[mdaisyq]

As Sharon mentioned, there are some ethical agencies that will bend over backwards to help families that have had a failed international adoption. Our agency was one of them when we had a failed first adoption.

Two weeks before we were to travel to Russia, in 1995, a Russian family came through our son's orphanage and adopted him. We were devastated but now realize that he was a truly fortunate little boy - he was able to stay in his birth country and be raised in his own culture.

After several months of grieving, we decided to adopt from Korea because of the stability of the program. Without our even having to ask, our adoption agency transferred all of the money we had paid toward the Russian program, which was substantial, because we had accepted a referral, to the Korean program.

I think it is best to work with an agency that has multiple country programs - adoptions can fail for many reasons and not just because a country closes to international adoption.

Back when we first started our adoption journey I hadn't even thought to research agencies via the internet and I guess we were lucky in stumbling upon an ethical one. There is so much information out there, now, so do your research.