News Story
Most adoptions from China now special-needs cases
NEW YORK — Not long ago, the choices facing
Robert and Julie Garrett would have been simpler. Once they set
their hearts on adopting a child from China, the odds were high they
could soon bring home a healthy infant girl.
It's different now.
Faced with a long wait — and a smaller pool of healthy orphans
available to foreigners — the Garretts have decided after much
soul-searching to adopt one of the special-needs children who now
abound in China's orphanages.
"It's really hard, and we want to make the right choice," said Julie
Garrett, of Gainesville, Ga.
The children's conditions range widely. Some are correctible, some
not: cleft lips and palates, congenital heart disease, missing or
malformed limbs, impaired vision or hearing.
"It's important for us to not take on more than we can handle,"
Garrett said. "That process takes time — praying over it, discussing
what medical needs you think you could take on.
"It's a journey in itself just to decide if that's the right
direction to go."
Starting in the early 1990s, and as recently as a few years ago, the
large majority of Chinese children adopted by foreigners were
healthy baby girls abandoned by their parents, often because of a
preference for a son in a country rigidly enforcing a one-child
policy.
Between 1995 and 2005, Americans adopted more than 60,000 children
from China. The peak was 7,903 in 2005.
Circumstances have changed dramatically since then. China has eased
its one-child policy, fewer baby girls are abandoned, domestic
adoptions of healthy orphans have increased, and the waiting time
for foreigners to adopt a healthy infant has tripled to roughly four
years.
As a result, U.S. adoptions from China have plummeted more than 60
percent, to 3,001 last year. And of the children now adopted,
roughly three of every five have special medical needs.
Birth defects common
One contributing factor is China's rate of birth defects, which a
government family planning commission said increased by nearly 50
percent between 2001-2006.
Amy Eldridge of the Oklahoma-based Love Without Boundaries
Foundation, which oversees several programs to aid Chinese orphans,
says many children with birth defects — boys as well as girls — are
abandoned, and they now comprise a majority of the orphan
population.
"Some parents feel the child will bring bad luck to their family,"
said Eldridge, who has traveled often to China. "And we're seeing
many poor families abandon children with medical needs in hopes they
will get care."
The Garretts, in their 30s and without children, signed up in
December 2008 for the traditional program that might lead to
adoption of a healthy infant. But facing a long wait, they later
entered the Waiting Child program, which features special-needs
children and can complete an adoption in less than one year.
The Garretts — he's an aluminum plant worker, she's an office
manager — have decided they're not ready to take a child with a
severe or incurable medical problem, so they're seeking one with a
correctible condition.
"We have reviewed a couple of children," Julie Garrett said. "It's
grueling to look at their faces and try to make a decision if you
could care for them, and come to the realization you're not the best
fit to be able to care for them the best they should be."
Level of comfort
Bethany and Kevin Durkin, who live in the Westchester County suburbs
of New York City, went through a similar decision process and are
now parents of two girls adopted through the Waiting Child program.