[myrachel]

hello all,
Iam new to the bulgarian board.. I completed a Guatemalan adoption less than a year ago & was considering bulgaria for my 2nd adoption being that Guatemala is closed & who know what the new laws will entail. I would appreciate any help you can give as far as agengies to look at & agengies to run far away from.. I also have very little knowledge of the process itself.. any info in that area would be great

thanks in advance
alex

[Susan62]

Hi Alex, as you can tell this is not a very busy forum - mostly because there's not a lot to share right now. Bulgaria adoptions are moving - but slowly. The issue is there are not actually very many healthy children available for adoption from Bulgaria. While there are many children in the orphanages most are either 1) severaly disabled, 2)have contact with their family members, 3)have no contact with their families but have not been released by their families for adoption, or 4) have undocumented origins (meaning they have no birth certificates or other documentation to prove they're Bulgarian citizens - which makes them unavailable for adoption). A proposed revision to the Family Code has been drafted and if approved by the Bulgarian Parliament could allow more of these children (numbers 3 & 4 above) to be adopted. And that's about all I know.

[mom4three]

Hi Alex, you can go to the FRUA site and there is a Bulgarian section there that is a little more active. Our agency has had some referrals. It is true right now siblings, older chidlren and special needs are moving through quicker. We have been told it will be 12-18 months for a boy under 2 it is longer for a girl under 2. Some agencies that look good and work with the same agency in Bulgaria are Holt International, All God's Children International and Tree of LIfe Adoption Center. There are more agencies but I would start with these 3. Best of luck,

[2Bulgarianbeauties]

Just to clarify, there are thousands of healthy children available for adoption in Bulgaria. The problem is the Ministry of Justice is prioritizing the older and special needs kids. She is trying to get as many older children out as she can before they age out of the baby/preschool orphanages and have to move to the older child orphanages.

[Susan62]

My understanding is the thousands of children do exist but are not yet available for adoption.

[myrachel]

Thank you all for your responses, the more I research the more I realize this program isnt for me. waiting that long for a referral is not practical for me, although IA adoptions are a whirlwind, i'm just not sure I can jump into this so blindly.

best of luck to you all I hope things pick up for the childrens sake

alex