Adopting in China

 
 

Vocabulary

lost	explore	orphanage
prefer	take care	biological parents
abroad	stomach	bring/brought/brought
adopt	anxious	consequence
limit	abort (2)	one-quarter
policy	abandon	as a result
allow	nervous	hide/hid/hidden
orphan	palpable	incredible
follow	couple (2)	all of the sudden
scene	scarred	envelop (2)
terror	chaotic	moving (2)
joy	labor (2)	inexplicable

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Hi, I’m Lisa Ling and one of my favorite shows for Explorer was called China’s Lost Girls.

Katie, Age 8½: “My mom said I was born from someone else’s stomach, and that my biological mom couldn’t take care of me, so she put me in an orphanage, so I could have a better life.

Juliana, Age 5½: “I was born in China and I was brought here.”

Lily, Age 10: “If it wasn’t for my mom and dad, I bet I’d still be in the orphanage.”

Over one-quarter of all the babies adopted from abroad into this country come from China. And most are girls.

It’s a consequence of one of the biggest efforts to control population growth in history: China’s so-called one-child policy. It limits millions of families there to having only one child.

Traditionally, baby boys are preferred, and as a result, girls are often abandoned, aborted or hidden.

Our cameras were the first television cameras ever allowed into China to shoot at an orphanage. We followed American couples over to China to adopt their Chinese baby girls.

The anxiousness was so palpable the day that these couples were going to adopt their little girls.

They were so nervous; they had been waiting for more than a year to finally meet the new addition to their family.

And we were all waiting in this really cold room, and all of the sudden the people who work at the orphanage started to bring the baby girls into the room.

It was the most incredible scene: these little girls had looks of terror — they were so scarred about what was happening.

They were crying . . . and it was chaotic . . . and all the parents started crying . . .

And when the parents took these little babies into their arms, it was so moving because these little girls had been abandoned by their (biological) parents, and on that day, they were enveloped into the arms of these parents that just had been waiting for so long to just love them.

As I stood in that room, it was like everyone was going through labor at the same time. There were tears in their eyes. You just see this inexplicable joy on everyone’s face.

It was a beautiful thing.

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Questions

1. Were the three girls in the beginning of the video born in the US? Did their biological parents give them to their adopted parents?

2. The adopted babies from China are about half girls, half boys. True or false? Are boys and girls treated equally?

3. Do the babies fly to the US, and their adopted parents meet them at the airport?

4. The new parents selected the babies they wanted in the room. Yes or no?

5. How did the babies feel? How did the new parents feel?

6. Was everything orderly? Did everything happen in an organized manner?

7. It was a very emotional occurrence. Is this right or wrong?

 
 

A. Do you know anyone (friends, classmates, neighbors) who was adopted?

B. How common is adoption in your country? Describe the average adoptive parents. Why do they adopt other children?

C. What kind of children or babies are adopted? Do parents prefer to adopt babies, children or teens?

D. Has there been any controversy over adoption? If yes, what are they?

E. What will happen in the future?