Weird things about adopting from China.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 12:14 pm

1. The day they schedule to pick your kid up is called "Gotcha Day". All of the agencies involved, and everyone within them, will refer to it as "Gotcha Day". I find this twee and annoying, but not nearly as twee and annoying as:

2. All prospective adoptee children are referred to (again, by all agencies, in all media) as "kiddos". It's a rule they have. You will never hear a kid referred to as anything but a "kiddo", and you will never hear the day you pick them us referred to as anything but "Gotcha Day".

So Gotcha Day is when you pick up your kiddo.

It's really disconcerting, weird, twee, overtly manipulative, and annoying, and all I can say about it is:

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 12:25 pm

Why are you adopting from China? Can't afford american kids or something?

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 12:27 pm

RealNC wrote:Why are you adopting from China? Can't afford american kids or something?

Chinese adoptees have physical issues. American adoptees have mental/emotional issues. We're more prepared to handle the former than the latter.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:04 pm

RealNC wrote:Why are you adopting from China? Can't afford american kids or something?

I want to learn something from this godforsaken BBS today.

So, Americans adopt from China. Is there a "go-to" country that denizens of Greece adopt from, friend?

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:18 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:So, Americans adopt from China. Is there a "go-to" country that denizens of Greece adopt from, friend?

Probably Germany. We get everything else from there, so why not kids too? It's nearby, cheap to travel to, short flight. No downsides...

FlyingCarp · Post by **FlyingCarp** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:29 pm

"Gotcha Day" is really awful. I honestly cannot believe that such a term is in use for the day of adopting a foreign child. Immediately, I assumed it was some non-native English speaker deal where Chinese people thought "Gotcha" sounded cute but weren't aware of the actual meaning of the term. Well, no, turns out that's not true. I just read that the term "Gotcha Day" was coined by an American named Margaret Schwartz.

There's a Huffington Post article where they interview one person who dislikes the term. She hits the nail on the head: "Gotcha sounds like trapping a rat under the stove or grabbing up the last flat screen TV on Black Friday at Wal-Mart. It’s a predatory term. A scary term. A cheap term. A violent term. Gotcha relates adoption to aggressive consumerism; and consumerism to a public act of virtue.."

Here's the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirah-rib ... 07100.html

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:42 pm

Well, I think that's... I mean, who cares what they call it. The kid -- sorry, "kiddo" -- don't know, and the parents just want to get in there, grab their kid and get the fuck back to the hotel to make 'em start learning to speak English.

I see her point, but that's the kind of thought that deserves about a second's contemplation before moving on with your life, not a long, LONG, ponderous, touchy-feely stupid goddamn internet article.

I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, though. Get her on the show immediately.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:38 pm

I believe the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang yells "gotcha!" after he captures children. I agree with everyone else in the thread. It is, at best, a chitty term.

That HuffPost article uses the term G-Date which is even worse, because now I want to refer to the place you sign the papers as the G-Spot. When you go there, please make that joke for me (after the paperwork is signed).

Jokes aside, this is really exciting. I hope everything's a perfect match and your kiddo makes you guys as happy as I'm sure you will make him/her.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 2:34 pm

I've actually been involved in the requirements to adopt a Chinese baby and it's a lot of work for the applicant. There is lots of paperwork involved, and, since the Chinese have an Embassy in DC, people use notaries in the region.

Read More: http://www.joltcountry.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=90176

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:18 pm

Oops. I didn't know pinback is ACTUALLY adopting. I thought it was just something he made up on Twitch and then brought over here :-P

"Can't afford american kids" now sounds like an asswipe wrote it...

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 5:50 pm

So what's the stress level like going through this whole process? I bet it keeps you up at nights. Are you going to play that Creed song on the car radio when taking the baby home?

THE
FM STAPLE
AARDVARK

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 7:55 pm

AArdvark wrote:So what's the stress level like going through this whole process? I bet it keeps you up at nights.

Earlier on, it did. I am still not sure how we're going to afford all this, and even if we do, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I don't get stressed much anymore, about anything.

You see, the story is always the stressful part. What if this, what if that, we might fail at this, we might screw that up, what are we doing, omg there's so much left to prepare and so little time, omgomgomg.

That applies to anything stressful. The worry, the anxiety, the stress is always only in the mental story about it, of past and (more stressfully) future.

However, this, right here, is always very simple. It's just this. There's never anything to stress about right here, because it's just this.

And then you realize, it's always just this.

And then there's never anything to get stressed about.

Are you going to play that Creed song on the car radio when taking the baby home?

She'll be about five when we get her, but no Creed song will ever be played in our home, or within a 500 foot perimeter.

Jizaboz · Post by **Jizaboz** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:22 pm

Creed sucks.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Jan 28, 2017 5:04 pm

Kung Hei Paul Choi!

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Jan 28, 2017 8:44 pm

Maybe you answered this in another thread and I wasn't paying attention. Why adopt? Is that too personal? Why not make one, not Chinese, on your own?

THE
NOT PRYING OR ANYTHING
AARDVARK