" if they are older (over 6), or if they have at least minor to moderate medical, physical, genetic, psychological, emotional, or developmental challenges or disabilities. This longer description is often abbreviated to "special needs".

These kids are called waiting children for the obvious reason. Most families prefer to adopt kids with no known medical conditions, so children with challenges are less likely to be adopted and more likely to be "waiting" in an orphanage or foster care for adoptive parents.

What are minor, moderate, and major special needs?

This can cover a wide range of conditions. Most of them will be surgically correctable, or may be something that just takes a little extra understanding and some additional time. Examples of surgically correctable conditions would be things like a club foot, cleft lip and palate, or a correctable heart defect – like a murmur caused by a small hole.

Some minor to moderate special needs are not correctable. Examples would be things like blindness in one eye, a disfiguring facial scar, a malformed and minimally useable hand, significant hearing loss, a malformed hip significantly impacting gait, etc.

Moderate to major special needs would include conditions such as a missing limb, Downs Syndrome, albinism, major bilateral cleft lip and palate, or Hepatitis B. A more detailed discussion is available in our Special Needs Checklist.

Do we qualify to adopt a waiting child?

Most families who are able to adopt a child may choose to adopt a waiting child. There are no additional technical requirements for your family. If you and your spouse are over 30 and under 55, and meet China’s other qualifications, you may adopt a waiting child.

Adopting a waiting child brings additional medical, emotional, and physical challenges to your family. So while the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has not established additional restrictions or requirements they state that, in principle, they prefer families adopting waiting to be particularly well qualified with stable marriages, a higher than average income, good health, no criminal records, good medical insurance, and be truly committed to the adoption of a special needs child.

At the same time the CCAA has always been very flexible in matching waiting children and families. If your family is dedicated to adopting a waiting child, then you will probably be successful.

May I adopt a waiting child if I am single?

Unfortunately, no. In May of 2007 China stopped accepting applications for adoptions by single parents.

Is it faster to adopt a waiting child?

In most cases, yes. The CCAA provides expedited processing and review of documents for families wishing to adopt a waiting child. Your waiting time can be cut by more than 50%. Please see the detailed description of the process below for more details.

Is it less expensive to adopt a waiting child?

In some cases, yes. The China Center of Adoption Affairs has a slightly reduced (by about $200) application fee, and some orphanages have reduced their required donation (normally $3,000) for more seriously impacted children. It is the philosophy of our agency to ask each family to pay for the adoption services they receive, so our basic fee structure is the same for all adoptions. There is a small additional post placement fee ($500, collected at time of referral/approval) for the additional post placement work the CCAA requires for waiting children placements. Additional details can be found below.

We have also seen that contributions to a waiting child’s fund in our Directed Donation Program can be more generous. Families who are able to care for a child but find the initial expenses of an adoption difficult to afford should take a look at this, among our other financial assistance options.

Do we get to choose the waiting child we adopt?

That is an option available to your family. Americans Adopting Orphans has two different waiting child programs. The first is our Named Waiting Child Program. The second is our Profiled Waiting Child Program. With the "Named" program you will look at photos and information about different children waiting to be adopted, and request a child. That child will wait for you until you can travel to China. With the "Profiled" program you describe the child you want to adopt, including preferences for the special needs you are willing to consider, and China will match your family with a child chosen by the CCAA. These choices are described in more detail below.

For both options you begin by becoming a client of Americans Adopting Orphans and starting your home study process. During your time with your social worker you will talk about different kinds of special needs. Using the Americans Adopting Orphans Special Needs Checklist you will develop a profile of the child you want to adopt. If you have already completed your home study you may need to have an addendum added, broadening your approval to include conditions you are willing to consider.

May we look at photos and medical information for waiting children?

Your family may review children available in our Named program after you become a client family of our agency and as you work with your social worker on our Special Needs Checklist. In order to protect the privacy of the children, and to maintain the highest adoption practices, Americans Adopting Orphans does not make identifying information about waiting children available to the general public. We strongly recommend that families carefully consider and choose the agency that is right for their family, and then move to selecting a child to adopt.