A brown skinned, big eyed three-year-old, named Adrianna, sets up a tea party in the dining room. Even though there are only two other joining her for tea, seven flowered cups and two miniature teapots are lined up. In the kitchen, Adrianna’s mother, Kelly Day, makes dinner and chats amiably with her a friend while Adrianna clatters cups and saucers together in amusement. The smell of meatballs drifts over into the dining room and steam comes off the stove. Hurrying from one counter to the other, Day talks about her family and business with ease and adoration. She is a tall woman with a commanding presence and gentle, hazel eyes. Her brown shoulder length hair is slightly streaked with grey, but this 47-year-old mother of three is energetic and in good shape. Day is in a constant flurry of motion, but still takes the time between tasks to check on her youngest daughter. Day adopted Adrianna, along with her six-year-old sister Sophia, from Guatemala, when both were just babies then, fresh out of the Guatemalan foster care system.

Day isn’t the only American adopting internationally these days. International adoption compared to domestic has steadily increased over the years and become especially popular in the U.S. In 2006, 20,679 immigrant visas were issued to children world wide who were adopted into the United States compared to 10,641 in 1996 - an increase of about 50 percent in a decade. Day chose international adoption because of United States laws where birth mothers can change their minds and interrupt the adoption process or completely stop it, leaving adoptive parents with no legal protection. Day didn’t want to take that risk, and instead began her search into the world of international adoption not knowing what was in store for her.

Mr. Right hadn’t made an appearance in Day’s life when the idea hit her. At the time, she already had a son of her own, Ryan, who she had raised as a single mother. Her first marriage was a “flop” and had produced a “bad husband but a great child” as Day puts it. Other men she dated never seemed right for her or her son.

“I wasn’t happy with just one child anymore,” Day remembers. She speaks with passion and a motherly gusto that she often exudes when talking about her family. “I really felt that I could provide for more children.”

Due to her single status, there were limitations as to what countries Day could choose to adopt from. Many preferred to adopt to married couples only. In 1998, with the help of the Bay Area Adoption Services (BAAS), an organization specializing in international adoption, Day put together a dossier - a type of biography of the potential parent. She almost decided on a little boy from the country Georgia, but he had health problems.

“I just wanted a healthy baby,” Day says honestly. It was clear to her she would go to a Latin country since Day was familiar with the language and culture - she owns a Mexican restaurant and is comfortable speaking Spanish. Guatemala also had many infants ready for adoption at the time, which was what Day hoped for: a baby girl.

The country requirements at the time were a bit strange. “China had a weight requirement for the parents,” Day says with a laugh. “I think they think Americans are really fat and unhealthy.”

Weight was just one factor looked at in adoptive parents, others included age, psychological evaluations and a certain number of years married for couples. Every country’s government has a set of guidelines to ensure adopted children are placed in safe environments - health and financial screenings are also conducted.

But wherever the country and whatever their rules, it hasn’t stopped celebrities from going overseas to adopt. With all the tabloids and celebrity hoopla lately, adoption has become a controversial and popular topic. Americans are fascinated by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s newly adopted son, Pax, from Vietnam, as well as their daughter, Zahara from Ethiopia. Jolie’s first adopted son from Cambodia, Maddox, seems like old news now. Then there is Madonna’s little boy, David, from Malawi whose biological father even caused a stir in the news.

Have celebrity adoptions influenced Americans? People working for the adoption agency think it has - to a certain degree. “Because of their notoriety, celebrities help to raise the consciousness of the average person that [adoption] is a possibility,” says BAAS Executive Director, Andrea Stawitcke. “I have no problem with celebrities adopting and I applaud them, as long as they follow all the rules and don’t try to circumvent the law.”

Stawitcke’s daughter, Meghan, also works for BAAS - the agency is located in Morgan Hill. She has been a citizenship and immigration coordinator for two years and says that international adoption has always been popular, but that celebrities have only most recently brought it to the attention of the public through the media.

“Many adoptive families feel a tie to a particular culture and adopt from countries the relate to on some level,” says Meghan. This is especially true for Day who speaks the language and was already surrounded with the Latin culture.

Before any babies were adopted, or born for that matter, Day’s first born had a role to play in the process. It is required of any biological children of adopting parents to be interviewed. She took Ryan, age 12 at the time, to meet with a social worker in downtown San Francisco. Day remembers Ryan getting upset when they took him into a separate room for the interview.

“I had warned the social worker he wasn’t thrilled with the idea,” Day sighs. But she didn’t realize how bad it might go. Day was later told that when asked how he felt about his mother adopting a baby, Ryan told the social worker he didn’t want to share his inheritance with anyone.

“He was really worried the adopted kids would be fat, retarded or ugly and that his life would get messed up,” continues Day exasperated. Apparently Ryan had become emotional during the interview and was almost in tears - clearly not interested in sharing his mother with any adopted children. The social worker advised Day to hold off on the adoption for a couple years until Ryan matured. He was at a fragile age where he worried about how people may look at his family, and especially worried about things like his inheritance.

Day was disappointed. “I sort of needed Ryan’s approval and couldn’t go completely against his will by adopting,” Day says. “I was angry at him but had to take his feelings into consideration.”

