We are participating in the special needs adoption program through China. I have had a few people ask me how this works, what type of special needs, how do they match families with children, etc. I will try to answer some of the most frequent questions.
Do you know what type of special needs your children will have?
Umm, well kinda. Our agency gave us a form that had many many types of special needs listed that the children in the special needs program could be diagnosed with. Each family is able to review the list and mark which medical conditions they feel they could handle. We marked yes, no or maybe for each condition listed. This will help our agency match children with families. We will be matched with a child with any one, or more, of the special needs we feel we can appropriately handle.
How did you select the special needs you were open to?
This is very complicated for us and any family who is adopting through this program. There are many factors that go into determining if you can parent a child with each SN. Everyone must think about their local community - are their specialist near by that can treat this condition? Do you need to live within a certain distance of a children's hospital? Does your insurance cover the needs of that child? Are there local service providers beyond doctors in your area that would be needed? Will the child need surgery? If yes, which parent can take off work for the post-op care? Is your home accessible to that child? Can that child live with pets? The list goes on and on.
It goes far beyond your personal comfort level. We considered requesting a waiting child file but after some insurance research determined that we could not afford the medical needs. We were comfortable with the diagnosis, surgeries needed, rehab required, etc but money played a role.
Since Jake and I both work with children who have a range of needs, we were able to select a large number of special needs from the list that we felt comfortable with. Our agency felt we have a "great" medical checklist. That simply means the agency feels they will be able to match our family with sweet little children!
What types of special needs are included on the list?
There is a very wide range of special needs included that range from very mild to very significant. The milder side includes minor heart conditions, missing digits, repaired cleft lip, minor hearing loss, etc. The more significant needs include significant neurological conditions,children in need of significant surgeries including organ transplants, children with very limited life expectancy, etc.
Where are you on the waiting list?
We don't know. Say there are 20 people on the list and we are number 10. Each person on the list has a different medical checklist from the others. A child's file comes in with the diagnosis of being purple with pink spots. The agency will move through the list to the first family who said they can parent a purple child with pink spots. There could be 4 people in front of us who said "yes" or there could be none. There is no real way to know how many people are ahead of us in the line.
Are you able to review the child's medical condition before you are officially matched?
Yes. Our agency will call us when they feel there is a file that we should review. They will tell us age, gender, diagnosis and a few other details. From that information we can request to review the file or decline. If we accept then we will receive the child's file to review with our doctors before officially accepting the referral.
Right now we are waiting for our phone call. I have NO idea when it will come. Could be tomorrow! Could be in March. We will have just a few days to review the file but I may need about 15 seconds. I feel like I may just yell through the phone "Yes yes yes! I don't even need to see the file. When can I get on the plane?"
Bring on the questions! I hope that this answers a few of your questions about the process.
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