Lucinda Renfree wanted to be a mother more than just about anything.
But the right partner was harder to find.
In the end, she decided to pursue her dream on her own, through adoption in China.
She describes the moment she saw her daughter, De Ang, five years ago, when she was just 13 months old, as magical.
''It was just as amazing and emotional as giving birth,'' Ms Renfree said.
She is one of an increasing number of Australians turning overseas in search of a family due to historic low numbers of local children available for adoption.
A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found changed attitudes to parenthood, contraceptive use and sex education have contributed to a 22-fold decrease in the rate of adoptions since the 1970s.
Adoptions in Australia have fallen from 9798 in 1971-72 to just 440 in 2007-08.
This is the smallest number of adoptions since national data collections began in 1969 and also represents a 23 per cent decline from just one year ago, when there were 568 adoptions.
Report author Nicole Hunter suggested the long-term decline was because of a number of factors.
''There are a range of broad social trends at play, including more effective birth control, family planning and sex-education classes ...'' she said.
There was no national data on abortion numbers, so it was ''difficult to establish links between abortion and adoption''.
Ms Hunter also suggested the development of reproductive technologies, allowing more couples to have their own children, and legislative changes that had replaced the need for formal adoption orders, had contributed to the fall.
While the report notes the 25-year fall in the number of Australian children adopted, inter-country adoptions have emerged as the dominant category of adoptions and have steadily increased over that period.
Inter-country adoptions represented 61 per cent of all adoptions in 2007-08, compared with just 6 per cent 25 years ago.
Of the 440 adoptions in 2007-08, 61 per cent were inter-country, 16 per cent were local and 23 per cent were ''known'' child adoptions.
For ''known'' child adoptions, 67 per cent were by step-parents and 26 per cent by carers.
More than half of all inter-country adoptions were from three countries, with China accounting for 23 per cent, South Korea 17 per cent and the Philippines 15 per cent.
''Nearly all children, in both local and inter-country adoptions, were less than five years old [99 per cent and 92 per cent respectively], whereas for 'known' child adoptions, 69 per cent of the children were 10 years of age or older,'' Ms Hunter said.
Agreements made at the time of adoption indicated that 77 per cent of local adoptions were now open adoptions, where birth parents had agreed to some contact and/or information exchange with the child.
Only 96 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were adopted over the past 17 years, and just four indigenous children were adopted in 2007-08.
As president of ACT Families with Children from China, Ms Renfree was aware of the lack of Australian children available for adoption, but she had found ''a beautiful, high-spirited daughter'' in China.
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