The adoption was put on hold for two years. Then Ryan began spending more time away from home and more time with friends. “I was by myself all the time,” remembers Day sadly. “I held off to the point were I was giving [Ryan] way too much power and adopting was something I had to do.” So Day, with a new found vigor, continued with her plan.

An important and consuming part of the adoption process was the paperwork application process and mini checkpoints she went through. Aside from the dossier, Day did a home study where she was observed in her natural environment, photos were taken and friends wrote reference letters about her. The paperwork had to be notarized, country certified and authenticated within the country, and would only be valid for 18 months.

“It’s a big huge thing,” recalls Day with a laugh. “It was harder than getting pregnant.” Day also found an agency to represent her, filed immigration papers needed for the child’s visa and perhaps one of the most important things: decide whether she wanted a child from an orphanage or foster care. While an orphanage is a facility providing care to parentless children, the foster care system provides children, whether orphaned or abandoned by unfit parents, a place to live.

Day decided her best bet would be to hire a private attorney in Guatemala. Armando Carrillo was an attorney who hired foster mothers to take care of babies whose biological mothers didn’t want them. Once Day sent him her completed documents and said she was ready to adopt, all that was left was waiting for the phone call announcing a birth.

Although international adoption is popular now, it first skyrocketed after World War II. There were many orphaned European and Japanese children at the time because of the war. Americans sympathized with the children made victims by their countries’ warfare. They were willing to adopt from abroad to save these children from “desperate poverty and social upheaval,” according to the Adoption Institute’s online analysis.

Internationally adopted girls outnumber boys, with 64 percent of girls being adopted to only 36 percent of boys. This is because of China’s large number of orphaned girls and the fact that one-fourth of all internationally adopted children are from China. Guatemala alone went from 1,518 children being adopted in 2000, to 4,135 being adopted in 2006. It has become the leading country in Central and South American for international adoptions, followed by Colombia and Chile.

With this increase in international adoption, there must be something else going on here. Are Americans suffering from a “save the world complex?” Maybe so. Maybe celebrity adoptions have caused a subconscious desire to be heroes and save foreign babies from a parentless future. But some like Meghan say the people BAAS works with are not like that.

“It’s not so much to ‘save the world’ but to have a family,” she says. “For one reason or another some people can’t have biological children of their own so we help them do that.”

Also, if adoption continues to increase at this rate, what will America look like in the distant future? “I think international adoption will be around for a long time - as long as there are children around the world in need of permanent, loving families,” says Stawitcke. “Unfortunately, I see no end to the number of children needing homes.” Meghan agrees with her mother saying that international adoption will “stand the test of time.”

Baby Rosario was born July 10, 2000, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Carrillo informed BAAS, which called Day to tell her the news. Her baby was out in the world, healthy and in need of a good mother. Day took her first trip to Guatemala when Rosario, later renamed Sophia, was two months old. Just a month later, Day went back with Sophia’s visa to bring her home.

“It was a miracle that she was brought to this country at only three months,” exclaims Day. “She was just a baby.” The proud mother remembers the hotel stay in Guatemala before bringing Sophia to the United States. She tried propping her new baby girl on the bed among flowers to take her picture, but Sophia kept falling over.

Being able to hold her baby daughter in her arms and bring her home was amazing for Day who always wanted more children. And the ecstatic new mother wasted no time. Day was filing adoption papers all over again two years later. Going to Guatemala was different for Day with the second adoption. For starters, Ryan was older and accepting of Sophia as well as open to his mother bringing a second child into the house. Also, Day debated whether to take little Sophia back with her to Guatemala, but thought it would be dangerous taking an adopted child to her native country while she was still so young.

“It was a really personal decision. I was by myself in a foreign country doing a really big thing,” says Day. So Ryan and Sophia stayed behind with a family friend.

The adoption anticipation was hard enough, but especially steep was the price Day paid to be a mother. In 1998, the time of Sophia’s adoption, BAAS’s Program Information sheet stated that adoption fees ranged from $1,000 to $20,000 while today, fees range from $5,000 to $50,000. Meghan explains that fees aren’t for the actual children, but for “services rendered by the agencies,” such as home studies and paperwork. “The children profit most from this,” says Meghan.

And for parents like Day whose family didn’t come together exactly the way she had hope it would, the cost of adoption didn’t phase her a bit. “Every penny was worth it when I look into my girls’ faces and they call me ‘Mommy.’”

Day’s life has changed from the time she was raising a young boy and working as a bartender for a Mexican restaurant. Not only did she remarry and adopt two children, but turned around and bought the restaurant she once worked for. Day’s family is even involved in the business with Ryan bartending while at home from college on summer break and husband, Carlos Medina, taking care of plumbing and electrical work. to her new home when brought to the states, but to an entire adoptive family.

Looking back, Day sees how hectic it was going through the process but she admits she would adopt again if she wasn’t married. “It was exhausting at the time but the end result has been extremely rewarding,” she says with a reminiscent tone in her voice. “I try to be happy with what I have, not what I don’t have, and I love being a mother more than anything.”