Some Information About Taiwan

While considering our agency’s new Taiwan adoption program and contemplating the switch from Vietnam, we learned that the process of adopting from Taiwan (at least through this particular program offered by our agency) is different in several respects from Vietnam and other countries whose programs we have learned about during our adoption journey. Under Taiwanese law, the birth mother is not permitted to relinquish the baby until one month after giving birth. The purpose of this is to allow her time to make an informed decision about whether she truly wishes to place the child for adoption. We have also learned that many of the babies placed for adoption in Taiwan are born to unwed mothers (including teenagers), due to the social stigma attached to single motherhood in Taiwanese culture.

In our agency’s Taiwan program, after the baby has been relinquished by the birth mother, he or she is placed in a medical facility for a few weeks for observation. But the baby’s birth mother remains involved to a degree, in that she helps to select the adoptive parents. We will have to write a letter to the birth mother assuring her that we will provide a loving environment for the baby, along with some basic biographical information about ourselves, and a photo album with pictures of us, our families, our home, and the activities we enjoy. Based on this information, the birth mother approves the “referral” of the baby to us.

Then, after the baby has been observed in the medical facility, he or she is placed in foster care for approximately 6 months while the adoptive parents complete the necessary paperwork (the “dossier”) and obtain approval of the adoption from the Taiwanese courts. The approval process takes approximately 4 to 7 months after we submit our dossier. Upon court approval, the birth mother has 10 days to revoke the adoption. We have learned that this rarely occurs, since, by that time, it has been several months since the mother relinquished the baby. And unlike in U.S. adoption, the birth mother cannot take the baby back after the baby has been placed with the adoptive parents.

So, approximately one month after the court issues its approval, we will travel to Taiwan for 3-6 days to bring our baby boy home! This travel period is significantly shorter than what many other countries require. However, we are looking forward to those several days as an opportunity to experience the culture that our child comes from. If everything goes as planned, we should be traveling to Taiwan in the summer of 2007.