[silverleaf]

Hi Marie,
We did it and it has been 5 years and it is working very well for us and the kids. We adopted two 4 yr olds (girl and boy) from Vladivostok Russia. I think it is very wise of you to find an agency willing to let you make your OWN decisions about what you want to do regarding your family. Why settle for some agency that imposes its own rules over those of the adoptive country, and limits what they will "allow" you to do, based on bad experiences with other clients (theirs or other the social workers have read about) - who may or may not be going into this with your situation and your attitude and your preparation?

The Russians were thrilled that we chose to adopt two kids instead of one! The kids are very close buddies but very different in their personalities and interests outside of the family. Our boy has special needs and his sister has been a Godsend in helping him. Our girl would be a little self-centered princess if she didn't have to learn compassion and sharing us and her other things with another child.

We didn't really intend to adopt two at once but when you meet certain kids, it's good to have the flexibility and agency support to make things happen.

We did intend to adopt two unrelated kids to reduce the risks of adoping a sibling group where all might share the same serious issues of abuse, FAS, genetic problems etc. That decision has worked to our advantage in dealing with DS's FAS special needs which are NOT shared at all by DD. Yes, some luck was involved in who we met and how things are working out for all of us.

But- that is our experience in answering your question