dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Wuhan means more than coronavirus to Chicagoans who adopted kids there

Twenty years ago, a Sun-Times reporter joined a dozen families who traveled to China. ‘I can’t picture my life without her,’ one mom says of her adopted daughter.

Before it became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, Chicagoans were unlikely to have heard of Wuhan, a sprawling city of 11 million in central China sometimes referred to as the Chicago of China.

But for some Chicago-area families, the city was where they welcomed abandoned or orphaned children into their families, forever changing the lives of parents and children.

Twenty years ago, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter joined the dozen families as they traveled to Wuhan to complete the adoptions. They were among nearly 1,000 adoptions in China arranged by Chicago-area clinics from 1995 to 1999.

China was the most popular destination for Illinois families seeking to adopt internationally then. With 4,100 adoptions in 1999, China was second to Russia nationwide. It’s now surpassed Russia, though the number of adoptions dropped to 1,475 in 2018.

https: //chicago.suntimes.com/2020/2/21/21125353/wuhan-chinese-adoptions-coronavirus-chicago-families