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Local Adoptions Rise Despite Down Economy

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Jun 19, 2009 2:55 pm US/Mountain

Local Adoptions Rise Despite Down Economy

Written for the Web by CBS 4 Special Projects Producer Libby Smith

Reporting
Brooke Wagner
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) ― As the economy puts the squeeze on prospective parents, they're turning away from pricy international adoptions and looking into adopting children in foster care.

"We're seeing a huge decrease in children coming into this country for the purposes of adoption," said Dixie Davis, president of The Adoption Exchange.

Davis attributes that decline to several reasons including the cost, cooperating countries are slowing down international adoptions, and new efforts to get American children into homes. The Hague Convention on International Adoption has cleared the way to allow children in the U.S. to be adopted abroad.

"So our Department of State is interested in promoting good practices there," Davis added.

As the tides change in international adoption, many agencies that once specialized in bringing foreign children here are going out of business or opening their efforts to foster children in this country.

"The Joint Council on International Children's Services has set a goal that 100-percent of its international adoption placement agencies will, in fact, be doing American foster care adoption and currently 60-percent of them are. And that's a pretty exciting thing to see," Davis told CBS4.

Davis is also excited about the level of interest in adoption here in the U.S. She says people are not turning away from expanding their families despite the difficult economic times.

"In the month of March for example our adoption inquires were up more than 10-percent over the same month in 2008."

Elana and Bryce Perry are among those inquiring about local adoption. The parents of two boys, Mylz,7 and Mekhi,5, are hoping to add a little girl to their family. Elana originally hoped to offer relief to the children impacted by the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but as she started to research it she found that the costs of visas, travel, and agency fees would be thousands of dollars.

"Going through the foster care system. It's little or no money," Elana Perry explained.

Money wasn't the only consideration the Perry's had when they switched from international adoption to local adoption.

"You see the need out there. And we know that we're capable of loving another child and wanting to provide that to the community," Bryce Perry told CBS4.

Davis said that Colorado is leading the way in bridging the gap between international and local adoption. Local agencies are transferring home studies and other paperwork that parents have had done through international agencies.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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