DENVER - Unfortunately it's something we hear all too often - another business closing down.
Adoption Alliance, one of Colorado's most reputable adoption agencies, has just announced they're closing their doors after 22 years in business.
"We are so saddened," Tracey Blustein, executive director of Adoption Alliance, said.
This comes after a change in adoption procedures, more specifically international adoption, which took place a few years ago.
In 2005, several changes were made in international adoption adding more paperwork, more travel and more money for families looking to adopt.
Because of those changes, what used to be a one-to-two-year wait period has turned into a three-to-four-year wait period for families looking to adopt.
Since 2004, international adoptions in the U.S. have dropped 60 percent.
That is the reason 50 percent of adoption agencies in the U.S. are projected to close down by 2013.
"We have been hit really hard with the change in economic climate and international and domestic adoption," Bluestein said.
Adoption Alliance has been hit hard because of the international adoption decline.
"In previous years, we would be able to place 60 kids per year - now we are down to 25. Our financial resources have diminished," Blustein said.
Blustein says they will be shut down within a month or so and are in the process of transitioning about 200 families to around 30 adoption agencies in the Denver metro area.
She says families who have been going through Adoption Alliance shouldn't be worried about their paperwork and progress. The company says they are working quickly to transfer everything quickly so there are no holdups.
For more information from the Adoption Alliance, call 303-584-9900.
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