In the last three years, the once-stable universe of international adoption has turned upside down, as the countries that routinely sent thousands of children to U.S. homes have limited the pool of potential parents, reduced the number of children who may be available, or closed their programs entirely.
"The big ones have all fallen apart," said Heather Peters, director of human resources for Yoh Services L.L.C. in Philadelphia. "Vietnam's gone. Guatemala's gone. China might as well be gone."
That's pushing couples to consider less-established programs in smaller countries - a significant change in the way thousands of Americans have built their families during the last two decades.
In 2004, Americans adopted a record 22,884 children from overseas. Since then, the figure has been falling, last year to 17,438. That's a 24 percent drop.
One big factor: major alterations in programs operated by the "big three," China, Russia, and Guatemala, which routinely account for two-thirds of all foreign adoptions. Another: delay and complication caused by implementation of the Hague Adoption Convention, a new set of international regulations.
Countries that sign on to the treaty, becoming "Hague-compliant," agree to greater transparency aimed at ending corruption and child-trafficking. In the United States, only adoption agencies that are "Hague-accredited" can operate in Hague countries, now numbering more than 70.
"This is the consequence of people paying attention" - and that's a good thing, said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York. But nations must embrace Hague "best-practice" rules as a means of moving children into families.
"The answer in the long term cannot be, 'Some things don't work, so these kids stay in orphanages,' " he said.
