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Dreams on Hold: How China’s Adoption Ban Affects Families and Children

China’s announcement in September that it was ending international adoptions was a crushing blow for families awaiting the arrival of their adopted children. The policy change has now left more than 270 American families in limbo, unsure of where their adoption journey will lead. Stephanie Sy reports.

0:00 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Over the last 25 years,  more than 80,000 Chinese children have  

0:04 been adopted by U.S. families, but that  has come to an abrupt halt because China  

0:09 announced this fall that it is bringing its  foreign adoption program to an immediate end.

0:15 As Stephanie Sy reports, the futures of hundreds  of Chinese children now hang in the balance.

0:23 STEPHANIE SY: The Welches live in Louisville,  Kentucky and are raising four biological sons,  

0:27 as well as a daughter, Grace, whom  they adopted from China in 2017.

0:33 But they consider themselves a family of eight.  Penelope, who lives in an orphanage in China, is  

0:41 the missing piece. Using an international adoption  agency, the Welches were matched with Penelope in  

0:47 2019, when she was 5 years old. For her privacy,  the Welches asked that we not show her face.

0:55 AIMEE WELCH, Mother: Her caregivers wanted to  prepare her for the transition that was coming,  

0:59 and they told her that she had parents and  four big brothers and a little sister. She  

1:05 received photos of us. She began to refer to  us then as mommy and daddy, mama and baba.

1:13 STEPHANIE SY: COVID struck weeks before they were  due to go to China to meet Penelope in person,  

1:18 finalize her adoption and bring her back  to the U.S. With China implementing one of  

1:23 the strictest lockdowns in the  world, the trip was canceled.

1:28 AIMEE WELCH: Penelope’s soft pink bed has been  set up since Chinese new year in January of 2020.

1:36 STEPHANIE SY: Five years since Penelope and the  Welches were promised to each other, the little  

1:41 girl’s bed in Kentucky still sits empty. Now  11, Aimee estimates she has grown several sizes,  

1:49 holding the original outfit she bought for her  homecoming and the new larger one next to it.

1:55 Back in China, Penelope still receives photos of  the family, some printed on pillows and blankets  

2:01 she cuddles up to. “I love you,” she says in  Mandarin, in a video message the orphanage sent.

2:09 AIMEE WELCH: It is not a perfect connection,  

2:12 but it is a real connection. And we think of  her very much as the daughter of our hearts.

2:20 STEPHANIE SY: If COVID was a setback,  China’s announcement in September  

2:23 that it was ending international  adoptions was a crushing blow.

2:28 AIMEE WELCH: So, how is everyone doing?

2:29 STEPHANIE SY: Ever since, Aimee has been  organizing families in the same situation.  

2:34 They have been pleading their case for  China to honor the pending adoptions.

2:39 In Penelope’s case, it was a promise made  with signatures and a stamp of approval  

2:43 from the China Center for Children’s Welfare  and Adoption. The policy change has left more  

2:49 than 270 American families in limbo, unsure  of where their adoption journey will lead.

2:56 In November, U.S. lawmakers from both  parties wrote a letter to President Biden,  

3:01 urging him to act in the best interest  of these children and families by urging  

3:05 the PRC to fulfill and uphold the  commitment the country has made.

3:10 A State Department spokesperson told the  “News Hour,” “We deeply sympathize with  

3:15 the families and children” and that it’s  engaging with the PRC at high levels to  

3:19 advocate for U.S. families to be  able to process their adoptions.

3:25 International adoptions in China were  once common. During the one child policy,  

3:30 which lasted from 1980 to 2016, families  abandoned or were forced to give up children,  

3:37 especially baby girls. Tens of thousands of  babies were adopted by American families.

3:45 KIRA OMANS, Adoptee: I was born in September  of 1995. I was found by the side of a bridge,  

3:50 brought to the welfare home, and none  of my natural relatives could be found.

3:54 STEPHANIE SY: Kira Omans was 10  months old when she was adopted.  

3:57 The 29-year-old actress now lives in Los Angeles.

4:01 How would you describe how you feel about your  

4:04 adoption now that you know  about the one child policy?

4:08 KIRA OMANS: Adoption has impacted my life  in so many different ways that I could have  

4:11 never anticipated. I have very loving parents.  However, even so, as someone who I feel like is  

4:18 very well-adjusted in that way, I still struggle  with a lot of aspects of my adoption and the grief  

4:25 and the trauma that comes with being separated  from your birth country, from your birth family.

