[jth]

I was wondering if anyone was from NJ and if they could recommend an agency that handles Columbian Adoptions.

[tropicflite]

Hi. We live in New York, but we used an agency in New Jersey. The name of the agency is Children of the World, and the only thing we wanted from them was the home study. They were able to arrange a social worker to visit our home, and helped us assemble all of the paperwork which we are now having translated for ICBF.

If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

By the way, it's spelled Colombia with an o, not a u.

Regards,

Matt

email me at this address (you'll have to fix it... I wrote it this way so the spam bots won't attack me.)

tropicflite at crewperdiem dot com

[Newme]

Edited to remove Agency Discussion Violation

[wizzy]

Hi,

I live in Miami and am seriously considering adoption in Columbian.
Could you give me information regarding your experience. I have
tried contacting several agencies regarding this and tried to
see if they could let me see the available children so that I
know what the children look like but they tell me that I can't
see them until I have already sumitted officially to them.

Any info you can give me would be very helpful since I know
of noone that has adopted from there and the program I am
told is relatively new.

Thanks,

Vivian.

[jlb3310]

I used Leslie Margolies from the International Adoption Center in Elkins Park PA she does have a web site with same name. The agency is great to work with. Please feel free to email me with any questions.

Joe-Margate Nj
jlb3310@aol

[Moop]

I live in Louisiana and we use commonwealth adoption agency in PA.

[G1ON1]

i am here in miami, florida and we are using children's hope international in tn. their prices and regulations where easier on us.

[StacieGates]

We're using Children's Hope International, also. So far our experience has been fabulous. It's been a long haul with the whole waiting for documents from INS & all...and waiting for the homestudy with local agency we used for just that service (since CHI doesn't have an Alabama office). We know that God is using this time to prepare our hearts for our daughters & our daughter's hears for us.

The Colombian people are beautiful! You could probably find some pictures of folks who've adopted by either going to agencies' websites with Colombian programs & seeing if they have pics of kids who are already home or by doing a 'net search on adoption, Colombia and seeing if you can find some personal websites with pictures (I think CHI has pictures of kids who've already come home).

There is a definite variation in looks there. My dh goes to Colombia for business sometimes & he told me that there are descendents of the Spanish people, the indigenous (sp?) indian people and descendants of the african slaves...there, of course, is some mixing of those folks, too...so there's a wide variety of "looks" that might be considered Colombian.

I might be TOTALLY wrong, but I'm picturing a couple bronze skinned, dark haired, brown eyed, dimple cheeked girls. I know I'll love whoever God places in our family...but that's kind of what is in my mind's eye.

God bless,
Stacie

[Mom24]

I might be TOTALLY wrong, but I'm picturing a couple bronze skinned, dark haired, brown eyed, dimple cheeked girls. I know I'll love whoever God places in our family...but that's kind of what is in my mind's eye.

I know exactly what you mean, Stacie. One of the reasons we chose Colombia was so that our Guatemalan daughter would have siblings with her (very Hispanic) coloring. Of course, you have seen the pictures of our Colombian daughters. They look just like my husband who is 1/2 Danish and 1/2 German...

[4ANA]

We have almost completed our homestudy and need to choose an agency for the Colombia Program. I really like the assistance I have received at WPA. However, they have just begun this program. On the flip side I have heard Commonwealth is established in Colombia but, they never return my calls. I see this as a red flag? Any advice????

[chrismwj]

My husband and I are using World Partners. We love them. They have been so helpful and always return phone call and answer questions that may come up. We actually were the first family to join their Colombian program. THey have been wonderful so far always keeping us updated on things. The lawyer group that they work with in Colombia has been doing the adoptions for a long time and knows what they are doing. We're keeping our fingers crossed that things keep going as well as they have been.
Chris