Tracking down an adopted Chinese orphan?

Do you know the family’s name and what city they live in?

hmmmmm i really am not an expert on this sort of thing, but I would take this story to a few different places, the people who deal with incoming Visas for children, maybe an attorney and see what he knows, there are attorneys who deal with a lot of immigration stuff you might run into one who knows his stuff, also did the orphanage have a name for that lil girl by any chance? i know you said they are dead but maybe that will work. I dunno does china have private investigators? might help to hire one and let him deal with it, id imagine the language barrier doesnt help you any.

I know nothing at all about them. I heard that they were from the U.S. I know the orphanage (because I worked there), but that is all…

if you can get a name for that girl there has to be a paper trail some where with her name on it, since they have to process for visa and green card stuff

True. I do have a series of dates I could recall. Nice work – @Kyle!

Perhaps find on-line forums for adoptive parents of Chinese children. Share the info you have, and see if someone knows someone…

also, who ever operated on her, they would have medical files on her, probably atleast containing her name right? if you tell them your story you could probably get that info from the surgeons too, and that would be a starting point

There are privacy issues that you will have to contend with, but I have a friend who has adopted several children from china and will ask what she thinks would be a good source for information. Was the cleft palate repair done through a US charity like Operation Blessing?

The operations were done through a Chinese hospital, and the orphanage. The only foreign interest came from the $$.

I do know her CHINESE name…

bingooooo. there you go. you can’t immigrate without a passport and passport = paper trail. maybe china does not have a transparent beauracracy, however she immigrated to the United States (well I am assuming U.S. since your a celtics fan), Legally no doubt, and the US is good about paper trails, and a lot more transparent. Maybe you may not be able to get that info out of the State department (i think they are the ones who handdle that) but a private investigator might.

and also, if she changed her name, there has to be a record of that some where as well.

I do think you will have privacy issues.

I do too

maybe, but thats why you talk to people who do this for a living. They have a way of figuring this stuff out, plus they have more connections for this sort of stuff since they are in the business. Maybe hire a bounty hunter eh?

I have no insight to offer, but I applaud your efforts both then, and now.

Also, you have a unique identifier, the cleft lip, she had a surgery but often it takes more than one surgery to make it unnoticable. So how many adopted chinese girls where there that have signs of a cleft lip, with the dates that you know, it should be easy to narrow it down, sometimes it takes some old fashion detective work to just talk to people who might know someone who might know someone and thats how you get around all the paper work.