Families cross borders for adoptions

By BRENDA SCHORY - bschory@nwherald.com


Janet and Greg Behning had three children and were living the good life in Woodstock.

But they felt God calling them to add to their family through adoption.



“We live a strong Christian faith, and it was a strong prompting in our hearts from God that our family was not complete,” Janet Behning said. “We began to pray, and doors kept opening, and God kept putting people in our path [who] talked about international adoption.”

When a woman at their church, Evangelical Free Church in Crystal Lake, adopted a son from South Korea, that clinched it.

“It was just amazing,” Janet Behning said. “We were open to whomever God put in our path.”

So the Behnings started out with Katie, 18, Nathan, 15, Joshua, 11, and added from South Korea David, 9, and Anna, 4.

“I’m so glad we did it,” Janet Behning said. “I can’t imagine life without these special kids. They really complete our family.”

Laura and James Kohlhaas of Cary adopted three children from South Korea: Adam, 20, Kimberly, 16, and Andrew, 10.

“Why did we adopt?” Laura Kohlhaas said. “Infertility for about eight years.”

They passed on domestic adoption because there is no guarantee of a child at the end of the process, she said.

“We looked at private adoptions in the U.S., but it’s a lottery,” Kohlhaas said. “We did not want to buy our children. We knew at the end of this process that we were having a child.”

Although the Kohlhaases were pioneers in adoption 20 years ago, international adoptions in the U.S. have increased steadily from 7,093 in 1990, when the government began tracking international adoption, to 20,679 in 2006, an increase of more than 292 percent.


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Laura Stroup, social worker for Lifelink International Adoption’s Rockford office, said that generally when families chose a country for adoption, they had a connection to it or a lot of interest in it.

An international adoption can cost from $18,000 to $35,000, but adoptive parents also can qualify for a $10,000 tax credit, she said.

“Money is a big factor,” Stroup said. “Fees are different from each country.”

Countries have various requirements. China, the largest country of origin for adoption – 6,493 children in 2006 – now has more stringent guidelines, she said.

Adoptive families for Chinese children now must be between 30 and 50 years old, be married at least two years, have no more than two divorces per parent, a net worth of $80,000, and $10,000 per family member. China also requires prospective parents to travel there while other countries, such as Guatemala, allow children to be brought to the United States.

Both the U.S. Embassy and State Department advise that the adoption situation in Guatemala is “volatile and unpredictable.”

The U.S. Embassy on Aug. 6 began requiring a second DNA test to make sure that the child at the beginning of the adoption process is the same one at the end, according to the U.S. Embassy Web site.

On Aug. 11, Guatemalan National Police raided Casa Quivira, an adoption agency, and found 46 babies and toddlers who did not have proper paperwork to be given up for adoption.

A popular destination now for Americans looking to adopt internationally is Ethiopia, which has opened adoptions to single women, Stroup said.

Paperwork and background checks and home studies of prospective adoptive families are extensive, Stroup said, so families should be prepared and be patient for the months it can take before they have a child.

“We get to learn who the couple is, what their background is, where and how they grew up, and what their lifestyle is now,” Stroup said. “We also have to satisfy the needs of the state of Illinois and U.S. Immigration.”

They also want to make sure that a divorced parent pays child support.

“We did get called by an ex-wife 10 years ago,” Stroup said.

She questioned how her ex-husband could do an international adoption when he failed to pay child support for his biological children.

“I said, ‘You’re absolutely right,’ ” Stroup said.

The agency also tries to prepare parents in how to deal with questions – sometimes rude or intrusive – from a curious public so that their answers can provide some education, she said.

“We had one family who was asked how much they paid for their daughter from China,” Stroup said.

The parents had a good response.

“They said, ‘Not more than we can afford but far less than she’s worth.’”

Resources on the Internet:

•Lifelink International Adoption at www.lifelinkadoption.org

•Sunny Ridge Family Center at www.sunnyridge.org

•Adoptive Families Today at www.adoptivefamiliestoday.org

•U.S. State Department at www.state.gov; click on travel, then on visas for foreign citizens

Top 10 countries for international adoptions 2006:

1. Mainland China: 6,493

2. Guatemala: 4,135

3. Russia: 3,706

4. South Korea: 1,376

5. Ethiopia: 732

6. Kazakhstan: 587

7. Ukraine: 460

8. Liberia: 53

9. Colombia: 344

10. India: 320

Source: U.S. State Department