Back in 2000-2001 when we decided to adopt internationally, we chose China for all the reasons thousands of people adopt from China every year … the one child policy resulting in thousands of baby girls waiting in orphanges, the streamlined, centralized, time-tested process, etc. Then as the wait to referral stretched to 14 months just as we were about to be DTC, we learned about Cambodia. The country of origin was not as important to us as adopting a child who needed a family, so we decided to switch. Unfortunately, we brought all of our perceptions about adoption, based on what we’d learned about China, with us. We were suprised to learn that more boys were available than girls. We also realized that Cambodia’s system was not as strong as China’s. Fees varied by agency and orphanage, as did timelines. And unfortunately, the demand caused by many people ‘discovering’ Cambodia at the same time resulted in fraudulant behavior by at least one facilitator, probably more. The system was overloaded and no one was looking out for the best interests of the children – and the US shut adoptions down.
Fast-forward to 2007: Vietnam is emerging as the exciting new alternative to China. Not only has China’s wait to referral gotten remarkably long, but recently the rules were revised and many people who planned to adopt from China no longer qualify. Vietnam doesn’t have as many strict rules and some agencies are even promising near-instant referrals. It seems to be the perfect solution.
What’s wrong with this picture? Vietnam is not China.
Vietnam’s rules may be less restrictive and some agencies might be promising fast referrals, but Vietnam also does not have a centralized system like China’s. While all the paperwork does go through the Department of International Adoptions (DIA) in Hanoi, the referrals themselves come from individual orphanages that each agency contracts with. (In the cases where more than one agency is contracted with the same orphanage, the DIA recently began keeping track of the distribution of referrals to be certain no agency is receiving special favors). In addition, the child’s paperwork has to be reviewed by their province in Vietnam. Some provinces are very efficient and process the paperwork quickly – others follow a much slower timeline.
Also consider for a moment the number of children available for adoption in Vietnam. While some agencies or agency-run adoption websites assert that there are “millions” of orphans in Vietnam, the number of adoptable children is actually much smaller. While China maintains a one child population policy, Vietnam does not restrict most families in that manner. So there is not government pressure on families to abandon/relinquish children, and there seem to be equal numbers of girls and boys who are relinquished. Children are relinquished in Vietnam for other reasons, from poverty to the shame of unwed motherhood or true orphans from diseases/accidents… but not in the numbers seen in China. Why? Just compare their populations:
China: 1,321,851,888
Vietnam: 85,262,356
China is has more than 15 times more people than Vietnam. Their fertility rates are very similar – just under 2 children per woman. Which means there are approximately 15 times more children in China than in Vietnam.
Clearly this also means Vietnam can not replace China as a “source” for adoptable children. Vietnam’s system simply can not handle the burden of thousands of additional hopeful adoptive parents. If it is overwhelmed, the process will slow down; the temptation for unethical activity will be extremely high; it may even break the system altogether.
I don’t mean to paint such a bleak picture of Vietnam. There are some extremely good agencies running ethical, reputable programs in Vietnam. And of course there are many children in need of families. But it is not a perfect system and the “supply” of babies is not unlimited. Please take the time to really research Vietnam before making the switch. And then research your agency too. Wherever you decide to adopt from, an ethical adoption is in everyone’s best interests.
8 Responses
[…] posts. I’m hoping we see a lot of good, lively discussion over there. My first post is called Vietnam is not China and Nicki has a great post On Noids… click on over and let us know what you […]
Reading these posts and this site made me feel like I wanted to stand up and do a whoo-whoo-whoo circling my arm in the air Arsenio Hall style…..
Ethics in adoption(Vietnam and otherwise) have become an ever important issue/value in my life.
Keep it up.
Jena
Hey guys!! What a great site this will be. As you know, I switched agencies b/c I was offered three babies before I even finished my homestudy..freaked me out! Of course now my agency hasn’t had a referral yet so I am kind of worried about that too (they were licensed in Oct) Anyway, hopefully I will learn a lot on here. Vietnam has been such a different experience from our China adoption in 2005 & like you said, the wait times, etc.. should not be a reason to just switch countries. RESEARCH …..
Thank you for mentioning the provincial timeframe. That seems to be the part of the Vietnam process that is the most confusing. Even within an agency, families will notice differences between the time frame of provinces. It is very confusing for PAP’s to hear that so and so agency has x amount of wait to travel from one person and then x amount of wait to travel from another, let alone the differences between agencies.
This also can affect the age of the referred child, depending on if a child is in a province that moves on the quicker end versus a province that moves at the end of (or in some people’s experience, past) the dealines in the process agreements. Two children placed at the same age in different provinces could easily have a month or more difference in age due to this reason alone.
This blog is a good idea, I would suggest posting links to the agreement between the two nations and the list of USCIS approved agencies (as many PAPS never look at this and it is often too late when they realize what is going on.) ANy official links from the U.S. gov’t will help as they do have wonderful guidlines of what to look for and what to avoid during the process.
Thank you so much for starting this great blog! There is so much to be shared and learned. Yes, some will see this blog as painting a “bleak picture”, but these are the realities of adoption. Not just Vietnam adoption, or even international adoption…these are the realities of ADOPTION, period. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. A lot goes on behind the curtains and PAP’s have the responsibility of asking the tough questions.
Very interested in reading upcoming posts and watching this blog evolve!
Thanks for this post. I get sooo sick of hearing people complain about Vietnam’s program while in country because they have already adopted from China and think it is the same because it is an Asian country. It seems like people want to think they are both the same exact program, but no one would ever thing that Russia is the same as China!
YEAH!!! I’m so excited by your new website! The “China is not Vietnam” idea has become part of my daily rants to my family….just ask my husband. And once again, you have put my thoughts into (much more coherant) words.
Yes, we learned this the hard way. So many agencies assured us that an ethical adoption could be completed within 6 months to a year, so we tried to complete our Vietnam adoption during our China wait. Here we sit a year into our Vietnam adoption with no referral, and China still a year away for us. Although lots of people have had quick, smooth, ethical adoptions from both countries, apparently we are not meant to be one of them. Sigh.