Hundreds of US families adopting special needs children left in limbo after China cuts off foreigners: Shes 11 and still waiting for us
Penelope has never slept in the bed her American parents first made for her when she was five.Now 11, she has never worn the clothes they’ve filled her dresser drawers with, many times over as she has grown.She’s never gone to class at the school in Louisville, Kentucky, where she’s been enrolled several years in a row, or met the loving siblings who desperately want to see her.Instead, Penelope — who has special needs — is one of hundreds of Chinese orphans who have been adopted but remain trapped in the country’s orphanages.
Her future is uncertain after the country abruptly halted all international adoptions.“Penelope’s bed has been set up from day one and her name is on the wall,” said Aimee Welch, 48, who alongside her husband Stephen Welch, 47, matched with Penelope via an adoption agency in 2019.“We’ve lived for five years in a state of hope and preparation to try and be as ready as we can and be the best family we can, to keep our promise to her,” she added in an interview with The Post.The adoption had been approved by authorities in both the US and China, but as the Welch family were preparing to travel to China and collect Penelope in March 2020, COVID struck.“She was six when we were supposed to travel to bring her home.We lived in New Jersey then.
Now she’s 11 and still waiting for us in an institution in China.”Even more heartbreaking, Welch told The Post Penelope has been “available for domestic adoption this entire time,” but no one has stepped forward to offer her a home.The Welches are one of approximately 270 American families who had been approved to adopt when the rug was pulled out from under them.After years of delays caused by Chinese authorities restricting travel due to COVID, in September last year the country’s foreign ministry announced it had banned all international adoptions as of the previous month.“What’s very disconcerting is we have documents stating [China] had made a commitment that the...