Heidi Snyder was overcome with emotion as she recalled the moment she learned that China had abruptly ended its three-decade-long international adoption programme.
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“It felt like the death of a living child, honestly,” said the 39-year-old Illinois resident, her voice trembling with the weight of the memory from September last year.
At that point, the Snyder family had been waiting for five years to bring home a little girl with special care needs – whom they had been legally matched with and approved to adopt from China.
“It was a lot of gut-wrenching sobs, just grief from the last five years … all of the grief and all of the hope we had stored up just kind of came out all at once,” Snyder said.
Her face glowed with love and longing as she showed photos of the now six-year-old Willow. The Snyders have never met her in person but have exchanged letters, photos, videos, drawings and presents through their adoption agency over the years.
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“She’s our daughter, she’s a niece, she’s a granddaughter, she’s a sister,” said Snyder, who has three sons with her husband, Kenton.
According to Snyder, her family was just weeks away from receiving a travel letter – the final step in the adoption process – to bring Willow to the US when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down international travel in 2020.