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All Things Considered
Tom Crann and Ngoc Bui

Questions linger for adoptees after China ends international adoptions

A woman poses for a headshot
Grace Shu Gerloff was adopted from China in 1997 and grew up in Linden Hills. She now studies transnational adoption as a doctoral student at Michigan State University.
Courtesy of Ava Krahn

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Thousands are left wondering what's next after China announced last week it has ended its international adoption program. Over the last three decades, more than 80,000 kids were adopted from China and brought to the U.S.

Among those is Grace Shu Gerloff.

She was adopted by a Minnesota couple in 1997 when she was 18 months old and grew up in Linden Hills. She now studies transnational adoption as a doctoral student at Michigan State University.

“A lot of folks I know have felt kind of forgotten,” Shu Gerloff said in reaction to the news. “It kind of feels like the door was just abruptly shut, and there’s a lot of concern with what future access to our birth records — if there are any to be found — or any of our documents.”

Shu Gerloff had just done a return visit to her orphanage back in June and didn’t receive any indication that this decision was coming. Since finding out, she said she’s had to grapple with what it means for adoptees to be “byproducts of governmental policy.”

As China shuts down its international adoption program, Shu Gerloff hopes there can be more conversation in the future about the root causes of adoption and how to better support families in crisis.

“What are the conditions that are putting families in poverty where they are unable to care for their children? Why are we not funneling resources towards family preservation in the same way that we are putting those resources to international adoption?”

For more of the conversation with Grace Shu Gerloff, click the play button on the audio player above.