I was covering a story a few years ago for a local newspaper about a couple that was trying to adopt a little girl from China. They had already tried to adopt in the United States, but found that they faced a very long waiting list and decided to look at foreign adoption.
The story was that the couple already had three sons and wanted a daughter, and when they looked at a web site about adopting a child from China, they felt that country was their best option, as it seemed to present the fewest problems of all of the countries they researched to adopt a child.
They told me it worked out especially well for both sides when it came to foreign adoption, because it gave them the daughter they had always wanted and gave an orphan a loving home, but it was also good for the child and the country, because it prevented her from having to grow up without a family and it was one less child for which the Chinese government had to provide.
I wrote another story about a family who decided to try a foreign adoption from Russia. The story there was that the couple could not conceive, but they read about a program that allowed Americans to adopt Russian children and decided to give it a shot.
The couple adopted a little boy from an orphanage where, as they said, the conditions were deplorable. Now the boy lives in an upper middle-class neighborhood with access to health care and a top-notch education through the local school system, things he would not have had in Russia.
A third couple I wrote about adopted a little boy from Zambia. His parents had both died and he was being cared for by his grandparents, who could not afford to care for him any longer and had to make the heart-wrenching decision to put him up for adoption.
The great thing about that foreign adoption story is that the little boy lives in the United States and has a loving family, but he is able to stay in contact with his grandparents in Zambia, as well, so he can remain connected to his home country.
I have to say that out of all the stories I have covered in my writing career, the ones on foreign adoption have probably been the most rewarding and most memorable. Not only does it make you feel good that parents have the opportunity to raise a child and that children find loving families, but as far as I can tell, there really has been no downside.