Area couples wait longer to adopt from pandemic-curtailed pool of newborns

The stars were aligned when Rob and Samantha Lauricia added a baby boy, Sal, to their family last February.

After a little more than a year of preparation and paperwork, the Irwin couple became eligible to adopt a child on Jan. 19, 2022. When they welcomed Sal into their home just weeks later, they joined a group of new adoptive parents that had grown smaller in numbers during the covid-19 pandemic.

“We got a call on Valentine’s Day saying, ‘You guys were picked. You have to go to Allentown to pick up the baby tomorrow,’ ” Rob Lauricia said. “We basically became (first-time) parents overnight.

“We called our family for all hands on deck. Everyone came together to put the crib together.”

The couple was “very, very lucky to be picked so quickly,” selected by the birth parents in an open adoption process, he said.

That was especially true following the arrival in early 2020 of the pandemic, which made the process more of a challenge.

“The adoption agencies were sort of on hiatus until they figured out what was going on,” Lauricia said. He and his wife began the adoption process in late 2020, “a little bit after the pandemic was in full swing.”

The Lauricias completed their adoption through Adoptions From the Heart, an agency founded in 1985 that has locations in Pennsylvania and five other states. Before the pandemic, it helped to complete as many as 140 adoptions per year, including about eight to 10 annually in Western Pennsylvania.

The agencywide number of adoptions fell to 106 in 2020 and no more than 90 in 2021, according to Joan Smith, district supervisor of the agency’s Pittsburgh-area office, which is based in Greensburg.

“That’s quite a drop,” she said. “It was definitely affected by covid.”

The biggest factor in the decline of adoptions, Smith said, was a drop in birth rates during the initial phase of the pandemic.

“We still had placements, but not as many,” Smith said. She noted the agency was receiving fewer calls from expectant parents who were considering offering a child for adoption — simply because there weren’t as many pregnancies.

“People were isolated, closed in and shut down,” she said. “People were not mingling, so you had fewer pregnancies.”

A study released last year by the National Council For Adoption and the Catholic University of America found that private domestic, non-stepparent adoptions nationwide declined 24% from 2019 to 2020 while adoptions from foster care declined by 13%.

In Pennsylvania, the study indicates, those types of adoptions dropped, respectively, by 25%, to 3,539, and by 27%, to 2,087.

According to vital statistics reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, births in Pennsylvania dropped from 134,230 in 2019 to 132,401 in 2021 — a decline of 1.36%. U.S. births dropped by 2.35%, to about 3.6 million in the same period.

From 2019 to 2020, Westmoreland County saw a 5.6% decrease in births, to 2,839, according to the state Department of Health. Armstrong County saw a one-year decline of 6.48%, to 577 births, and there was a 5.5% drop in Allegheny County, to 12,188 births.

While births declined, Smith said, the desire for children among prospective adoptive parents did not.

“There was maybe even an increase,” she said, “because people started working from home” — with more time to think about expanding their household.

Already blessed with two daughters, Westmoreland County spouses Brandon and Stephanie reached out to Adoptions From The Heart in January 2020 in an effort to grow their family after Stephanie had experienced high-risk pregnancies.

“We definitely didn’t feel like we were done,” Stephanie said. In accordance with agency guidelines, she and her husband are withholding their surname and hometown since their adoption of 5-month-old son Gio from New Jersey isn’t expected to be finalized until a March hearing.

After agencies placed a temporary hold on taking on new parents, the couple was able to begin paperwork for the adoption process in September 2020, Stephanie said.

Courses and training they completed through Adoptions From The Heart typically would have occurred in person but were conducted virtually because of pandemic restrictions.

“Everything that happened was over Zoom,” Brandon said. “We just had our final post-placement meeting with the social worker, and I said to her, “You realize this has been two-and-a-half-plus years, and we’ve never met in person.’ ”

Nicole and Lee, first-time parents from Pittsburgh’s South Hills, are working through the same agency toward an open adoption of son Tyler. They were able to have an initial meeting with Smith in the first part of 2020 before their process also became a remote one.

“Everything shut down that following week,” Nicole said of the pandemic’s arrival. Steps they subsequently completed virtually included a child care course, sessions about the benefits and legalities of adoption and a chance to hear the experiences of a birth mother and of adoptees.

“It’s to make sure you’re adequately trained to parent in any type of situation you might be in,” Nicole said.

The couple also provided a virtual inventory of their home to the agency, demonstrating they had all requirements in place, including smoke detectors.

Although it took more than two years, their effort was worth it when they were selected for an adoption in July 2022 and quickly traveled to central Pennsylvania to claim the newborn Tyler.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better situation. He’s healthy and happy,” said Nicole. “The birth mother was at the hospital, and we were fortunate enough to be able to meet her.”

“She saw our file and chose us to be Tyler’s parents,” Lee said. “We’re very grateful to her.”

Smith explained that birth parents who take part in the agency’s open adoptions are in control, selecting from prospective adoptive parents.

“They will pick a family of their choosing,” she said. “We have a list of families, and we try to match them up.”

Birth parents in Pennsylvania, she said, are encouraged to make visitations with their adopted child legally binding under state law. At a minimum, the agency asks that adoptive parents be open to at least two visits per year with the birth parent and share photos and letters with the birth parent at least once a year for 18 years.

The Lauricias have gone well beyond that minimum after meeting both of Sal’s biological parents.

“Our relationship was great right off the bat with the birth parents,” said Samantha Lauricia, who has known since she was a teenager that she would be unable to bear children. “I talk to Sal’s birth mom almost every day.”

The birth parents have been reunited with Sal three times to date, most recently visiting to open Christmas gifts.

“It’s great in the long run for all parties involved, particularly for Sal,” said Rob Lauricia. “It’s important that he has those relationships.”

In their profile, the Lauricias indicated they had no preference regarding the gender or race of the child they sought to adopt or regarding the background of the birth parents.

“We were open to anything,” Rob Lauricia said. “I think that’s what allowed us to be picked so soon.”

Stephanie and Brandon, likewise, included few limitations in the profile they presented for consideration by birth parents. But, Stephanie noted, “We were a waiting family for two years” before they were matched with Gio, then 4 days old, in late August. “That was a lot of disappointment.”

Before Gio, they had one near-match with another child, but the birth mother’s circumstances improved and she decided to keep her child.

“It was hard for us, but it ended up being the right thing for her and the baby,” Stephanie said.

Otherwise, she said, “One of the reasons we kept not being chosen was we already had kids,” with many birth parents preferring to place their child in a household where they will have all of the adoptive parents’ attention.

In Gio’s case, they finally found birth parents who were happy that their son would have two older sisters in Mina, 6, and Jovie, 4.

“That was really sweet to us,” Stephanie said.

Adoptions From The Heart has seen a resurgence in its number of adoptions beginning this past summer, Smith said.

“We’re getting a lot more calls now, with things reopening,” she said. “It has definitely picked up.”

Once Gio’s adoption is finalized, Stephanie said, “We have planned a fun day. I’m not sure what that will be with a 7-month-old. Whatever it is, we’ll be home in time for a nap.”