My husband and I are thinking of adopting. Just wondering about India. I am a little concerned about the large number of orphans with HIV. I know these children need homes but to be honest I don't think I could handle getting attached to a child with such a serious medical problem. Emotionally it would be to hard for everyone involved. My question is how well does India screen for HIV and other diseases. I am interested in an older child. ALso any information on household income guidelines, family size, health and medical conditions of family, etc would be helpful. Thanks I not only adopted from India but I lived there for three years during the time we were adopting. I was there for work and chose to adopt at that time, we were not there just to adopt.
During our time there my wife and I did a lot of volunteer work both at the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in the old part of Delhi (Mother Theresa's organization) but also with the Church of North India orphanage in Delhi as well. We also had occasion to visit orphanages in Mumbi (Bombay at that time) as well as in Karola.
During our time there we only saw a handful of children who were HIV positive. Thats not to say there are not more that we didn't see but it didn't seem to be a bigger problem there then it was in the West.
I agree with you, it would be hard for someone to get involved in a situation like that knowingly. Thats not to say that many people don't and I applaud them. When we were there we met a woman from Australia who was working on an adoption of two HIV positive babies. With the advances in medicine these days it's far from being a death sentence but as you said, it's still not easy.
You don't mention where you are from so I can't do anything other then suggest that it is not something you should be overly concerned with. By that I mean that for most countries you would not be able to adopt a child who is HIV positive because there are usually rules against the granting of immigration paperwork in cases like that. Most countries have medical restrictions attached to their visas. I know that we needed to have blood tests and medical tests done on our daughter to show that she was free of HIV and TB as well as a few other things before a visa could be granted. Things may have changed since that time but I believe its still a requirement.
I did my adoption in the early 90s and I have heard that since that time there have been limitations placed on the numbers of foreign adoptions from India. Even when we did ours they had some pretty strict rules. For a boy child to be legible for foreign adoption they had to have been offered to, and rejected by, 5 Indian families before they could go overseas. For girl children it was only 3 Indian families first. Also, at that time if you were not an Indian citizen then you would only get permanent guardianship through an Indian court and would have to finalize the adoption in your home country. Thats the way it was for us and I believe it still stands.
All other guidelines as to current family size, health and medical conditions and such are pretty much the same as for domestic adoptions. We still needed a home study and a medical that stated we were unable to have biological children of our own. (At the time we were not able to and the one we did have after that was literally a miracle since were were never able to have another and Doctors have said we shouldn't have been able to have the first one). They wanted to know our family history, financial statements, reference checks...all of that. And we were living there at the time. You will need to go through an agency in your area that is licensed with India to conduct adoptions. Check around to see if there are any.
If you've got any other questions then just drop me a line through my profile. Our situation was a bit different in that we did it over there but the process, other then the cost, was essentially the same. The process can be very long. It seems pretty unpredictable. I think it is less if you are looking for a "waiting child" (usually an older child, but may have special needs), and also if you are Indian/NRI. Here is a link to the agency that deals with adoption in India:
http://www.adoptionindia.nic.out/
There is also an ichild group on yahoo. It has a lot of drama, but also some good information. The health screenings vary. It is important to find an agency you trust that works well with the placement people in India. There are definitely children who were supposed to be healthy, who weren't. There are also people who adopted with worries about healthy mostly due to small size and some developmental delays, who have very healthy, thriving children.
Be very aware that many illegal adoptions take place from India - google adoption and India and Australia - and you should be able to see the many news articles on the subject.
Children have literally been kidnapped and adopted out to foreign countries - all to make some dollars.
There are many many many older children in your own country - available from foster care - that need adoption (I'm talking over 100,000) - and you can be more sure of the circumstances behind the parental rights being dissolved and the health implications etc.
Look closer to home first and foremost - before pulling a child out of a country that the child already knows.
Look at any blog by a transracial adoptee - it can be very hard to be taken away from your country and culture and language - to fulfill the needs of a couple in a foreign country.
There is far more involved that you should be reading up on - for the best interests of any child that may one day be adopted into your family.
yeah- you don't need to be adopting. http://www.youtube.com/iwasstolen |
