[louise]

we, too, have adopted older than the magic age of six, with good results. Josh was actually 12yo when we finalized and we were prepared for the possibility that we had missed the window of opportunity with him. Not so, he is doing very well overall (still some ups and downs, but mostly ups!)

OTOH, we disrupted a placement of a severly disturbed child a number of years ago. She was only four when she came to us and six when she left.

Siblings are an interesting prospect. On the one hand you may have the advantage Linny described, in that they "know" relationship and, so, can hopefully generalize that to other interactions. On the other hand, sometimes a sib relationship is pathologically unhealthy due to abuse and it's ramifications (this was the case with Josh and his sister Kirstie) This is a terrific challenge to face but not impossible. Our two still resort to the unhealthy stuff in times of stress, but overall are tremendously improved from when they first arrived.

So many variables come into play with adoption. At some point it is a total leap into the unknown, on faith alone. Not much consolation, but the truth.