Waiting Child Program

The Waiting Child Program was established to help find outstanding families for older children and children diagnosed with special medical needs. Great Wall is honored to be entrusted by the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA), to seek families for Waiting Children. We feel a huge responsibility to positively impact the lives of these children. The ultimate goal of our Waiting Child Program is to help an older child or a child with medical needs reach his or her full potential.

Over the last decade, Great Wall has been successful in finding homes for children with many different types and severity of special needs. Our success would not be possible without the loving and nurturing families that have opened their hearts to these children. We thank those families and are grateful to have participated in finding Forever Families for our Waiting Children. Please review the information below to learn more about our Waiting Child Program. If you have any questions about our Waiting Child Program, please contact:

Leigh Anne Graf at leighanne@gwca.org (512-323-9595 EXT 3080)
or Stephanie Crouch at stephanie@gwca.org (512-323-9595 EXT 3023)

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Eligibility Requirements

Candidates for the Waiting Child Program must meet the standard requirements to adopt from China. In addition to the regular standards of eligibility, the following attributes are preferred by CCAA and Great Wall.

• Mentally prepared to nurture a child with medical needs
• Openness and flexibility, taking into consideration all the worst case scenarios that may be associated with the particular needs of the child
• Insight into the daily realities of parenting a child with special needs
• Experience caring for a child or children with special needs or,
• A minimal level of exposure to children with special needs; work experience, volunteer experience, caring for extended family, or friends who have a special needs child.
• Knowledge of medical and community resources for children with special needs.

Unfortunately, families who currently have a dossier registered with the CCAA through any agency other than Great Wall will not be eligible to participate in our Waiting Child Program.

Submitting an Application

General Waiting Child Application: Families may submit a general application to keep on file with Great Wall. The applications are valid for 6 months. If you submitted your application prior to December 2007, please update it. Upon notification of available children, Great Wall will review these applications for suitable matches for the children.

In the interest of the children, Great Wall will not post individualized information or pictures provided by the CCAA for any child to the public in accordance with the agreement provided by the CCAA and accepted by Great Wall.

Please see the Review Process below for additional information.

The Review Process

Please note at this time we are only able to match families who have a current dossier registered with the CCAA. This is a current CCAA policy.

General Application Review Process: Families may submit a general application to keep on file. The applications are valid for 6 months. The general application will provide Great Wall staff with the opportunity to review and potentially match children with qualified families as we receive information on the children. Great Wall will use these applications for placement of available children from all lists.

Upon notification of available children, Great Wall will initially review the General application for a potential match for the child. If there is a suitable match, Great Wall will initiate contact with suitable family.

All applications are reviewed by Great Wall staff members. Upon finding a family that meets China’s Eligibility Requirements as established by the China Center of Adoption Affairs and Great Wall’s Waiting Child Program Eligibility Requirements as stated above you will be contacted to discuss the application for the child in more detail. Should Great Wall staff and the family feel it is in the best interest of the child and family to move forward, the family will be provided the child's full file for review.

As of May 28,2008, the CCAA has updated their policy regarding the process for locking and sumbitting applications for specific children. Each adoption agency is allowed to lock a file one time. Information about the prospective adoptive family can be submitted within 48 hours of locking the file.

All families matched with a particular Waiting Child will be given a specified time to review the child's documentation to determine if they would like to proceed with the adoption. Great Wall recommends that all families review the child's medical information with a medical professional and discuss your decision with your social worker. Your family will need to be approved by your social worker to complete the adoption process of this child and bring him or her into your family. Great Wall encourages all families to contact doctors specializing in international adoptions. We have included a link for your convenience.

It is important to note that due to the change in policy by the CCAA regarding the "locking" of a child's file, a family reviewing that child's file may not be the sole family in this process of review. Great Wall cannot guarantee the child will be available should the family decide to move forward with the adoption.

Please note, Great Wall China Adoption only matches families with children, the CCAA determines final approval for all placements.

The Waiting Child Adoption Process

If you have already submitted your dossier to China:

• Great Wall will send your Letter of Intent, Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan, and a Parent Information Sheet to the CCAA for approval
• Families must provide a home study update that approves them for the placement of a child with Special Needs
• Once Great Wall receives your Pre-Approval, a copy will be forwarded to your family via emai
l
• The CCAA will expedite the processing of your dossier and a Travel Approval will be issued once the review of your dossier is complete

Confidentiality

We have made significant changes in regards to the Waiting Child Program in order to protect the privacy of the children and our families.

• The approval process is confidential. In order to protect the privacy of our families, Great Wall will not disclose specific information regarding the placement of any child.
• We will no longer allow families to post any identifying information for a particular child on any public forum, including but not limited to: chat groups, blogs, websites, newsletters, etc. until the placement of the child has officially been approved by the CCAA.

Sample Downloads

• Parent Info Sheet (doc)
• Sample Rehab & Nurture Plan (doc)