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 these children had been matched to families waiting for them. These children were already approved to come to American families, and now they are left in a terrible limbo,” said Meghan Biggs, 46.
She and her husband, David, also 46, have been preparing to welcome Xiao Tang, now 10, into their home since 2018. David was himself adopted from South Korea as a child and wants to offer the same opportunity to another orphan.
The Philadelphia-based family has been highly committed and worked hard to satisfy all the requirements for their adoption.
“We specifically wanted an older child, one with special needs who might otherwise be challenged in finding a home because a lot of people are unsure about how to manage special needs,” Meghan added to The Post.
“We were reviewing files and I came across a photo of the little guy and I knew we could accommodate his needs, and my heart just shot to the moon.
“We’ve taken numerous courses on trauma and caring for children with special needs, we’ve prepared financially and to meet the medical needs of our son,” she said.
“We’ve had a local hospital review his chart and is prepared to evaluate him so he can be supported medically and become the young man he is eager to become.
“We’ve had numerous video calls with him through a translator, we’ve sent letters, care packages, birthday cakes and cards.
“We have a connection with him. He calls us mum and dad and our son his brother.”
Prior to the ban, China had allowed more than 160,000 children to be adopted by foreign nationals since 1992. Of those, more than 82,000 children were adopted by families in the US, State Department figures show.
“We are grateful for the desire and love of the governments and adoption families of relevant countries to adopt Chinese children,” said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding exceptions would now be made only for families adopting stepchildren and children of blood relatives in the country.
For thirty years adoptions from orphanages by non-Chinese parents were allowed as the country’s government enforced a strict one-child policy which forced many families to give up their babies.
That policy ended in 2016 and China now has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. As a result, it has started encouraging citizens to have up to three children.
Nearly all foreign adoptions involve children with disabilities, according to the Chinese government.
“This is not about getting children for families,” said Welch, who heads an organization called Hope Leads Home that advocates for completing pending China adoptions.
“It’s 100 per cent about providing families for children who need them.”
Despite having a loving home waiting with the Welch family for five years, Penelope has spent the bulk of her young life in a medical group home.
“We never would have guessed that we would still be waiting and fighting for our little ones five years [after] we should have traveled to bring them home.”
Welch has also seen the difference offering a child a permanent home can make to their lives, after previously adopting another little girl, Grace, from China in 2017. The Welches also have four biological sons.
“I think of Grace, who was born without her left hand or forearm, so right away her paperwork was prepared for international adoption,” Welch said.
“She came to me with a very flat head, undernourished. Now she plays piano, goes to ballet class, she plays soccer. She is a joyful, happy brilliant child reading five years above her grade level.
“Seeing Grace thrive in a family is one of the things that inspires me to keep fighting for Penelope.”
The families who spoke to The Post now have their hopes pinned on President Trump putting the issue on the agenda when he next meets with China’s President Xi Jinping.
“Our plea is that they [the orphans] will be given the opportunity they were promised jointly by the US and China – the opportunity to thrive in the long term care and nurture of loving families,” Welch said.
“Maybe [Trump] can negotiate the completion of these agreements as others have been unable to do.”
A bipartisan group of 105 American lawmakers this month joined the chorus of advocates asking the president to intervene, led by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
“We urge you to elevate this engagement and press the Chinese government to finalize pending adoption cases … It is particularly critical that these children have access to the care and support that they need – which hundreds of American families approved for adoption are willing to provide,” the letter stated.
Two similar letters signed by 100 lawmakers and 33 governors were sent to President Joe Biden last year. However, the issue did not come up when Biden later met with Jinping in Peru last November.
National Council For Adoption president Ryan Hanlon said the prospective adoptive parents and those advocating for them are not arguing against Beijing’s right to discontinue international adoptions going forward, but only appealing in cases where adoptions are already in process.
Meghan Biggs, who also has a biological son the same age as Xiao Tang, said her family won’t stop fighting for him.
“We had expected to hear from China in the spring of 2024 and we were met with silence. We continued to request clarification until the ban was announced.
“[Even] if we do not get the opportunity to complete this adoption, we will always consider him our son,” she told The Post.
“We want the opportunity to parent this child, where he is treasured and encouraged to push his own boundaries.
“We are ready to jump on a plane tomorrow if China asks us to.
“The best place for any child is to be with a family.”
