Fix broken foreign adoptions now

Imagine the agony hundreds of suburban parents and would-be parents now are facing. Perhaps they have a child whom they have loved and made a home with for years. Perhaps they have some pictures of one, a name picked out and a nursery decorated and waiting.

But if their child came from, or is coming from, Guatemala or Vietnam, that bond now is threatened. The children, to whom they already have given their hearts, could be taken away.

That nightmare scenario is one hundreds in Illinois and thousands across America now face as reports of adoption fraud and corruption threaten to invalidate or stem U.S. adoptions from those countries.

Last week, Vietnam officials said they were stopping all U.S. adoptions after a U.S. Embassy report detailed accounts of hospitals there selling babies whose mothers couldn't pay their bills and corrupt brokers hunting for babies.

In Guatemala, hints of corruption long have been documented as that tiny nation rapidly rose to the top of the list as a source for international adoptions, behind only China. Problems and suspicions of fraud have been uncovered at one of Guatemala's most popular adoption agencies. Solicitor General Mario Gordillo told the Associated Press recently his office would have to invalidate adoptions and try to recover children in America if fraud is proven.

That situation could ultimately threaten 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions and an untold number already approved.

More than 5,500 children were adopted from Guatemala and Vietnam by American adults last year. It's not known how many families in the suburbs are threatened, but in the Daily Herald's "Finding Family" international adoption series 1½ years ago, it was reported that 168 children were adopted from Guatemala to Illinois just a few years ago. Since then, Vietnam has grown as a source for U.S. adoptions, with adoptions from there quadrupling in 2007, according to the Associated Press.

Our own series demonstrated that suburban adults adopt internationally for a variety of reasons. Often it's faster and, in some countries, more reliable. Certainly prospective parents often are motivated by knowing they can provide a much healthier, higher quality of life for children from many foreign countries.

When it works smoothly, it still can take months, untold heartache and somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000 to adopt internationally.

To have thousands of Americans now left in limbo wondering whether they'll ever get their children or whether they'll hear a knock on the door from some government official come to take their children away someday simply is not acceptable.

The U.S. Embassy uncovered the problems in Vietnam and concerns about Guatemala are well documented. So it must be U.S. government officials who lead now. They must work with the international community and Vietnam and Guatemalan officials to resolve the controversies and mend the broken adoption chain.

Our families, the very fabric of our communities, are counting on it.