'We've just been waiting:' Wisconsin couple among hundreds left in limbo after China announces end of foreign adoptions

 

KIMBERLY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- For more than three decades, hundreds of thousands of Chinese children have been adopted into families across the world -- half of whom are in the United States.

But that is now changing, after China recently announced the ending of their foreign adoption program.

This comes as the Chinese government is attempting to reverse declining birth rates and prevent a demographic crisis.

However, this decision leaves hundreds of families in limbo -- including Jason and Marsha Steger of Kimberly, Wisconsin, who have spent the last five years in the adoption process.

"We had to, you know, basically open up the curtains of our life and put it all on paper," the couple told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White. "We have just been in this waiting place to be matched."

The Stegers, who have two biological children, said they first felt a call to adopt in 2005 after attending a concert.

"The Lord laid it upon our hearts that someday we were going to adopt from China, and that seed that got planted that day continued to grow," Jason Steger said. 

It wouldn't be until 2019 when they officially started preparing, which was then halted during the pandemic as China suspended international adoption.

"They would have to be the bearers of not necessarily bad news, but just no news, just saying, they're not opening the doors. It's not going to happen. We hope to have more news," Jason Steger recalled. "They did open the doors for people who had been matched with children and already had travel arrangements, and those folks were able to go and pick up their children."

Still, the two kept up hope, which is why the recent news came as a bit of a shock.

"[Marsha] got an email the other day from the adoption agency, and they said that China has officially closed the doors completely, and I didn't expect that," Jason Steger said. "I actually expected her to say, they're opening the doors finally and we're going to move forward."

The Stegers are one of many American families who have now had their adoption dreams placed on hold.

Data from the U.S. Department of State show in the last 20 years, American parents adopted more than 82,000 kids from China.

"They have halted or slowed down adoptions over the years, and especially since COVID, but a little surprised that they decided to end them completely at this point," said Dawn Blossfeld, the operation's director for Adoption Choice, a private Wisconsin agency that works with international adoption. "Families and children are all going through - as well as birth families - are going through that grief and loss that comes from why that child is available for adoption."

Daniel Nehrbass, the president of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, agreed, noting his team didn't expect the program to completely shut down.

"Many of them are children who I've met, or our staff have met because we've traveled to China and have been to those orphanages, and, you know, had relationships with those orphanages," Nehrbass said. "They weren't just profiles on paper in many cases."

Currently, the only exception moving forward is if a foreigner is adopting stepchildren or the children of relatives within three generations.

Now the Stegers are focusing on figuring out what's next, which is largely in part led by their faith.

"We've gone through so many obstacles and hurdles in the midst of this adoption process that this is not the end," Jason Steger said.

"We definitely really feel for the people that were matched that emotionally got connected to the child," Marsha Steger added. "I don't know how or when it will happen, but I still believe that at some point in time it will happen according to God's plan."