Slowdowns in international adoption leave some waiting for baby

The wait to adopt a baby from China used to be, appropriately, about nine months. Now it's more than doubled.

"Ours is more like the term of an elephant," said Grace Carlson of Seattle, who, like her husband, John Pearce, is trying to stay positive as they bide their pre-baby time taking Mandarin classes and reading Dr. Spock books. They sent their dossier in the fall but don't anticipate a match until June 2008 at the earliest.

"If it had been a six-month process, I don't think we could have gotten enough Mandarin under our belts," Pearce said. "Now we stand a chance."

With difficulties in several key countries' international adoption programs, including China, Russia and Guatemala, local families are hunkering down for longer waits, considering different countries or taking a new look at domestic adoption.

International adoption delays

China: Prospective parents expect an 18-month to 2-year wait to be matched with a child. New restrictions, which went into effect May 1, now bar parents who are single, obese or older than 50.

Guatemala: Earlier this spring, the U.S. Department of State said it does not recommend adopting from Guatemala due to "serious problems with the adoption process." The Guatemala Congress passed legislation in May approving the Hague Adoption Convention, but the State Department warns the country still has "much to do."

Russia: No U.S.-based adoption agencies are currently accredited by the Russian government. According to the State Department, the country has not announced a date for reviewing U.S. agencies' applications.

South Korea: The government now requires a 5-month wait for infants. With Korea's low birth rate, some believe the country may discontinue international adoptions.

Ukraine: The Joint Council on International Children's Services says the country is processing foreign applications on a limited basis. New restrictions exclude single parents and parents more than 45 years older than the adopted child.

Nepal: As of mid-May, Nepal suspended intercountry adoptions indefinitely.

Sources: U.S. Department of State (travel.state.gov/family/adoption/

adoption_485.html); Joint Council on International Children's Services (www.jcics.org); local adoption agencies.

In 30 years of facilitating adoptions, "We've seen this roller-coaster up and down of countries opening and closing before," said Lillian Thogersen, chief executive officer of Renton-based World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP). China, Guatemala and Russia represented nearly 70 percent of international adoptions last year, according to the U.S. Department of State's tally of orphan immigrant visas. Overall, international adoptions jumped 175 percent from 1994 to 2004. The numbers hit a plateau in 2005, then fell last year to 20,679.

"In the last two years, we've seen numbers drop despite an increase in demand from families," said Dave Ptasnik, co-director of the Seattle-based Americans Adopting Orphans. Adopting abroad "is a little slower and more difficult now, so families have to work a little harder to make it happen."

Taking their time

Experts say the speed bumps may ultimately be a good thing for kids as countries tighten their policies.

"By and large, countries say they support adoption, but they want to make sure it's done right," Ptasnik said. "Once these basic shifts are made, I think [international adoption] is going to be better and stronger than it ever has been before."

Adopted children "are a gift from that country," Thogersen said. "Americans are not entitled to these children. Offices want to make the best decisions for the children.

Information

Child Welfare Information

Gateway: www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/index.cfm

National Council for Adoption: www.adoptioncouncil.org

"They're looking for families for children, not children for families," she said. "Sometimes that's forgotten."

Babies from abroad

The New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute estimates that about a quarter of non-stepparent adoptions each year are from abroad; nearly 60 percent are from the child-welfare system. The remaining 15 percent are domestic infants.

The number of families adopting U.S. foster children through WACAP has more than doubled in its last fiscal year, Thogersen said. She credits this partly to additional recruitment efforts but suspects the long China wait is also a factor.

"If we had known it was going to take quite so long, we might have looked harder at the domestic route," Carlson said. "We took it for granted that it was hard to find an infant in the U.S."

U.S. immigrant visas issued to orphans


Top 10 countries of origin in 2006

One doll equals 500 orphans

China: 6,493 (down from 7,906 in 2005)

Guatemala: 4,135 (up from 3,783)

Russia: 3,706 (down from 4,639)

South Korea: 1,376 (down from 1,630)

Ethiopia: 732 (up from 441)

Kazakhstan: 587 (down from 755)

Ukraine: 460 (down from 821)

Liberia: 353 (up from 183)

Colombia: 344 (up from 291)

India: 320 (same as previous year)

Source: U.S. Department of State

Carson and Pearce will likely adopt domestically if they decide they want a second child. Married later in life, they no longer qualify under China's new over-50 age restrictions.

At WACAP, fewer families turn first to China, mainly because of the new rules, Thogersen said. Some consider Thailand, India or Vietnam instead.

Slow road to China

Michele and Jamie Lang of Woodinville adopted their daughter Zoe, now 3, from China in 2005. When they started the paperwork to adopt a second baby, they discovered the wait was much longer. They ended up sending dossiers to China (last October) and Vietnam (this March) but expect to hear from the latter first. "We've got one foot in each door," Michele said.

They joined a Yahoo! group with other families who applied to China around the same time. "There was a flurry of mail at first," Michele said. Now with no news, "it's totally come to a stop."

China has ranked first on the State Department's foreign-adoption list since 2000; its numbers climbed to a high of 7,906 orphans in 2005 before falling for the first time last year. Agencies believe high demand is overwhelming Chinese officials.

"I hope the slowdown is for good reasons," Michele said. "There's little factual information as to why. It makes you sad and frustrated not to know what's really going on."

Turning elsewhere

While orphan visas dropped last year for many countries, a few saw increases, including Vietnam and Haiti.

Two African countries, Ethiopia and Liberia, saw the largest percentage jumps from 2005 to 2006.

"There's more and more interest in Africa," said Marge Toeset, international adoption coordinator for Bethany Christian Services' Seattle office. Depending on the country, parents may pay $20,000 to $35,000 for an international adoption, Toeset said.

As the U.S. tries to implement the Hague Convention on intercountry adoptions this year, agencies are preparing for national accreditation. (Currently, adoption agencies need to be licensed only by the states in which they operate.) Once the U.S. is compliant, Ptasnik hopes additional countries will open to U.S. parents.

"There are still millions of orphans around the world who need a family desperately," Thogersen said.

Worth the wait

Families willing to adopt a sibling group, a child with health concerns or a child older than age 6 will likely find an expedited process. WACAP, for one, also waives many fees for harder-to-place orphans.

Some children need only cosmetic surgery or have an illness that won't impact them until later in life, such as hepatitis B. "You won't wait long if you adopt a child who needs a little extra help," Ptasnik said.

Gender can also make a difference: "Most people who adopt enter the process wanting a girl," Thogersen said. "Families open to a boy will find they're matched faster and get their child faster."

Flexibility and patience have always been key with international adoptions, experts say. "If you ask any of our 9,000 adoptive parents, they'll all say they got the child intended for them, even if they started in one [country] program and ended in another, or wanted one gender and got another," Thogersen said. "They all feel, 'This child is mine.' "

Stephanie Dunnewind: 206-464-2091 or sdunnewind@seattletimes.com