The Traditional Process vs. Waiting Child Process

While you should contact an adoption agency to fully explore the differences between the traditional adoption program and the waiting child program, we wanted to provide you with a brief description of each program.

The Traditional Program

The traditional program has historically been China's largest adoption process. The children placed through this program are children with no known medical needs. They are mostly little girls, and the youngest a child can be in this program is 6 months old. Most children placed through this program are between 10-18 months of age at the time of placement. The children are matched directly with families by the CCAA. Neither the adoption agencies nor families are involved in selecting a specific child for a specific family. You will find that currently, this program takes a very long time; 7 years from start to finish.

The Waiting Child Program

This program has grown as more families turn to it due to the lengthening wait times in the traditional program. The children placed in this program have special needs; in most cases they are physical and not cognitive special needs, and many are medically correctable. In some cases, the special need has already been corrected prior to placement. All of the children who reside at New Day would be candidates for the Waiting Child Program. This program generally moves significantly faster (approximately 1 year from start to finish) than its counterpart, and both boys and girls of a variety of ages are available, with the youngest being 6 months old.