New Referrals

Yahoooo!!. We are one step closer to our referral with the announcement of the September 2005 referrals. Keep in mind we were logged in on January 5th, exactly one year ago today, leaving us with about 6 more months to go. It is nice to be over the hump in relation to the wait time however I really feel for the people entering the program right now. They may have to wait 2.5 years until they get their referrals. The wait time may be reduced for the people on the long end of the wait because of the tighter restrictions being placed on adoptive parents.

I am comfortable with most of these restrictions because I think most of them are in the child's best interest. Mainly the Body Mass Index of the adoptive parents. China is currently requiring that parents be under a 40 BMI which is entirely reasonable. Having a 40 BMI can almost be considered morbidly obese. I weigh about 197 pounds and am also about 6'2 and in good shape. My BMI is about 25. If I weighed 325 pounds I would have a BMI of 40. I think that weight represents an unhealthy lifestyle that in all likelihood will be passed on to the adoptive child in the form of bad eating habits. Walk into any Wal-Mart or 7-11 and you will see really overweight children sucking down sugar drinks like honey bees. I know there are some really good parents out there that will not be able to adopt from China but a line needs to be drawn for the best interests of the child.

The other major restriction is based upon the adoptive parents use of anti-depressant drugs. I think the verdict on this should be determined on a case by case basis. Potential parents with serious psychological issues will usually be weeded out during the home study. These new strict guidelines may eliminate good candidates based upon minor psychological problems such as low level stress. Some anti-depressants are even prescribed for physical ailments such as teeth grinding. Maybe CCAA will allow some grey areas in this regard.

The last issues relates to the prohibition of adoption by homosexual parents. I think that this is unfortunate because gay families have proven to be just as stable as straight couples.

China sets the rules and allows us the honor of adopting their children so we should respect their wishes even if we think they are unfair.