Adoption

The other day while I was skimming through my NetFlix choices, as I usually do for some background noise, I came upon a show from National Geographic about China's Lost Girls.  I read the short description and thought it'd be interesting to watch.  I've always wondered how population control worked within China.

It basically followed several families who were going over to

China to adopt a baby girl.  Whom most were either abandoned or given up.  Some of these families had children of their own but simply wanted to grow, while others were unable to have their own and found this to be the right choice for them.

The film itself was a very eye opening film.  It was touching as well on so many levels getting to watch these families go through the stress of traveling to see a child who will be frightened when they first meet.  They speak with families within China who have had to struggle or simply are open to speak about the One Child law that China has applied.  How boys are favored over girls to simply pass on the family name.  How girls will be abandoned, given up, or even killed.  Even how that the population growth of boys vs girls is becoming so bad that by the time the kids 5-under will be at marrying age there will be 85% of boys who will not be able to find a mate.  (They seemed to focus primarily on the outlining smaller cities)

A couple of the families went to the orphanage their new daughters came from, to meet the foster parents and see how the child was raised for that first year of life.  One of those families brought their daughter that they previously had adopted. So that she could see her foster for the first time since she left for American.  The foster mom was so excited and couldn't help but hug and hold her as often as she could. They mentioned that some of these families who want more than one child will have to pay fines for any children after their first.  Some resort to fostering children to have that connection.  

It's hard to watch families who wish to keep their child but simply cannot due to a law give up their little ones.  But in turn watching that has made me that much more appreciative of adoption.

Being adopted from a family who made some hard decisions and was unable to care for me into a family that has made my life more amazing than I could have ever imagined, I can't help but want to adopt a child of my own someday.  We have talked about it more since the girls were born.  Yes, we could have our own.  Which we have..I just can't help but think if those families out there that have 5+ kids if they helped these children in need how rewarding it would be for them.  It's hard, an adjustment, costs money, but isn't having a child in general, all that?  I guess I'm biased.  I just really hope to one day be able to adopt, whether from within our country or not.

Anyway... :)