[Lucia]

Adoption is incredibly difficult, not just the procedure, but the actual raising of an adopted child. A friend of mine has two children from China, and they have all kinds of (but the very normal) behaviour problems of children moved from one place to another. Babies are much easier as you will be all they've every known, but a small child (who will come with his or her own name, so picking her a new one and changing it would be very confusing and unsettling for them) will no doubt be traumatised by it all.

You have to think why a child is up for adoption, a baby can be given away, but a child could well have lost it's parents or been abused/abandoned. You have to be ready for that.

I know it seems like i'm raining on the adoption parade here, but it's for people who are dedicated to making a child's life better, regardless or it's age, sex or race. To have very specific child requirements would terrify and adoption agency or government, and there's no way most of them would give a child to someone who wished to dictate so much.

And in my experience, babies are sooooo much easier than children. While a child can be very well bahaved and cute (but not often!), there is an endless list of issues to be dealt with once they enter the world and mix with others, dealing with teachers, bullying, exposure to and dealing with sex/drugs/ambitions/competition and behaviour. It's not that those things are all bad, but it's all hard work and the choices and rules made carry much bigger consequences. Babies are far less worry.

I don't mean to be cruel, but it seems the maker of this thread would just love to have a little Japanese girl they could name and dress and adore, and whilst there's essentially nothing wrong with that, putting that dream into practice would be fraught with complications and moral repercussions.