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November 28, 2004A rewarding optionForeign adoptions on the rise in the U.S.ByRecord-Eagle staff writer COPEMISH - Tom and Lynne Walker's trip to Siberia in 1993 to adopt their daughter Maryellen was the "longest three weeks" of Lynne's life. Yet now that the couple has a healthy, happy, 12-year-old daughter, they wouldn't change a thing. "The rewards are wonderful," Lynne said as Maryellen played a card game with a friend on the living room floor. Adoptions of foreign children to parents in the United States have increased every year from 1992, when there were fewer than 6,500, to 2003 when there were more than 21,500, according to statistics from the U.S. State Department. At the same time, the number of domestic adoptions has leveled off, said Suzie Cross, spokeswoman for Adoption Associates Inc., a non-profit adoption agency headquartered near Grand Rapids. The agency placed 128 domestically born infants in 2003, compared with 234 born in other countries, she said. "It is still an uphill battle to convince a birth mother that adoption is a good option," Cross said. "So, fewer than 1 percent of U.S. unplanned pregnancies end in adoption. We believe it empowers the mother as well as giving the child a stable, two-parent family with an opportunity to the future." When the Walkers adopted, Russia was second to Korea as a source of foreign adoptions. That year, 746 Russian-born children came to the United States with new parents. Last year, 5,209 Russian children were adopted into U.S. families. The country is still the second most frequent source, but now the number-one source country is China. Cean Burgeson of Manistee, his wife Tiana and their 5-year-old son Reidar plan to go to China in the spring to adopt a baby girl. "Reidar stops strangers and tells them about his sister in China," said Cean Burgeson, who expects a smooth process. Mary Zoet, manager of the China program for Adoption Associates, said that is not an unreasonable assumption. "The Chinese program is very consistent," Zoet said. "It's run by the Chinese government. It's the most inexpensive program and it only has one trip involved." The Walkers' trip to Russia turned into an adventure, as they went at a time of political unrest. Their visit to the city of Tyumen was marked by flights leaving up to eight hours late and a hotel reservation that was canceled without their knowledge. Once when it appeared they weren't going to get a flight, Tom bribed an official with a bottle of brandy and they got one right away. They also dealt with the beliefs of some Russians that Americans only want to adopt foreign children to use for body parts for American children. "One agency wouldn't even let us in," Lynne said. But much of that had already changed when they returned two years ago to show Maryellen where she came from. A TV crew followed them around for part of their trip to film a documentary dispelling some of the rumors about Americans who adopt. Their visit to the orphanage where they had adopted her was like a reunion. "People who no longer worked there came back and said, 'She's alive!'¡" Lynne said. Alla Goncharova, manager of Adoption Associates' Russian program, said the process there has been streamlined and parents now face few of the hassles the Walkers did. "A few years ago, Russia adopted completely new adoption laws and they make the process very clear," she said. "We have about 20 people working on our behalf in Russia." None of the difficulties mattered much to the Walkers, anyway. "It makes a good story," Lynne said, "but certainly, she's worth it."
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