FIRST OF TWO PARTS

When Jaydee Wagner and her husband, Jolon, adopted a 15-month-old girl from China in 2008, the wait was about three years.

While that may seem long to the uninitiated, it’s considered pretty good compared with the average wait time of at least five years or more today.

So when the Hawaii Kai couple were ready to adopt again, they opted for a 3-year-old boy with a heart condition and were able to bring him home about a year later.

"It’s something that you have to have an open mind and heart for," said Jaydee Wagner. "Initially it wasn’t the journey we thought we were going to take, and this happened to come our way. I’m glad we were open to it. It’s worked out beautifully, like a seamless addition to our family."

As rules on foreign adoptions tighten, many families are looking at bringing home older children, siblings or kids with medical conditions who are more readily available with fewer restrictions, or they are considering adopting within the United States or from places with less red tape.

Nationally there were 9,319 intercountry adoptions in 2011, a 16 percent drop from the previous year and the lowest number in 15 years, according to U.S. State Department statistics. China was the largest source of adoptees (2,589), followed by Ethiopia (1,727), Russia (970) and South Korea (736).

In Hawaii the total number of adoptions from abroad fell to 35 last year, the lowest number in 12 years, and significantly less than the 63 in 2010. A breakdown by countries was not available.

Although many factors are involved, including a weakened economy, adoption officials say the lower numbers are due largely to tighter restrictions resulting from the Hague Adoption Convention, meant to address abuse and child-trafficking concerns; closer scrutiny of potential adoptive parents; and policy shifts by some foreign governments to keep children in their own countries.

Fees for an international adoption range from $25,000 to $50,000, according to Adoptive Families Magazine’s Adoption Guide.

Kristine Altwies, executive director of Hawaii International Child, a Hono­lulu-based nonprofit adoption agency, said most couples who first walk into the office have in mind to adopt an infant from a particular country. But they might open up to older children or other countries once they are presented with all of the details.

"Given the reality of intercountry adoptions of the traditional type, there’s been a huge push for older, waiting children," Altwies said. "That’s been one of our biggest efforts in the past few years."

The term "waiting child" in the adoption world is a general term that includes children who are typically older than age 3, sibling pairs or children with special medical conditions ranging from cleft palates to congenital heart defects.

They are children who have been waiting to be adopted, and the process for adopting them is generally quicker and less restrictive.

In the past five years, Altwies said, maybe only one or two waiting children were adopted through her agency, the largest in the state. But this year she expects about 10 to be adopted under the program.

With adoptions from Asia, Eastern Europe and Central America slowing, Hawaii families also are looking farther afield for children, including lesser-known parts of Africa.

Hawaii International Child, an affiliate of Child & Family Service, just began offering its Africa program three years ago, placing its first child in 2009. Over the past year and a half, 21 children from Swaziland have been placed locally, and the agency has set up a playgroup specifically for families with kids from Africaor of African descent.

Carrie and Chris Elliott of Ewa Beach were initially interested in adopting locally through the state’s foster care system but gravitated toward Africa, where both had done missionary work.

Carrie, a psychiatric nurse, and Chris, a U.S. Army physician, had three biological children at the time but had always wanted to adopt.

"It was always something we wanted to do," Carrie Elliott said. "It was always our Plan A and never Plan B. We always thought adoption would be part of our family and talked about it from the beginning."

Once they put in their application for Hawaii International Child’s Swaziland program, the process was swift.

They finished their paperwork in February 2009, got a referral in September of that year and approval to travel to Swaziland in November.

Carrie Elliott boarded a plane to Swaziland just before Thanksgiving in what would end up being a two-month trip.

The adoption was quick, in part, because the Elliotts were also willing to adopt siblings — a brother and sister, ages 3 and 4 — who they named Jackson and Mykah.

While Mykah was in pretty good shape, Jackson, was still wearing infant clothes at age 3 and had dental problems that required surgery.

The Elliotts were willing to take on those challenges and say it was well worth it, considering how smoothly the adoption went.

"We couldn’t imagine not having these two little lives in our home," she said.

On the Net

» Hawaii International Child: www.adoption­hawaii.org

» U.S. State Department: adoption.state.gov

» Adoptive Families magazine: www.adoptive­families.com

The Wagner Ohana

Waiting in the lobby of a five-star hotel in Nanning in southern China, Jolon and Jaydee Wagner were full of nervous anticipation at meeting the 15-month-old girl they had been waiting to adopt for three years.

