[kellypmomof3]

Has anyone gotten a child from Guatemala that was not only a few months old? We are looking into more the 12-36months age range and wanted to hear if anyone has gotten this age?

[momtoC&C]

WE just brought our daughter home at 17 months. We couldn't be happier!!

[kimy]

We just brought our almost 4 year old home and he is adjusting really well.

He and my 5 year old son are bonding and acting like brothers and he has only been home for 1 week.
Kim

[Punkyboo]

We brought our daughter home a few weeks shy of her 2nd birthday. She is a total doll and we couldn't be happier with our choice to adopt a toddler!

Kathleen

[Iris's Mom]

We brought our 2 1/2 year old daughter home in June of 2005. She has adjusted very well. We made the choice to adopt a 2 to 5 year old.
Maria

[lisam951]

We brought our Marisol home in August 2004 at age 17 months. It is like she has been here from birth. We have had no problems. We chose to adopt an older baby.

[shellysarita]

Keep in mind that if you accept a referral of a 5-6 mos. old baby, you very likely could have your toddler when he/she comes home.

[WVUMom418]

Our original referral was for a 1 1/2 year old little girl however, we lost that referral after 3 months. We then accepted a referral of a 7 month old little girl, she has been home almost 4 months and is 18 months old. She is a wonderfully well adjusted sweet little girl, we couldn't be happier.

[tj'smomma]

We brought our son home last June, at 2 years old. We have had no problems with adjusting or bonding!
He is our joy!!!

[saranbr]

I don't have any experience with this since we accepted the referrel of a newborn. I really wanted to adopt a two year old, but DH wanted an infant. For that matter, I wanted to choose a boy and he a girl. Well, you can see how it goes around here!! Not that I'd trade her for the world now...

[ncmom24]

Our son came home a week before his second birthday this past September and he has been the most perfect addition to our family. We wanted an "older" child as our youngest daughter was then 6. I highly recommend toddler adoption from Guatemala. Our son had been in the same, wonderful foster home since birth and I think that helped him adjust well to our family.

Good Luck!
Tiersa

[DPline]

We accepted our son's referral just a couple weeks before his first birthday and he came home at 20 months old.

[lsmom]

We're in the process of adopting a toddler right now. We went down for a visit last month and brought our 7yo. The visit was great! Our toddler is a very happy child and she and our 7yo did great together. We're really happy to be adopting a toddler instead of an infant. Good Luck! LSMOM

[annelisa]

We have adopted both an infant (came home at 9 months) and a toddler ( came home at 2 years/4 months)
I will be honest and say that for me, it was much easier bonding with our infant than our toddler. Even though we had visited her 10 times during the 16 months after referral (she was 12 months at referral), it was still a huge adjustment. Honestly, I think I had more trouble bonding with her than she with me. I also was experiencing some symptoms of PADS ( post adoption depression) so that didn't help matters any.
For the longest time, I felt like I was "babysitting" someone else's child. Also, because I didn't "know" her well..............meaning the things that made her angry, frustrated, or happy, whatever........I always felt like I was guessing on how to respond. Thankfully, my husband absolutely loved her from the "get-go" , so she adjusted well. I had to do the "fake it till you make it" with my feelings for a long time.
Jump ahead nearly 2 years...............I can NOW say that I love her with all my heart! I now know what makes her tick, so I am much more understanding and less frustrated. She is finally MY DAUGHTER!
I really should have read up on toddler adoption, but I guess I didn't think I'd end up with a toddler when we started the process. I am not sharing these things to put a damper on toddler adoption; it really worked out beautifully for us, but it honestly wasn't all roses in the beginning.
My best to you as you begin this process!

[rxrn01]

Our oldest son, Trevor, was 22 mos at the time of referral and came home at 3.2 yrs (adoption during the Hague crisis). We visited him several times during the process and he was always very unsure of anything new, any new place, situation, etc., so we were very worried about how he would do with the adjustment. He has done great! He had absolutely no problem with anything from the trip home, to learning English, to immediatley bonding not only with us, but our entire extended family! It seems like he's been here forever and has since the beginning! He is in speech therapy just to try to help him get ahead a little and we're going to hold him back and let him wait until he's 6 to start kindergarten so he can have one more year of preschool and again, give him a chance to get ahead a little more. He is such a joy and has now entered the "why?" stage! That is all I ever hear! Good luck to you!