from Scott now in GZ -- Chinese Attitude-Adoptions

Well the attitude towards adopting chinese babies in china has definitely changed in the eyes of the general public. When one of the fathers arrived on Sat he was approached by two men asking if he needed a taxi and what he was doing in China, when he mentioned that he was there to adopt a child they got very angry. It wasn't until he clarified that the child was abandoned and didn't have parents that they changed their attitude.

We ran into similar situations yesterday as jim and i walked through the neighborhood of Xi'an. We were approached by a young woman who spoke broken english asking if we found this child. When we said, no we are adopting the child, her attitude changed to disapproval and asked if we were leaving him here in China. There seems be a misconception, which is hard to break when you don't know how to speak chinese, that the word adoption is similar to "buying" a child, and not a realization that this child doesn't have a family and is often very sick. It's not with everyone ... but is becoming more often met with disapproval and sometimes almost hostility. It's to the point, that this morning instead of walking along the street side of the hotel, Jim and i chosose to go the back ally way for breakfast.

A couple of days ago another family in our group went to a local park where there are rides with thier recently adopted daughter and two other daughters that they adopted from China a few years ago. They were surrounded by locals to the point that the kids couldn't have any fun (although I don't know if it was aggressive or not). Instead of the comments "lucky baby", you tend to get more of the 20 questions ... which are hard to address when you don't know what they are asking!
Scott :0)