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The recent earthquake in China has orphaned thousands of children and many Americans want to help. The pictures and stories of orphaned children are hard to hear and see.
One adoption agency says it had a 50-percent increase in the number of inquiries about Chinese adoptions right after the earthquake.
A local family says when you adopt from China what you get back is so much more than what you give. Leslie Sockwell already had three children when she and her husband adopted 6-and-a-half-year-old daughter Brooke from China in 2002.
Sockwell says the family wouldn't be complete without her, "I can remember being in China and just a few days after she had been handed to us and we looked at each other and said what if we had not come because it was so clear that she was supposed to be part of our family.
Kerri Campbell with the Great Wall of China Adoption Agency in West Austin says callers flooded the phone lines after the recent earthquake: "People we saying they had seen the news reports about the earthquake. They heard about the number of orphans… They really felt they needed to open their home and adopt."
But the process is still a long one. First it must be determined which children are now orphans and which ones have family in China they can live with. The current wait time to adopt from China is 2 and half years.
The Sockwells loved the experience so much soon they'll adopt another little girl from China -- a sister for Brooke. They encourage others who may be moved by the horrific earthquake. "Just see where this takes you because our family wouldn't be complete without Brooke and we are looking forward to the next addition as well," Leslie Sockwell says.
According to the State Department, China had been the number one foreign country for adoptions by Americans since 2000. Now though, it's sending fewer orphans over: 5,453 in 2007, down from 7,906 in 2005.
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