[jandsrowbotham]

Hi

I live in Australia with my husband and have an adopted son from Thailand. We are also in the process of adopting our second, again from Thailand - our file in is Thailand awaiting allocation, but it will be quite some time yet. The first time the process seemed onerous and quite daunting ,but now that I have my son I understand that the process is there for a reason - to protect children and also the applicants as adopting a child from another country has a huge impact on your lives. The second time around I found the process quite simple and not at all daunting - I think I was more confident and also knew what to expect. That is not to say that the process is good as I think more could be done to make the process smoother and quicker.

What I do find frustrating about adopting internationally in Australia is that states often handle things differently eg for Thai adoptions residents in South Australia can use an adoption agency which will have links with various orphanages like Red Cross, whereas in Qld you must go through the Dept of Communities and then the Dept of Social Development & Welfare in Thailand.

In one of the posting someone mentioned that adoption of older children is not permitted in Australia - I don't know about local adoptions but for overseas adoptions the Dept of Communities prefers not to put forward applications for children over 5 y.o. however, this can & has been challegned successfully.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who knows about Thai adoptions in South Australia as the support group I belong to is trying to get more information together on this topic.

Julie