One of my cousins and his wife adopted two children from China at the cost of around $100k each. They were willing to adopt ANY available babies here. They tried everywhere, including many Native American social service agencies. The “unwanted babies from the inner cities” argument is absolute B.S.
It sounds like the prices are going up, which is no surprise. The adoption brokers in China and Eastern Europe are fully aware of how many American couples are eager to adopt and are willing to pay a ton of money. I don’t know about your cousin, but one of the couples I know that adopted a Chinese baby also had to spend a lot of money while she was growing up on psychiatric and developmental care due to the inhumane conditions in the Chinese orphanage. So, the “nobody will adopt crack babies” line is BS as well.