International Adoption: The Possibilities and Pitfalls

At 4:45 p.m. Russia time (8:45am EST) on July 6, 2004 at a municipal children’s hospital 40 minutes southeast of downtown Moscow, my wife, Lisa, walks down two flights of grime-covered stairs carrying a little boy. She scuttles through a lobby littered with adults and children fidgeting aimlessly, the walls held up only by gouged plaster. Across the concrete courtyard she walks, avoiding the fissures and weeds poking up through the slabs. She stands there holding the child for a few minutes while the driver/translator readies the car seat reserved only for babies of American parents, the only parents that ever ask to use such a cumbersome contraption.

Why do people decide to form or build a family through international adoption?