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.