"It's very important to us that our daughter stay in touch with her biological mother and cherish her cultural roots," Scott said. "Studies have found that foreign-born adoptees tend to regret losing touch with their original ethno-cultural identities by the time they're 18 or 19."
"Our friends who had adopted from China were just amazed at the information we had access to at St. Lucy's, right down to our daughter's medical and biological family histories," Lani chimes in.
Diana Chen (陳惠鏡), director of St Lucy's, said more foreigners are contacting her orphanage amid a sharp rise in the number of US immigrant visas issued to Taiwanese adoptees. Last year, the US State Department issued nearly 200 visas to "Taiwanese orphans" -- quadruple the number of visas it issued in 2002, its Web site said.
"Inquiries from abroad are through the roof," she said.
Meeting their baby at St. Lucy's for the first time yesterday, Geiger and Saslove's year-long voyage through reams of paperwork and across the Pacific finally culminated in their cradling a baby boy.
He cooed and grinned while Saslove rocked him and blotted her eyes with fistfuls of tissues.
"You know, we just felt right about Taiwan from the beginning," Geiger said, a smile lighting up his face as he reached for a Kleenex.
"We made it," he said.
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