T
hree days before my
birthday in March 2015,
I got the greatest present
ever – we were matched
with a baby girl who had been
placed for adoption with the charity,
Mother’s Choice. As I reflect back on
the many ways life has changed in the
past year, I decided to talk to a few
other mums who have also adopted
children in Hong Kong, and share our
experiences with you.
In order to get a feel for what
adoption is like in Hong Kong, I
invited three fellow South Lantau
adoptive mums to talk to
Playtimes
about the process and procedures –
and their amazing children.
Holly was four months and ten days
old when we brought her home to join
our family of adopted dogs and cats;
Louise adopted five-year-old Charlie
shortly before we were matched with
Holly. Winny adopted Ace when he
was two months old and he is now
a strapping eight-year-old. Finally,
Emma’s son, Brodie, had been with
her at her Tong Fuk home for about a
month at the time of writing, adding
to her family of two (biological) girls.
The agencies
There are several different agencies in
Hong Kong that deal with adoption.
Louise and Emma both used the
Social Welfare Department (SWD)
as their primary contact; I used
Mother’s Choice. Winny also used
the SWD, but her son was in the
Mother’s Choice home. One thing
we all had in common was that we
were very confused with the different
Adapting to
Adoption
Jo Allum
gets together with some other adoptive
parents in Hong Kong to discuss their experiences.
departments at the beginning – we all
initially assumed that if you chose a
particular agency, then that would be
where your child would come from.
However, all children are assessed
and placed through the SWD, and the
agency you use makes no difference to
your chances of getting matched with
a child – so use the one that you feel
most comfortable with.
Form filling
For all of us, the process from first
submitting the documents – there
are a LOT of documents – to getting
matched with our children took a little
over a year. This was faster than any
of us had expected, as we were all told
it would be around a two-year wait. I
was daunted by the paperwork, and as
we hail from England, we had to get
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