Finding Home: Fifty Years of International Adoption

As the Korean War ended, thousands of babies fathered by American GIs faced an uncertain future. Their plight touched a retired, evangelical Christian couple from Eugene, Oregon. The couple adopted eight children, and went on to place hundreds more largely in white, Christian homes. These well-publicized adoptions would transform international adoption from a rare, private arrangement to a common practice, changing the composition of American families and communities along the way. But for some, the transfer of children from poor countries to wealthy ones raises uncomfortable questions.

We know that each year, Americans adopt more than twenty thousand children from abroad. International adoption has tripled since 1990 and continues to climb. We hope that our radio and Web projects will offer a rich cross-section of stories by adoptees, siblings, adoptive and birth parents as well as researchers.

If you have experience with international adoption, we'd like to hear from you. http://www.publicradio.org/applications/formbuilder/projects/adoption/submission_form.php