[Bassette]

This poll is by request and is for families who are in the process of adopting from Guatemala or who have completed a Guatemalan adoption.

Were you contacted that a birth sibling was available for adoption?

Please feel free to discuss.
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[jlinberger]

Funny enough- when we adopted our son, I always said that if we ever got called about a sibling, I would say yes right away (I said this because our birthmother was very young and knew she could quite likely have more children, given she was a teen). Anyway, suprise enough, we got that very call in January, less than one year from our first adoption (babies 20 months apart). And what did we say? YES right away!!! What a wonderful treat from God!

[Maggie Beth]

Dh have talked about this many times & are not sure what we would decide. I would worry that two of my children would be bio-sibs and the third would not have that same connection... We also feel that two kids is the right size for our family, so not sure how I would feel if faced with this decision. Frankly, the thought of it stresses me out.

My prayer is that if the birth-mother of either of my children ever becomes pregnant again, it is a planned pregnancy and she is willing/able to parent the child. I can get to feeling so sad about the whole issue...

[MNStarr]

Our daughter has siblings that are living with the mom who are older. However after reading why she chose to place our daughter for adoption, future siblings isn't likely. Still possible but not likely. Not sure how we would have handled it.

[foxl]

Six months after we adopted her youngest, our birthmother relinquished her other four. I am not certain whether or not this was a response to photos I sent back. Our agency did not contact us; I found them posted. After three months she took them back. Sad.

[beachdreams]

Funny this should come up because I was having this discussion with hubby and another forum poster who used the same agency I did.

We all decided it was sad that we disliked our agency so much and they disliked us because we knew we would never be contacted about birth siblings and we would want to. I would even go so far as to use this same horrible agency again to adopt a birth sibling. Shocking consider my extreme dislike for them. Alas, I know it will never happen.

I have registered though on the yahoo group and will always keep a check on it just in case.

[momofmng]

I am so fortunate that I have a relationship with my daughter's biological brother who was adopted by another family here in the states. The children are 11 months apart and we have visited one another 3 times already and have more visits/vacations planned to keep the children together. This is on top of talking and/or e-mailing almost daily. We feel so blessed to have been given the gift of not only our beautiful Guatemalan children, but also the gift of genuinely liking each other and making plans to keep our now extended family connected.

And, in case you are wondering, the other family was notified of her arrival prior to her being referred to me. I am sure it was a heart wrenching decision to have to say no, but I am so lucky that they did. We were very fortunate to have a wonderful agency who always tries to contact the families if a birthsibling becomes available and they are notified that it is so.

On the flip side, if another sibling ever becomes available, I am certain that our family is complete but know the joy that can come of welcoming that child's new forever family into the fold.

Sarah

[KevinK]

We were never contacted about a birth sibling but we found about him while our kids' birthmom was pregnant. It was only by sure luck and coincidence that we found out and I happy to say that we were able to adopt him so hte biosibs stayed together!

Kevin
Guatadopt.com

[Qtredsunfire98]

We are also one of the lucky ones to be in contact with Dylan's birthsister living in the states. They are 13 months apart. We have not been able to travel to meet them yet but hope to someday.


They were also given Dylan's referral first but they were not able to at the time. Which we feel so blessed and lucky that we have him in our lives.

DH and I have discussed what we would do if we got the call and have decided that we will see were we are at when/if that time every comes.

[jandsmom]

We know our son Joseph has a birthsister somewhere in the US because our agency told us this was the 2nd adoption they didnot know where because she was placed by another agency. We also know he has a younger sibling because our agency called and told us his ** was preg. and did we want to adopt again, although we would have loved to the time was not right and we did not have the finanaces. We are not sure if that baby is here or still in Guatemala.
Karen

[linda512]

I had hoped that if Benji's mother had another child I would be contacted, but I just found out that she had her tubes tied when she had him. Much better for her (she has 5 other kids that she is parenting), but made me a little sad nonetheless.

[amylynn3]

My husband and I have talked about this as well. We would love to adopt a bio sib, but have no idea if that would ever happen. I guess we just wait to see if that is in our plan...

[jennandsteve]

We are in the process of adopting our daughter's bio bro. We feel so lucky we have this chance, but also very sad that Sophia's birth mom has had to go through what must be a very heart wrenching experience twice.

Jenn

[melgrant]

We started out adopting just one child, a 10 yo boy (Dennis). We were aware that Dennis had a 2 yo brother, Ben, who had already been referred to another family. Ben had been "placed" for adoption first, and that family did not want Dennis when he became "available", so the boys were going to be split up.

During the adoption we were informed that the birthmother was expecting another baby and was making adoption plans for that child. We were asked to consider whether we wanted the baby.

Then the facilitator and the attorney had an argument. The facilitator took the case to another attorney, which meant we had to switch agencies in order to keep the referral of the 10 yo.

When we did so, we got the chance to keep all 3 children together, and we jumped at it. So in our case, we were indeed "informed" of the existence of "available" siblings, and we chose to adopt them as well. Kinda unusual situation, I suspect.

[Slatond10]

The birth mom is older (38) and has 3 children already ranging in age from 7 - 17 y.o.. The interview translation indicated they were still with the mother as far as I could tell. I would not think she would have more but I hope I would be contacted if she did.