[mvpel]

Why is there a surge of foreign applicants to adopt kids? What about all the orphans in their own country?

There's millions fewer unwanted American children than there would otherwise be:

Thankfully our wonderful and beautiful new son who's been home from Russia for six months was permitted to live by his mother.

[Bushwacker777]

That graph is also the reason we have so many illegal (and legal) immigrants coming into the USA each year. We are drying up our own wombs and we are being replaced.

Also, China is tightening the thing around single women adoptions due to the fear of lesbian couples adopting more than likely. When Sweden legalized gay adoption I heard there were eastern European nations that banned Swedes from adopting children from their countries.