Any information on foreign adoption welcome?

Question

My husband and I have six children from previous marriages but our younges is 16 months and we are thinking of adopting a baby girl from overseas because Isaiah is seven years younger then the next youngest and we want him to grow up with someone like our other children are. Where would we start and what are the best agencies (reputable) to use?

Answer 1

Get the following book - it is very thorough and informative:

"The Complete Book of International Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Child"

You can find reviews about it on Amazon.com.

Answer 2

You have several options & the steps would be different depending on which option you choose.

You could adopt from foster care.  To do this, contact your state office of child welfare (go to http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/reslist... to find the contact info).  They'll guide you through the steps.  You will likely go through foster/adoptive parent training classes, a criminal and child abuse background check, home visits, etc.  

If you choose to adopt domestically privately, you can contact an attorney or adoption agency to help you.  You will need to go through the home visits, etc. for the approval process and then your profile will be made available for a birth mother to choose from.  Your attorney or agency will guide you through the process.

If you choose to adopt internationally, I highly recommend that you choose an agency to work with.  You can go to http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/... to research which country you might like to adopt from.  From there, Google "international adoption" and the country name to find agencies with programs in that country.  I'll describe how we chose our agency below -- you can use this info for private/domestic or international.

You can make a spreadsheet of the agencies that you can use to adopt.  Compare things like typical wait time, travel time, travel expenses that are projected, post adoption support, costs, etc.  From there come up with the top five agencies (or attorneys) you'd like to consider.  Call them and interview them, asking them questions that are important to you, getting a feel for their level of "customer service".  Ask for and call their references.  Ask tough questions like if they'd change anything about their experience, what the positives and negatives were about working with the agency and whether or not they'd use them again.  After that, research & find other families who've used them, too, (online) and contact them to ask the same questions.  Check the Better Business Bureau and see if they have complaints and how they were or were not resolved.

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

sir galahed is sorta correct.  China allows only 4 children (including the adoptee) in the home to adopt healthy, but if you are adopting a special needs child this rule doesn't apply.

Answer 4

I don't like answering questions with negative answers, but I can tell you that you would not be able to qualify for a Chinese adoption.  Part of their rules involve how many children are in a family.  Granted if all six don't live in one house, then it may be a loophole but it's one of those obscure rules....