There they stood, with several other American couples going through the same experience. One by one, the children were brought out to meet their adoptive parents for the first time.

Then they heard a baby girl scream — Jaydee turned to her husband, Jolon, and said, "That’s her."

The toddler, whom they named Tori, was reacting to her separation from her foster family in China.

Still, the joy that overcame Wagner at seeing Tori for the first time still brings tears to her eyes as she tells the story.

"I don’t even know if I can adequately describe it," she said.

It was a challenging moment the Wagners had prepared for, and the crying lasted off and on for three days. They would learn that Tori was a strong-willed child, but she eventually began to trust them.

Once they got home to Honolulu, the bonding grew. "It was like she fit seamlessly into our lives," Wagner said.

Today, 5-year-old Tori is a happy kindergartener who takes swimming lessons and enjoys musical theater. On her wish list for Christmas: a police truck, a Hello Kitty doll and a hula hoop.

Wagner, a former teacher and principal, was herself adopted and open to the idea after years of trying to conceive her own child. Her husband, a police officer, grew up with foster kids, so it was a natural choice for him as well.

By the time the couple considered adopting a second child, the wait period for regular China adoptions had lengthened to at least five years.

"I really wanted her to have a sibling," said Wagner, who is now the Asia program director for Hawaii International Child, a Honolulu nonprofit adoption agency that is affiliated with Child & Family Service.

They considered the Philippines, but the youngest child available would have been older than Tori. Eventually, fate would have them adopt a 3-year-old boy, who would be named Taz, through the agency’s "Waiting Child" program. The program works with parents willing to adopt older children, siblings and kids with health problems. In the case of Taz, it’s a heart condition.

Approvals were in place within a year, and the Wagners traveled to Inner Mongolia to receive him in January.

Caretakers from the orphanage brought the boy to meet the Hawaii couple at a hotel room. Tori was the first to greet him, with a stuffed penguin toy.

He was hesitant, but once Wagner gave him some candy, he opened up a little.

She remembers walking in the hotel lobby with Tori and Taz, 15 months apart, holding hands.

Though Taz, now 4, has a heart condition that has to be monitored, he is just as active as other kids his age and has no limitations, according to Wagner.

Her advice to others adopting children with a medical condition is to do your homework and talk to a pediatrician or specialist as well as other parents who have adopted. Knowing what you are dealing with can help allay your fears.

Taz has picked up English quickly, attends preschool and loves Spider-Man, dinosaurs and pirates.

Wagner kept a written record of both adoptions that she hopes to share with her children when they get older.

The Elliott Ohana

It’s playtime for the Elliott siblings: three biological children, Colin, 8, Madeline, 6, and Gracen, 4, and two adopted siblings from Swaziland: Mykah, 6, Jackson, 5.

The girls play dress-up in princess costumes; the boys clown around on the play set in the backyard of their Ewa Beach home. Eventually they all gather to play games on the Wii game console in the living room.

For parents Carrie and Chris Elliott, who were assisted by Hawaii International Child, adoption was always part of the plan.

While it hasn’t been without challenges, both Mykah and Jackson have integrated smoothly into the family. The girls dance hula together. All five like to swim and play soccer.

"We had an extremely easy transition," said Carrie Elliott, a psychiatric nurse. "For us it’s like they were meant to be."

On the long flight from Honolulu to Swaziland to pick up the siblings in 2009, Elliott said she felt a mix of emotions, including nervousness, excitement and anxiety.

"It’s a lot of the same emotions that you go through during a biological pregnancy," she said. "You’re excited and nervous. You ask yourself, ‘Can I do this?’ and ‘Will I be a good mom?’"

When she met the two children at the orphanage, both were quiet and a bit shy but willing to let her hold them.

Mykah had just turned 4 and Jackson was 3.

At first Elliott was allowed to visit a few hours a day for three weeks and then was given custody and able to take them to a friend’s house where she was staying.

After completing the legal requirements in African courts and getting passports, they made the long journey back to the United States. It was the first time Mykah and Jackson had ever been on an airplane.

When they flew home to Honolulu, they were greeted by the rest of the family holding a big "Welcome Home" sign.

That evening, putting all five kids to bed at home, Elliott says, was the most rewarding part of the entire journey.