[MO3]

I'll introduce myself. My name is Monica. My DH and I have 3 daughters and would like to adopt sons. The number and ages are somewhat flexible.(on our end, we don't have a homestudy yet to tell us what we "can" have.)

Can someone fill me in on the process for adopting waiting children? (I'm familiar w/ the warnings about waiting lists and reputable agencies and stuff. I've been researching IA for a few months.) Assuming the children are as they appear and the agency is fine, what makes the process different for adopting waiting children vs choosing Columbia and waiting for a referral, etc? I hope I made sense.

There are a couple sibling sets that have really jumped out at us, but we don't know much about Columbian adoptions. I've been reading this forum for a little while trying to get some answers on my own. I know there is so much involved in the process, so any insight you could give me would be so helpful and appreciated.

TIA

[Bogota Girl]

Hello Monica. My name is Robin. I will see what I can do to answer a few of your questions about adoption from Colombia.

The term waiting children is rather a broad term and can have different meanings in different places. When we adopted two years ago, the term that was used in our case was "special needs", and basically what that referred to was any child that was considered "difficult" to place. That could actually mean those children with special needs, but it also represented older children and sibling groups. The term waiting children can often mean the same thing.

When we paid our last visit to our daughter's orphange, our representative was approached with pictures and profiles on one particular girl that lived in that same orphanage. There was a "push" to have her adopted. I asked what causes them to put pushes on any given child at any given time and in this case they indicated it was her age. (She was 12 at the time). She would have been considered a waiting child. What you are likely to find is that most waiting children are either special needs, older or sibling groups. Sometimes even perhaps time is running out on their potential to be adopted for various reasons. You may also find incentives for special needs adoptions such as only one parent needs to travel or reduces fees, etc.

It sounds to me like you may be considering a slightly older child and/or sibling group. Generally speaking, when you move in that direction, it does not tend to follow the pattern of adopting an infant.

When we adopted, we were wanting a daughter anywhere from ages 8-12. (Our other children were older and we felt this would be a good fit for our family at its current season of life). In our case once the agency accepted our application, they began to present us with profiles on young ladies who fell within the ages we had asked about. We read over the profiles for a few weeks, prayed about the children and then expressed our intent. All the while we were working on the required paperwork, clearances, etc. for the agency and simultaneously were working on our dossier as well. In most cases, the wait times for older children and/or sibling groups is considerably less. Once we submitted our dossier and our letter of intent, it was only two months before we were in Colombia.

Basically as I have described it, in our case, and in others I know who have adopted older/siblings, there doesn't tend to be the wait for the referral. I guess you could say in some respects the process has the potential to move in reverse. We actually had our child first, so to speak. Obviously we ultimately had to wait for approval, but found that largely to be a formality.

I hope that sheds a little light on things. I would be happy to answer any more questions you have. Please e-mail me or send me a PM. I've obviously had my own experience and am familiar with a number of other families who adopted older children/siblings from Colombia.

Robin

(I've said older children a number of times and just to define that because it also is a broad term, usually 2-3 and up.)

[MO3]

Thank you so much for your reply. (Sorry, went out of town for a few days.) It did answer some of my uncertainty. I will PM if I think of any other questions, thanks.

[Leslie]

Hello, we are in Colombia,right now adopting a sibling group of 3. Although the process can be long, start your homestudy asap! IF you are willing to accept a sibling group, especially boys, and older children especially, and over toddler is considered "older" I believe the process can be shorter and very rewarding. Although ICBF has rules about families with 3 children already, they make exeptions for siblings, older boys, for sure. Talk to your agency and see what their in-country team has to say. Good luck, Colombia is beautiful, and the children are beautiful, and I believe ICBF takes very good care of their children, and you get tons of reports and info. before accepting referals so that is a real plus in COlombia. Good luck again, let me know if I can be of any help! Leslie