4:31 STEPHANIE SY: Katie Lauder, now 28,  

4:33 was adopted just before she turned  two by a family outside Chicago.

4:39 KATIE LAUDER, Adoptee: We grew up in a time when  it wasn’t really taught to adopted parents how  

4:48 much inherent trauma there is in adoption,  being separated from your first family,  

4:56 the people that are supposed to care about  you and have some type of connection to you.

5:03 STEPHANIE SY: Lauder works with other  adoptees who want to travel to China  

5:07 in search of relatives. Her own journey  to discover her origins was bittersweet.

5:12 KATIE LAUDER: I was able to reconnect  with the foster family that raised me  

5:16 for a year. It was a little sad because  my foster mother had already passed away  

5:21 by the time that I was able to find the  family. So that was a bit devastating,  

5:28 because I kind of just lost the one person  who knew me at the earliest point in my life.

5:34 STEPHANIE SY: Both Omans and  Lauder had strong reactions to  

5:36 China’s decision to end international adoptions.

5:40 KIRA OMANS: I both knew that this was a step  towards prioritizing family preservation,  

5:46 which is an element of adoption that I very  much believe in and fight for. At the same time,  

5:52 as a woman adopted during the one child policy,  

5:55 didn’t necessarily feel that this decision was  made purely for the betterment of children,  

6:00 and that also led to conflicting  feelings surrounding this decision.

6:04 KATIE LAUDER: Like, my cohort of adoptees  feel a bit of relief and some vindication.  

6:11 But then there’s also the other side of the  community who were adopted in the late 2000s  

6:17 to the 2010s. A lot of those children  were medical needs or disabled children,  

6:23 so they have a lot of sadness around  the closing of international adoptions.

6:30 STEPHANIE SY: Aimee and Steve did not think it was  

6:33 in Penelope’s best interest to  reveal her medical condition.

6:38 AIMEE WELCH: We know that,  with her medical diagnosis,  

6:41 she is not a candidate for domestic adoption.  It is a condition that she will live with her  

6:46 whole life. It’s a condition that  is highly stigmatized in China.

6:51 STEPHANIE SY: But, with each passing day,  

6:53 Aimee worries Penelope’s window to be  with a permanent family grows smaller.

6:58 AIMEE WELCH: Every single one of these  300 children, including our Penelope,  

7:01 has a moderate to severe special need. This  has been an incredibly hard wait for us and  

7:07 for the hundreds of other families. But  what is far harder is to be an orphan,  

7:12 to have lost your family of origin,  to grow up in institutional care.

7:19 STEPHANIE SY: There are more  than 150,000 orphans in China,  

7:23 and 98 percent of those in state orphanages have  moderate to severe disabilities or diseases.

7:29 A tiny fraction of them will be  adopted in China, says Yanzhong Huang,  

7:34 an expert on China’s rolling global health  policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

7:37 YANZHONG HUANG, Council on Foreign Relations:  So, clearly, there’s the shortage of the state  

7:42 capacity, right, to take care of those children,  and — but, unfortunately, the Chinese families,  

7:51 because they would prefer adopting healthy  children or minor — children with minor illness,  

7:59 so they also — they don’t have interest,  right, in adopting these children.

8:05 STEPHANIE SY: Back in Louisville, the  Welches’ first Chinese adopted daughter  

8:10 seems as healthy as they come,  despite her physical disability.

8:15 AIMEE WELCH: She’s thriving,  not because of us. Like,  

8:18 we’re just ordinary parents. We’re  just doing what ordinary parents do.

8:24 What have you been telling Grace?  Because, from a child’s perspective,  

8:29 she thought she had a sister coming home.

8:32 STEPHEN WELCH, Father: She doesn’t remember a day  where she wasn’t waiting for Penny to come home,  

8:36 so nightly prayers. It’s open  the door for Penny to come home.

8:41 We did share with her the news in  September, and there were tears all  

8:46 around the table as we communicated that,  and we said we’re not going to give up,  

8:51 but we also need to be realistic  that we don’t control the situation.

8:55 STEPHANIE SY: As a new year approaches, the  Welches say all they can do is continue to  

9:00 speak out for Penelope, hoping someone who has the  power to change the situation will hear them soon.

9:07 AIMEE WELCH: One missing piece.

9:11 (CHEERING)

9:11 STEPHANIE SY: For the “PBS NewsHour,”  I’m Stephanie Sy in Louisville, Kentucky.

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