"We don't want to shy away from telling them where they come from or how we got them in our family," said Tim Barnes, the father who adopted the two Chinese girls, Nikki An Yu Barnes, 8, and Maggie An Mei Barnes, 5.

International adoption began as far back as the years after World War II. The first huge wave of international adoptions came when the Korean War produced many abandoned and orphaned Korean children, and children whose parents could not provide for them anymore due to socioeconomic breakdown. The second wave followed after the Vietnam War, when several thousand South Vietnamese children were adopted by American families. The third wave began in the early ‘90s, and international adoption numbers have been rapidly growing ever since. Americans now adopt over 20,000 foreign children every year, according to the U.S. State Department, more than triple the number in 1992. The data is based on immigrant visas issued to orphans coming into the United States.

"The idea of the "typical American family" has changed so much that pretty much anything can fall into the category," said Stacie Barton, a college student who was adopted from Korea at five months-old.

Adoption agencies in America are licensed and supervised by individual states. The adoption process varies between countries, but there are broad similarities. First, a licensed adoption agency or facilitator is chosen. A dossier is compiled that typically includes financial information, a background check, fingerprints, a home study review and other supporting material that provide information on the prospective parents. A referral is given after the dossier is approved by the home country, and at that point, the family is matched with an eligible child. One or both parents fly to the child's home country, sometimes more than once, to legally complete the process. Some countries, such as South Korea, can escort the child to the United States. Since the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, all foreign-born children are automatically granted American citizenship upon arrival into the United States when at least one adoptive parent is a U.S. citizen.

"I think I have a greater perspective on the global community since I am a citizen of two countries, and I have a complex nationality that encompasses two nations," said Dan Higgins, a college student who was adopted from Columbia at 18 months.

Adoption costs vary from country to country.

"Costs can range from approximately $15,000 to more than $30,000," said Jane Freyfogle, from the Lifelink International Adoption Agency, which has offices around the country, including one in Champaign.

The money goes toward the care of the child, the cost of foreign country staff and facilitators, travel, legal processes in the birth country, medical exams, notaries, state certification, police checks, and other fees. Most adoptions take 12-18 months from the time of initial application to when a child joins the adoptive family, according to Lifelink.

In 2006, the leading countries where Americans adopted from were China with 6,493 children, Guatemala with 4,135 children and Russia with 3,706 children, according to the State Department.

Seeing foreign parents in Chinese cities has become more common. Adoptive parents travel in groups and stay in hotels for a few days as they bond with their new child. Most children adopted from China are girls due to the government's one-child policy, since the Chinese culture favors sons who provide financial support for their parents later on.

This current wave of international adoption is set apart by adoptive parents now taking active steps to expose their child to their home country's culture in order to help them seek their identities into adulthood. Parents are learning languages, celebrating other countries' holidays and enrolling their children in cultural dance classes and play groups. Korea holds "cultural training camps" where adopted Koreans are able to visit their home country for the first time. A support group with worldwide chapters named Families with Children from China connects families to explore Chinese culture together. There is a group chapter for the Champaign-Urbana area, where approximately 30 families meet, according to Lifelink.

"I think the support group is for the kids too, not just for the adults," said Karen Barnes, mother of Nikki and Maggie Barnes, whose family participates in the group. "They see that other families look like they do. I think it's important for them to see that there are lots of different ways to make a family."

The main complaint among critics of these "culture-finding" practices is that it is an oversimplified approach to a deeper, more complicated problem. They argue that just because Chinese adoptees have material items that are supposed to reflect their culture, they don't necessarily know what their culture is truly about or how they are tied to that culture. Karen Barnes said this is a valid argument, but "even little things that remind them that they are part of something beyond America are beneficial." Tim Barnes said that "it's OK as long as these practices are coupled with equipping the child with unbiased knowledge of their home country."

But there are more things to consider in the search for identity, according to some experts.

"It's not just culture," said Ellyn Bullock, a Champaign attorney who specializes in international adoption law. "Adoptive parents must also address their child's place within a family that does not look like them, their place in the ethnic make-up of the United States and for many cases, they have to help the child understand the circumstances that led to their abandonment."

Adoptions have risen steadily for a while, but the numbers have been falling as some countries tighten restrictions, with the most recent significant decline being in 2006, when international adoptions by Americans dropped to 20,679 from 22,728 in 2005.
This is due to several countries revising their international adoption procedures.

China has recently decided to change its rules for foreigners adopting Chinese children. The new rules that went into effect in May 2007 prevent single, homosexual, obese or elderly people from adopting. Individuals who are on antidepressant medication are also excluded. Applicants who are divorced or had their marriage annulled must wait five years after remarriage, and first-time couples must have been married for two years before becoming eligible to adopt. The family's net worth must also be higher than $80,000.

An even more significant development in international adoption is the Hague Treaty, a multinational agreement intended to reduce corruption and immoral practices such as abduction, bribes and coerced relinquishment of children by standardizing adoption procedures. It is also supposed to make the adoption process more straightforward by requiring agencies to be up front about their fees and procedures and increasing access to the history of the child. The Hague also requires training for prospective parents.

"Growth in numbers of international adoptions has definitely caused everybody to pay closer attention to the procedures," said Bullock. "Hague is certainly a response to that."

The Hague was approved by 66 nations on May 29, 1993. More than 70 countries have endorsed the treaty since then. The United States signed it on March 31, 1994, but spent more than 10 years creating the administrative and legal framework necessary to govern the adoption process. In 2000, the U.S. Senate approved the ratification of the convention once preparations for its implementation were in place and the Inter-country Adoption Act (IAA) was passed. The IAA was signed into law on October 6, 2000, making the Department of State the U.S. Central Authority for the Hague Treaty. The treaty has entered into full force in the last year. Convention countries include China, India, Colombia and the Philippines. Some non-Convention countries include Russia, South Korea and Ethiopia. Children can still be adopted from non-Convention countries, but the new guidelines do not have to be enforced in those countries.

In addition to China, other countries have also made it more difficult for foreigners to adopt their children. A few cases of Russian children being abused and even murdered by their adoptive American parents sparked anti-American sentiment, and the tension has caused the Russian government to tighten its standards.

Also, in 2007, the State Department said they "could not recommend adoptions from Guatemala," citing unethical and corrupt practices. There was widespread evidence of the coercion of birth mothers to relinquish children or paying women to give birth solely for the purpose of adoption. The U.S. government requires DNA testing in Guatemala to confirm that the woman relinquishing the child is the actual birth mother. Guatemala signed the Hague Treaty but has not created the required centralized system to oversee adoptions.

"I think it's a shame when politics get in the way of families and children getting together," said Michelle Nelson, who adopted two children from Guatemala recently. "I think loving, healthy people who are emotionally and financially able to care for a child should be able to do so."

Because the leading countries for international adoption are beginning to have stricter adoption standards, people are increasingly looking toward Ethiopia, where costs are lower and waiting periods are shorter. The Ethiopian adoption total has sharply increased from 82 children in 1997 to 732 in 2006. Ethiopia ranked among the top five countries from where Americans adopted, up from 16th in 2000.

With such a sparked interest in international adoption in the past decade, some question whether the orphaned or abandoned children in America are being passed over. Domestic adoption numbers have risen, but the availability of healthy American children to adopt is decreasing because of birth control, legal abortions and the growing social acceptance of single parents in the United States.

Many clashing viewpoints exist in regard to international adoption. But for now, there is a historic movement where thousands of children are being accepted into homes, no matter what their origin.

"There are many children in the world who need a home and a 'forever family,'" said Nelson.