Adoptions of foreign children plunge

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Erin Spiegel THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Adoptions of children abroad by Americans are plummeting, and the trend is likely to continue owing to new restrictions by foreign governments and diminishing financial resources among prospective parents.

Americans adopted 17,438 overseas children in fiscal 2008, down from a peak of 22,884 in 2004, according to the State Department. Adoption experts predicted the total for fiscal 2009, which ends Sept. 30, could drop below 12,000.

"This is a difficult economic time, and people don't add to their family when they are worried about losing their job or their home. But you have to remember that while we get hit here, [children] get hit harder there," said Linda Brownlee, executive director of the Adoption Center of Washington, an agency licensed in Washington and Virginia.

International adoption can cost up to $30,000, and the process can take years, usually requiring at least one trip to the child's country of origin.

Because the recession is global, Ms. Brownlee worries about the impact on children who are potential adoptees and on the orphanages that care for them.

"It is more difficult for families to keep their children in struggling countries, and more children end up in orphanages, which are also impacted by these economic times," she said. "When families adopt from an orphanage, they often continue supporting in some way the orphanage, making it a little bit better."

"Every child deserves a permanent, loving and safe family," Ms. Brownlee said.

Tom DiFilipo, president and chief executive of the Joint Council on International Children's Services, called the situation a tragedy and a crisis.

"You have children being left in trash cans, and no one knows what to do with them," said Mr. DiFilipo, whose organization represents more than 200 nonprofit international adoption agencies, child-advocacy groups, parent support groups and medical clinics.

Decreases in adoptions from Russia and China accounted for 90 percent of the 2008 decline, said William Bistransky, a State Department official who deals with adoption and overseas citizen services.