By Snow Wu, President, Great Wall China Adoption

The year 2008 has been a very difficult year for China adoptions. Actually, I can honestly say it is the hardest and most challenging year since China began its international adoption programs in the early 1990’s. After sustaining record number of adoptions by American families from 2004 to 2007, Chinese adoptions start to slow down as the waiting time to be referred a child grew longer. Due to the long wait to receive a referral, the number of interested adoptive families has declined sharply as well.