When my wife, Danielle, and I decided to adopt from China my first concern was: would we have issues because we are black? While Danielle and I view ourselves as American, the reality of the world today is that people still very much judge others by the color of their skin. I did not have any preconceived notions about China not liking blacks since over the years I have had Chinese friends and my best friend at work is a lady born and raised in Taiwan; I am old enough to know that it would be an issue somewhere in this process. Also growing up black in the South makes one wise to these things.

To cut to the case...yes American-Blacks can adopt from China. China has no policies against it. Click here to read about the first American-Blacks family to adopt from China. The article is from The Commercial Appeal. I thought this happened back in 2003 but as it turns out this all occured in 2005. I never expected to be amoung the first to attempt to do this. Hopefully at some point we will be able to find out what number American-Blacks couple we are. I encourage you to read the article but to summarize it, the family is Judy and William Ragin and serveral months into their adoption they were told that the Chinese government said they would not be able to adopt because their home would not be "culturally enriching enough." They went back to prayer to make sure this is what the Lord wanted them to do and also consulted with their pastor who re-assured them that this what God wanted them to do. They sought the assistance of the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Bill Frist (R) from Tennessee. His office determined that China has no official policy banning the placement of Chinese children with blacks.

Here is a quote from William, "To our understanding, there were about 3 AA couples that received their babies within a few weeks of us. Fortunately, there was a change of heart among some officials. Senator Frist's office definitely was a blessing for us!"

The first agency we looked into to handle our adoption was Great Wall China Adoptions in Austin, Texas. They had us fill out an eligibility form and sent it to their China office for evaluation. The reply was that they did not think they could push our dossier through and referred us to three other adoption agencies. We then turned to Chinese Childrens Adoption International in Centennial, Colorado. I called and spoke with Natasha who sounded surprised that I was concerned about being American-Blacks. I told her about the concerns Great Wall had and she said that being American-Blacks would not be a problem and that she is quite confident that our adoption would be fine and the other concern she said would most likely not come up and if it did we would just need supporting documentation. I asked her if they had handled American-Blacks before and she said she could only remember mixed-race couples where one was American-Blacks. I asked for a reference and she provided one couple that had signed up to be a reference, American-Blacks mom and American born Chinese dad. Also I beleive she said they have some mixed race couples in the process now.

So as you can see two agencies and completely opposite reponses; one is "can do" (CCAI) and the other is "can not do (GWCA)."