[jameyevans]

Can anyone share any stories about adopting a waiting child? We would consider adopting a waiting child as an infant but it seems that there is not a lot of information.

If you adopted a waiting child did you recieve a discount and is there something that we should stay away from on the speical needs form? Thanks so much!

[ManyTimesBlessed]

We are in the middle of adopting a special needs child. We learned about him when he was almost 2 months old and he will be about 8 months old when he comes home.


Our adoption is international, so I don't know much about adopting special needs children domestically, but I will tell you what I know about our process:

Our son was a waiting child through an organization that tries to find homes for waiting international children (pm me if you want their site). The country has greatly reduced his fees and our facilitator has also reduced his fees. Our adoption from Guatemala will cost about 1/2 to 1/3 of the typical healthy infant adoption from Guatemala.

Erick's special needs are an elongated skull that is the result of the premature fusion of one of the sutures in his skull. Depending on how severe it is, he may need surgery. He also has indicators of a genetic abnormality, but the doctors in Guatemala don't know what it is.

For us, we decided that we wanted to adopt a special needs child, but we were honest with ourselves about what we felt comfortable with. I think it's really important to be honest with yourself and your agency what needs you feel comfortable with and what needs you feel you can't handle. It isn't "politically correct", but it is what is best for your family.

We felt fairly comfortable with most special needs. What we said was that we wanted to adopt a child who was expected to grow to independence in adulthood. We didn't feel prepared (at least not at this point in our lives) to take on the responsiblity of a child who basically would never grow up because of his/her special needs. However, we felt pretty comfortable with most medical needs.

Special needs adoption has become my passion and my heart just goes out to all of these waiting kids who will never have homes. I think it is great that you are considering special needs adoption. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions or if I can help you in any way.

[mcnh63]

If you are looking to adopt a waiting child here in the USA you will probably have a difficult time unless you are open to a special needs child. Most babies go through foster care and their foster parents have the fist choice to adopt them if no family members come forward.
Good luck with whatever road you pick.