Not long ago, the choices facing Robert and Julie Garrett would have been simpler. Once they set their hearts on adopting a child from China, the odds were high that they could soon bring home a healthy baby girl.

　　It's different now. Faced with a long wait and smaller pool of healthy orphans available to foreigners, the Garretts have decided after much soul-searching to adopt one of the special-needs children now abound in China's orphanages.

　　"It's really hard, and we want to make the right choice," said Julie Garrett, of Gainesville, Ga.

　　The children's conditions range widely. Some are correctible, some not: cleft lips and palates, heart disease, missing or malformed limbs, impaired vision or hearing.

　　"It's important for us not to take on more than we can handle," Garrett said. "That process takes time – praying over it, discussing what medical needs you think you could take on."

　　Starting in the early 1990s, and as recently as a few years ago, the large majority of Chinese children adopted by foreigners were healthy baby girls abandoned by their parents, often because of a preference for a son in a country rigidly enforcing a one-child policy.

　　Between 1995 and 2005, Americans adopted more than 60,000 children from China. The peak was 7,903 in 2005.

　　Circumstances have changed dramatically since then. China has eased its one-child policy, fewer baby girls are abandoned, adoption of healthy orphans has increased, and the waiting time for foreigners to adopt a healthy infant has tripled to roughly four years.

　　As a result, US adoptions from China have dropped more than 60 percent, to 3,001 last year. And of the children now adopted, roughly three of every five have special medical needs.

　　Since it began encouraging international adoptions in the 1990s, China has won praise for striving to provide accurate information about the children in its orphanages. But as more children with complex medical conditions are put up for adoption, experts say there's often less certainty about their prognosis.

　　收养健康中国孩子变难了

　　美国《纽约时报》3月28日文章，原题：从中国收养的孩子大多需要特殊照顾  不久前，加勒特夫妇面对的选择还简单得多。一旦决定从中国收养孩子，他们很快就把一名健康女婴带回家的可能性很大。但现在情况不同了。

　　由于长时间的等待，且供外国人收养的健康孤儿较少，加勒特夫妇经过深思熟虑后决定收养一名需要特殊照顾的孩子，中国孤儿院里现在有很多这样的孩子，健康状况千差万别。有些病症能够矫正，有些无法医治：唇裂、先天性心脏病、四肢不全或畸形、弱视或听力低下。

　　从上世纪90年代初开始直到前几年，被外国人收养的中国孩子大都是被遗弃的健康女孩，通常因为在这个计划生育政策严格的国家，人们更愿意要男孩。1995年到2005年，美国人从中国收养的儿童超过6万，高峰期2005年达到7903名。从那时起，情况发生了戏剧性变化。中国放松了“只生一个娃”政策，被弃女婴数量减少，且国内收养健康孤儿的人增加，外国人收养健康婴儿的等待时间延长了3倍，几乎达到4年。

　　结果是美国从中国收养孩子的数量直线下降，幅度超过60%，去年只有3001名，且几乎每5个孩子中就有3名需要特殊医疗。造成这种情况的一个因素是中国的生育缺陷率。据称，从2001年到2006年，（中国）生育缺陷率几乎上升了50%。