By ELIZABETH HARMON
A real estate closing gave Sally Lichter the idea to adopt a child.

"I represented a woman of modest income who had just adopted a little girl from China," says Lichter, an attorney in Libertyville. "Eleven years before, when I was in my late 20s, I had decided that if I was still unmarried in 10 years, I would have a child on my own."

With so many children in need, Lichter decided to pursue adoption and asked her client to put her in touch with the agency she used.

Two years later, Lichter became the mother of an infant Chinese girl she named Katie. A little more than a year later, she expanded her family with another Chinese daughter, Annie.
Adopting a child is a big decision and can lead to the beginning of something amazing — a family.

Nov. 20 is National Adoption Day. According to nationaladoptionday.org, this is a national day of celebration of adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize the adoptions of children from foster care.

Since 2000, more than 30,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption Day. This year on Nov. 20, families, adoption advocates, policymakers, judges and volunteers will come together and celebrate adoption in communities large and small throughout the U.S.

November also is National Adoption Month, according to adoptioncouncil.org. The National Council For Adoption celebrates National Adoption Month and honors all members of the adoption triad, and those waiting to be adopted, during this special month.

The process:
Libertyville attorney Gary Schlesinger, of Schlesinger & Strauss LLC, explains there are two types of adoptions: Related adoptions, where the child and prospective parents have a relationship through blood or marriage; and non-related adoptions, which include adoptions of foster, orphaned or foreign children.

According to the U.S. Department of Immigration, Americans adopt more than 20,000 foreign children every year.

With any adoption, there are procedures to follow and, depending on the situation, they can be quite complicated.

"It's a very technical process, and if you don't have all the steps done correctly, it can be void," Schlesinger says. "It's like a cookbook. If you put in all that it says to and follow the steps correctly, then it works. If you don't, it doesn't."

An overview of the legal steps involved in domestic adoptions is available on the Schlesinger & Strauss Web site, illinois-family-lawyer.com.

Costs can vary as well, but generally fees are limited to items such as medical care for the birthmother and baby, reasonable living expenses, travel and legal fees.

"You can't buy a baby," Schlesinger says.

Lichter worked with both a local adoption contact and Faith International Adoptions, a Washington-state based agency specializing in Chinese adoptions. The local agency took care of details such as a home visit and criminal background check, and Faith International coordinated details with the Chinese government.

Because adoption rules vary by country and change frequently, it is important to work with an experienced agency or attorney, whether you are adopting outside the U.S. or not.

"You don't want to be someone's first adoption case," Schlesinger says.

While the process of adopting Katie took nearly two years from start to finish, Annie's adoption took just 13 months.

"The difference was because the rules in China had changed to speed up the process," Lichter says. "Now they've changed again and have slowed down."

The experience:
After the adoption was approved, Lichter's child was chosen for her. She received an e-mail with a small amount of information, but no photo, and was given 48 hours to decide.

"I think everybody says yes," Lichter says.

The selection of the child is the most mysterious part of the process.

"No one knows how they choose your child, but everyone says the child they pick is your child," she says.

Lichter describes an incident from Annie's adoption, when she and another adoptive family were momentarily given each other's children.

"Somehow I knew this wasn't the baby I was supposed to have, and so did the other father," Lichter says.

She adds Chinese adoption officials quickly realized the mistake and gave both families the correct child.

"Once I made the decision to adopt a particular child, I became bonded with her," Lichter says.

Today, Lichter and her daughters reside in Gurnee. Katie is 9 years old and loves horses. Annie is 7 years old and is crazy about gymnastics. Both girls practice gymnastics at the Gymnastics Factory in Grayslake.

They also are excellent students and are proud and curious about their heritage, Lichter says.

"They ask about China and want to go there," she says. "We'll go when they're in high school because it's a big trip, and I want them to be old enough to appreciate it."

In the meantime, they have photos and mementos of Lichter's adoption trips such as a baby blanket, a small purse, Chinese money, baby clothes and their original Chinese passports.

"When Katie was in first grade, I was invited to give a presentation to her class about going to China," Lichter says. "One of Katie's classmates starting calling her ‘China Girl,' and (Katie) got a kick out of that."

Lichter calls her adoption experiences "amazing," and Schlesinger agrees they are something special.

"The neat thing about an adoption is that when you walk out of the courtroom, everybody's smiling," Schlesinger says. "There's almost no other court work where that happens. It's a really good feeling to know you helped create a family."

--Lake County Magazine