sandraspeaks's comments

Changing Your Child's Name - Blog Entry

28 Aug 2006 07:08 PM

Just adopted an almost 6 yr old from China in March 2006, before you leave the providence they will ask you, "What will be her English name?" Also most people in Guangzhou in the shops will have an English name and also a Chinese name as some names are easier to remember and say.

I believe they tell the older children in China that they are coming to start over, they get new parents, a new life, and a new name.

We didn't erase anything from her past. We made her Chinese name her middle name so it will always be a part of her life. Unlike an infant, she can remember being in China and can speak/understand Chinese. She knows both her English name and Chinese names.

sandraspeaks :)

Private Domestic Adoption - Blog Entry

28 Aug 2006 07:03 PM

I personally did a domestic open adoption and it started basically the same way. The bmom's mom found us and we all sat down and talked BEFORE we introduced an agency into the picture. We wanted the baby, and they wanted to pick a local home for this child. I think your article makes it sound like it's a bad thing. IT's NOT!

Once we talked, we put our homestudy in high gear so we were ready to be an "at-risk" foster home by the time the baby was born, this way the baby could come to my house until the paperwork was finished and the TPR (termination of parental rights) was done.

Everyone had a lawyer along with the agency being involved. It might have been considered a messy adoption, but we walked out of the hospital with a baby that was less than 2 days old. He has always been with us, and it's worth it.

I would do it this way again too. Lots of times agencies have lists of paper ready parents but don't have US babies to offer them, so agencies would say not to do it this way because you are basically jumping to the top of the list. The agency was also ready to tell us that if we couldn't afford to adopt this child, they had a room full of people that could.

What a wonderful blessing to be a part of the bmom's choice. Oh, we were invited by the bmom to be at the baby's birth (another no-no if the agency is more involved.) Because we all stayed friends, the agency couldn't play us against each other too.