Over the last 25 years, more than 80,000 Chinese children have been adopted by U.S. families.

But that has come to an abrupt halt because China announced this fall that it is bringing its foreign adoption program to an immediate end.

As Stephanie Sai reports, the futures of hundreds of Chinese children now hang in the balance.

The Welchers live in Louisville, Kentucky, and are raising four biological sons as well as a daughter, Gracie, whom they adopted from China in 2017.

But they consider themselves a family of eight.

Penelope, who lives in an orphanage in China, is the missing piece.

Using an international adoption agency, the Welch's were matched with Penelope in 2019

when she was five years old.

For her privacy, the Welch's asked that we not show her face. Her caregivers wanted to

prepare her for the transition that was coming, and they told her that she had parents and four big

brothers and a little sister. She received photos of us. She began to refer to us then as mommy and daddy, mama and Baba.

COVID struck weeks before they were due to go to China to meet Penelope in person,

finalize her adoption and bring her back to the U.S.

With China implementing one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, the trip was canceled.

Penelope's soft pink bed has been set up since Chinese New Year in January of 2020.

Five years since Penelope and the Welch's were promised to each other, the little girl's bed in

Kentucky still sits empty.

Now 11, Amy estimates she has grown several sizes, holding the original outfit she bought for her

homecoming and the new, larger one next to it.

Back in China, Penelope still receives photos of the family.

Some printed on pillows and blankets she cuddles up to.

I love you, she says in Mandarin, in a video message the orphanage sent.

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