1.   After research, including talks with several adoptive parents and an adoption consultant, Martha and Mike decided on domestic adoption.

2.   Disruptions among domestic adoptions are far from unknown, however.

3.   International adoptions, along with transracial domestic adoptions, also have helped make the process more visible because parents and children are often different colors.

4.   Rather than face the perils of domestic adoption, perceived or real, tens of thousands of Americans have chosen to seek children abroad.

5.   She says the problem used to center on domestic adoptions because secrecy pervaded the practice, so agencies and lawyers tended to provide as little information as possible.

6.   Still, many prospective parents, not wanting the uncertainty of dealing with birth mothers, never even consider domestic adoption seriously.

7.   The costs for domestic infant adoptions range widely.

8.   They chose foreign adoption because it would be quicker than a domestic adoption, and they had a better chance of getting an infant.