In the Texas area? Interested in actually talking to officials with the CCAA? Or just anyone who knows stuff about adopting from China?
I’ve just been forwarded an email about The East Meets West Conference.
It’s something that happens twice every year in a different American city each time, when One Of The Big Agencies brings Chinese officials, adoption experts of all stripes, and adoptive parents (and just people who are thinking about adopting) together in a big room. I think there’s food there, too.
This one is going to be on May 5 in Dallas, Texas, sponsored by the North Texas FCC and a group called Resolve Infertility.
It sounds pretty good even if, like me, you’re someone who didn’t use That One Big Agency to do the actual adopting.
The email says:
This is the only conference available where Chinese orphanage directors describe life in the orphanage, CCAA officials talk about the recent changes, lawyers explain tax benefits and re-adoption steps, doctors discuss the health and development of Chinese children, professors describe the social aspects of Chinese adoption from both an American and Chinese perspective, plus many more interesting and helpful topics in our conference sessions. In fact, “East Meets West” is the only national conference dedicated to Chinese adoption in the U.S.
It’s open to anyone who’s interested.
This year, they’re also arranging a Friday night dinner with the visiting orphanage director, Mr. Jin Bao Li of the Shanxi Da Tong Social Welfare Institute. It’s a separate event with separate registration.
You can read more about it — details on the speakers, registration fees, all that jazz — on the website.
As a note, I gotta say that the website twice mentions adoption as an alternative to “natural child birth,” which I suppose I should raise a disapproving eyebrow toward, and maybe I will, but I have to finish laughing first. Because, you know, either it’s going into labor without pain medication in a comfortable room with a midwife and doula and incense and New Age music playing, or else it’s adopting from China.
Language counts, people.
Anyway, conference. Check it out.
