Now In China: The Linthavong Family is About to Bring Their Son Home!
The Linthavong family has been with America World for some time. In fact, they started in the Ethiopia program and made the switch to the China program as many changes and shifts began to happen in Ethiopia. We have been blessed to follow their story in China and wanted to highlight an observation that they made before traveling and again while in-country working to complete the adoption process and bring their son, Luke, home.
The Linthavong’s shared the following:
When I’ve told people we were adopting from China, the automatic response was usually to assume we were adopting a girl. If I mentioned from the start we were adopting a boy, they were often surprised and would say something to the effect of “oh, I thought they only had girls” or “how did you get lucky enough to get a boy”. Well, we certainly are lucky to have Luke in our family, but the reality is far from what people assume. At this time, China’s orphanages are mostly made up of boys with special needs. Certainly, 20 years ago with the one-child policy, there was an abundance of healthy girls waiting to be adopted. But much has changed in the China culture and in the adoption community over the last few decades. The reality is that most people looking to adopt are requesting girls. Sources consistently quote 75% and some sources say even as high as 90% of people wanting to adopt want a girl. This holds true not only in China but in all other international and domestic adoptions. There are a number of speculated reasons for this which I won’t go into since I can’t speak to the truth behind them, but it ultimately means that boys stay in foster care and orphanages around the world much longer. People who work in orphanages in China will say, “families wait for girls, and boys wait for families”. We saw this to be true when we went to go visit Luke’s orphanage. Of the 20 kids in his room, one was a girl, and she already has a family coming for her.
What the Linthavong’s observed is most certainly a reality. We are thankful that many America World families have begun to step up for precious waiting boys. If you are interested in learning more about waiting children or the China adoption process, in general, please visit our website or contact the China team at china@awaa.org. They are standing by and happy to help your family understand the process!