Finding Birthparents in China
I know, you heard rumors that it might be possible. If you are and adoptive parent, maybe you have wondered if it is something you should do for your child. Maybe you are an adoptee who is considering a search yourself.
Yes, it is overwhelming. Yes, it is hard. But it CAN happen.
We searched for and found our daughter’s Chinese birth family. It took several years of research and one year of using a local contact to track them down using information in our adoption paperwork and a lot if educated guesswork. Now, we are working hard to build an open relationship with our daughter’s family who live half a world away.
You might wonder how it is going. I won’t lie and say it is always easy, but we are so very happy we searched. We are so glad to know our daughter’s parents and siblings and I think it is safe to say they are very happy to know us too. You may wonder how our daughter has handled this all. The short answer is she is doing great. She is very happy to know about her birthfamily, though she misses them very much. We met them on our last trip to China and hope we can return again in the next year or two.
We think we are a best case scenario situation. Don’t assume your reunion will be as easy as ours. On the other hand, there may be many Chinese birth families out there who are as open and loving as our daughters. I believe that many, many adoptive families and adoptees are or will soon be searching in China. Our story won’t be so rare for long.
Over the years, I have written a number of posts about searching and our experiences. Most of them can be found in my Open International Adoption category.
If you are looking for posts more specifically about How to Search for Birthparents in China, start with these links here:
So You Think You Wanna Search (Nov 2009)
Why We Decided to Search ( Dec 2007)
How to Search for Birthparents in China (Feb 2011)
Searching in China, How to Get Started (Dec 2009)
Here are a couple glimpses into our first meeting:
I am happy I have the platform of this blog to share the ups and down of our unusual story. I am also happy to answer questions about searching and reunion, either on my blog or privately. I also run a small group for those in reunion with chinese birth families. If you are in reunion and would like the support of others in similar circumstances, let me know.
If you want to email me, my email is a m f a m b l o g at g m a i l.
Good Luck!
