Would-be parents look overseas for child

Some believe an easy fix to the law would prevent situations like the one the Lees suffered. Adoption advocates say attorneys should be required to meet the same qualifications adoption agencies must meet before being able to provide an adoption.

That means counseling must be a part of the equation, both for the adoptive parents and the birth mother and father. Fees would be set ahead of time and known throughout the process.

"A lot of adoption is the emotional desire to raise a child. Sometimes you throw logic out the window,” Randle Lee said.

The Lees' experience was painful: First came a request for the Lees to buy tennis shoes for their birth mother's other children, since she couldn't afford them. They obliged "as a gesture of good faith,” Randle Lee said. The couple then learned that their birth mother wasn't regularly going to her doctor appointments because she did not have transportation. At that point, they bought her a car.