International adoption
Today’s article “Foreign adoptions by Americans drop sharply (Associated Press)” states that the number of foreign children adopted by Americans fell 12 percent in the past year, reaching the lowest level since 1999. The biggest drop was for adoptions from China, which fell to 3,909 from 5,453 in 2007 and a peak of 7,906 in 2005. Among the factors: a rise in domestic adoptions within China. As a result, waiting times to complete an adoption from China have increased in many cases to three or four years. International adoptions from other countries have dropped as well. The number of children adopted by Americans from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, and India has also significantly dropped. Rather than a decrease in the desire of Americans to adopt internationally, the cause of the sharp drop is due to foreign countries decreasing the availability of children for Americans to adopt.
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