China Daily Article

**I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it was worth noting.

Fewer kids available for adoption by foreigners
By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-20 08:10
Fewer Chinese children are available for adoption by foreigners because more affluent families at home have started adopting them, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said on Tuesday.
"The number of Chinese couples applying to adopt children has risen substantially in recent years," said Wang Suying, a division chief of MCA's social welfare and social affairs department, which oversees adoption.
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About 52,500 children were registered for adoption in 2004, with foreigners adopting 12,500 of them, according to MCA figures. But last year, the numbers fell to about 46,000 and 10,000.
"Our policy is in line with the international practice of encouraging adoption by families within the country," Wang said, because that way the kids can grow up in their own culture, which is good for them.
"But that does not mean we have any prejudice against foreign adoptions."
More families in the country are adopting kids because Chinese people's attitude toward adoption has changed, Wang said.
A lot of Chinese used to adopt kids to ensure someone was there to take care of them during their retired life, and hence they preferred boys to girls, she said.
"Now more and more Chinese people are adopting kids simply because they love children and are proud to become foster parents."
Ji Gang, director of domestic adoptions, China Center of Adoption Affairs, said Chinese families' newly acquired affluence too was responsible for the change in attitude.
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences figures show China has 30 million middle-class people, or those who earn between $10,000 and $50,000 a year.
Wang, however, said foreign families are still more willing to adopt disabled children.
US families adopted the highest number of Chinese children, followed by the Spanish.
Since 1992, when China's Adoption Law was implemented, US families have adopted more than 55,000 Chinese kids.
From May 2007, China tightened the rules for foreigners who wanted to adopt Chinese children.
To qualify as an eligible family, couples now need to have a stable marriage, comfortable income, and sound physical and mental health.
According to China's Adoption Law, people who want to adopt children must be more than 30 years old, healthy, childless and with a good and steady income to raise and educate the children.

Random Happenings

• I received an email from a lady who adopted a baby girl from China in May. The baby girl is from Chongqing, cleft affected, has eyes like MK - big and beautiful, lives not too far from us and her dad is a Clemson grad just like Ry. Even more amazing is that the lady works at the college I graduated from years and years and years ago! Of course, I will add that she works in the math dept. and she was even working there when I was a student. Unfortunately, I am sure we have never met before as math is not my forte!
• Colin has Clemson football on his mind. Yesterday on the way to school, we were saying our prayers as we always do. I prayed a special prayer for Ryan's uncle Fred who was in a bad car accident and is bed ridden for at least 8 weeks - the entire football season pretty much. Fred is a man that has never, ever missed a Clemson game....ever, and he is 76ish years old. He takes pleasure in corrupting my boys with Clemson paraphernalia! Anyway, when I finished my prayer, Pryce asked how Fred was going to get to his next doctor appt. I explained to him that the red and white limo (ambulance) had been arranged to transport Fred to his doctor. Colin quickly corrected me and said that actually ambulances were ORANGE and WHITE, just like the Clemson colors so Fred would be in good hands.
• Mason-Kate is just cute, that is all I really have to say about her....she is just cute. Ryan and I have a little competition going on lately trying to get her to say "I love my mama" or "I love my dada"....instead of her saying either of our names, she will say "I...I...mmmm GEGE" with a huge smile on her face while she claps for herself. She can say mama and dada but she chooses to say "gege"....that is actually the word for brother in Chinese so I am thinking she is just trying to keep the peace!

Labor Day Weekend

The long Labor Day weekend for us was welcomed with open arms. The boys were introduced to Rock Band on the Wii while visiting some friends in SC. They, of course, want to go purchase one TODAY! When I told them it would be a while before the rock band made an appearance at our house, Colin said "but MOM, the longer we wait, the longer it will take for us to learn how to be rock stars". HMMM, I think the wait just got longer! Admittedly so, it was a lot of fun.

Monday we went to the town that I grew up in and attended the annual Labor Day parade. This parade is one that all children are guaranteed to love due to the amount of candy that is thrown from every float that participates. We now have enough candy in our home to get us through Halloween. Following the parade, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday. Jay will be one year old this weekend!

Happy 1st birthday, Jay!

Now that the relaxing weekend is over, I can sleep!