If you've already adopted a child from China - or are just considering adoption from China - you'll probably be interested in reading as much as possible about the process. Not just the dry "fill in this form, then make this appointment" stuff, but the actual experience of taking a journey from your own homely house to that country over there (the one between Russia and Thailand) and coming home with a small human being in tow.

I'm quite fascinated by the story told in Cindy Champnella's The Waiting Child, although I haven't read the whole thing. There are excerpts ... more

I just got a very interesting appeal in my inbox from Half the Sky. They've got a chance at winning (!) a slot as torchbearer for the 2008 Olympics. And they want to let the children carry it.

Can you picture that? And you can help.

Half the Sky, as the regular reader might recall, is one of the coolest, ... more

I've talked about packing lists for traveling to China before (not to mention traveling with that other kind of baggage). But I was never THIS concise: Here's ... more

China Care is looking for volunteers who are interested in traveling to China and working with special-needs orphans. If you want to know how the system works and what these kids are really like, this seems like it would be one of the best ways to do that.

China Care also runs foster care services and supports Social Welfare Institutions in China by providing "renovations, foster care funding, infant formula, staff training, donated items and other... more

There are interesting things afoot at one of our favorite charities, Half the Sky. They've gotten the go-ahead from the Chinese government to help improve over 300 children's welfare institutions across the country. The Blue Sky plan is starting with 31 model children's centers, starting with one that's already underway in Wuhan. They want one center in every province... more

Over there to the right of these words is a picture from NASA called "Eastern China Pollution." Yes, you can't actually see the Great Wall from space but you can see the air pollution over it.

So the question for traveling families and other visitors becomes, "Do I have to pack breathing equipment?"

Officials... more

Going to Chengdu this month? Say "Hi" to Neil Gaiman at the 2007 International SF/Fantasy Conference.

Chengdu is a familiar city to those of us in the international adoption community, since it's home to lots of kids at... more

What was I saying about moving to Shanghai?

Check this out: the usually thought-provoking Shanghaiist blog (a group blog by a bunch of expats in China) has taken a look at adoption & abandonment - especially what happens to those kids who are taken in by Chinese families in what's... more

Somehow, last Sunday I missed this brief story. On the page, it seems a little too small for its significance.

The One-Child Policy is the Chinese government's response to a crippling overpopulation problem, and it's the reason why there's an international adoption program from China.

Urban couples are allowed... more

So, various members of my family have pointed this thing out to me, and I haven't been able to find much out.

But both Brian Stuy's Research-China (third sentence down) and The Rumor Queen (explanation #2) have recently alluded to rumors that China is opening more, possibly all, of its Social Welfare Institutes to the international adoption program. This... more