Deb Myers and her husband, Peter, are expecting their fifth child this month, a young girl they are adopting from China. They already have three biological children and a son adopted from India.

"A few generations ago, we would have just been getting started," said Peter, a pastor in New Market, Md., of his large family.

Across the country on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Chris and Rachelle Castleberry are raising twin toddlers Olivia and Vivienne. They were adopted from China last year, after a complex, at times frustrating process that took two years.

The number of Americans deciding to adopt children from overseas is soaring, even amid high costs, mountains of paperwork and as some countries, notably China, are tightening requirements for eligible parents. In 2006, the U.S. State Department issued 20,679 visas for orphans being adopted from other countries. This is up from just under 7,100 in 1990, but down from 22,728 in 2005.

The number of children adopted from China, the world's most populous country and origin of most orphans adopted from abroad in the U.S., dropped to fewer than 6,500 in 2006, from more than 7,900 the previous year. Beginning May 1, China will bar those who are obese, unmarried or don't have a net worth of at least $80,000 from adopting.

With four children and Deb being a stay-at-home parent who is home schooling the kids, the Myers family did not meet the income level China requires ($10,000 for each member of the family). But they said they made their case by showing they could support the child.

"We were able to show where we are not spending," said Peter.

Advocates hope the decline is temporary, and agencies say it's not due to lack of interest from prospective parents. Domestic infant adoptions peaked in 1970 at 89,200, and dropped off significantly following the legalization of abortion and the availability of birth control. In comparison, 22,291 U.S. infants were adopted domestically in 2002, the most recent data available, according to the National Council for Adoption. That's down from 26,672 in 1992.

At Great Wall China Adoption, an agency based in Austin, Texas, the number of prospective parents has been growing almost twofold every year for the past five years, said spokeswoman Heather Terry. The agency, which specializes in China, placed close to 1,000 children last year, including Olivia and Vivienne.

The Castleberrys flew to China last August to pick up their daughters, who had been in foster care with a family since a few days after they were found abandoned at six days old.

"Our lives are fuller, richer than before," said Rachelle, who works as an assistant vice president at Washington Mutual.

China, Russia and South Korea — three of the countries with the highest number of children being adopted by U.S. parents — are sending fewer children abroad, said Thomas Atwood, president of the National Council for Adoption.

The reasons for this include bureaucratic changes as well as a shift to try to place orphaned children domestically, he said.

Also at issue is the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, which the U.S. has signed but has yet to ratify (that is expected this year). Created in 1993, it seeks to ensure adoptions don't involve abduction, sale or trafficking of children.

"There are some countries that have indicated that they would cooperate more with the U.S. when we ratified it," Atwood, said, listing Mexico, Brazil and India as examples. "Whether that actually happens, we'll have to see."

The process of adopting a child from another country generally costs between $15,000 and $30,000. This can include the cost of travel, immigration processing, an orphanage donation, translation and medical expenses, as well as fees to have the child escorted into the U.S. if the parents do not pick him or her up themselves. The expenses for domestic adoptions can vary widely, from nothing for adoptions done through the foster care system to as much as $40,000 when facilitated by an agency or done independently.

Some financial assistance is available to adopting parents, in the form of grants, loans and a federal tax credit of about $10,000 for adoption expenses such as travel and court fees.