[AdoptAmiga]

Thanks for the response! From what I hear, adoptions have been picking up b/c of the Hague restrictions (Chile now wants to do more w/ the US). In the last few years, only a handful of adoptions by US citizens were completed. Mostly Australians, New Zealanders and Europeans adopt from Chile. Yes, it takes about 2 years and the children arre usually referred around age 2 - so basically they're around 4 when the process is over. My DH is a Chilean citizen. (I suspect those handful of adoptions were couples like us - Chilean/USA.) An agency that I've spoken to says b/c of that, we could request a younger child and the process time might be shorter. However, we are interested in a child age 4 or so anyway. Since I've only found one agency so far who is currently expanding their Chilean program, I don't know what exactly is true. I would be interested to hear about your sister's experiences. Is the orphanage connected with SENAME (the govt agency that handles adoptions)? Take care.