Question about Korean adoptions? please dont tell me to adopt here in the US.?

Question

This is only to those who have been through this, or know of some knowledge about it, Is the post placement visits difficult to go through, and can they change their mind once your baby is here? I need an agency or country that will escort the child to me, because I cannot leave my children, and I know Guaetamala and Korea do offer escort services. I wanted to adopt from china, but I think they expect you to have too high of an income, and I not sure if they care about bad credit? Just wanted some details about what you went through after your child was brought home? thank you.

Answer 1

please visit the following sites, the people are very friendly and respond quickly to e-mails:

adoptkorea.com

childrenshopeint.org

cwa.org

Also, check the US govt adoption site for a lot of up-to-date useful info:  the US Dept of State website has info for all countries that allow adoption to the US.

Best wishes.

Answer 2

My husband was adopted from South Korea at age 3, he is now 28, and at that time they did not do escorts, the parents had to go there.  But like you said, they do now escort the child to the states.  I would just do a search for adoption agencies overseas, His parents went through Dillon Adoption Agency.  They are very good and if you google them, their website answers a lot of questions.  Good luck.

Answer 3

We adopted from China but at one time we were in the same place you are in… What agency do I trust my money with and will guarantee that I get a child.

I started by joining this yahoo group… Adoption Agency Research – International. They have a wealth of information and they are honest about agencies. They were very instrumental when we were picking our agency.

I also looked into www.forums.adoption.com to get support and direction from others in the process.

When I was looking into agencies I did the following.

1. Chose three agencies.

2. Noted what they had in common and what was different.

3. Created list of questions and deal breakers

4. Called each agency and tried to get my questions answered. I also asked for references for Home Study agencies that they recommended as well as people who had used the agency.

5. Based on the answers I received I chose my agency.

We have completed both post placements for China and it was all about how our daughter was doing. The social worker came to our home and asked us how she was doing. We had to show that she was caught up on shots as well as results of well baby visits. They also asked how she was adjusting. We sent several scrapbook pages. It was painless.

This is what I learned from the experience. We did not ask the fee for the Post Placement report in advance. The fee was unbelievable – 500.00 per report! We changed Home Study agencies for the second adoption and the same report was 75.00 and it had same content in the report. Check this out in advance. My mistake was that I was new to the process we played it safe and did whatever the agency suggested. We found the other HS agency thru the Families of Chinese Children yahoo group and by word of mouth. For China we had to have 4 face to face visits and our first HS agency it took two months and the second agency worked us in within a week.

While reading the Adoption Agency Research – International yahoo group there are agencies that want Post Placement Report paid in advance. The HS agency could go out of business and you would be out of money.

Our Adoption agency has a $1000.00 deposit and we get a portion of this back as we complete each Post Placement report. China requires 2 within a year.

I hope this helps and good luck in your adoption journey.  I believe in my heart that we are drawn to where our children are and ours are international.

Answer 4

We adopted both of our children from Korea, our youngest just came home last month. Our experience both times was wonderful. We also had both boys escorted home, it went very smoothly.

As for the postplacement visits, we actually look forward to them. The social workers are not trying to find anything wrong , they just need to check on the baby, and make sure that you don't have any questions or concerns about baby's adjustment.

We were also concerned about someone "changing their mind" at first. However, our SW explained that once the child is on the plane they are in the custody of the US agency until the adoption is finalized a few months later. The only reason they would take the child back is of the child was being abused or neglected (just like cps would take any child). So, you don't have to worry about someone in Korea decideing to take the child away once he/ she is home.

Another good thing about the Korea program is that the babies are in individual foster homes rather then orphanages, so not only are they very well taken care of, but this makes their attachment and bonding to their new families easier. Good luck to your family!

Answer 5

I don't know about Korea specifically, but I adopted my daughter from India in 2004, and I can tell you about the overall process of international adoption. The post-placement reports are NOT hard at all. The home study isn't hard either -- you don't have to have a white-glove-clean house at all :) but you do have to be totally honest with your social worker about any potential "blemishes" (i.e. background checks, drug/alcohol, etc.)

As for "changing their mind once the baby is here" -- do you mean the birthmother? The answer to that is NO -- in international adoption, the baby is not even considered an orphan legally until the birthmother has signed over parental rights to the orphanage. Before she can even do that, she has to have a period of time to change her mind, so by the time the baby is legally free for adoption, the birthmother has signed her consent for the adoption to take place. As for the post-placement agency -- they could take steps to remove the child from you if they see abuse, but their job after placement is to first offer the family support and answer your questions, so it's pretty rare that they will first go in and  remove a child once he/she's placed!

Re: escorting the child: Ethiopia also allows the child to be escorted after the adoption takes place. India used to but they don't anymore. China - whew - they seem to be getting super-restrictive nowdays! Guatemala adoptions are on-hold with the U.S. right now. Korean adoptions are historically very strong in the U.S., and there are some very, very good agencies which work with Korea (Holt in Oregon, Dillon in KS, Children's Home Society of Minn., etc.).

Good luck and I hope you're home with your baby soon!!

Answer 6

No,  birth mom can't take back their children once he or she has been adopted, the distance is half of world apart, but the local social service can take the child away if they suspect child abuse. Your best bet is to adopt from Korea, they does have escort services.

China is facing unbalanced population issue in their country, since they had a drastic increase in male population over the past 20-30years, because of the one child law. They have now realize they need to conserve girls, in fact a new law was passed there not too long ago, parents gets reduction of tax if they're having kids. I think that's the reason why there are increased difficulties for the adoptive parents.