[CarmJoeMom]

Were you started at all with the process? I understand right now with the Hague coming, agencies might be a bit stricter, but I'm wondering if you weren't at all paper-ready if an agency let you have the child you were interested in?

[hesabanana]

We saw our son in 5/06 and had NOTHING done...we were just in the research phase of our process. We called our agency and begged for his referral. I think it helped that my husband had the summer off to paper chase, but the agency did give us the referral. I came home with him a week ago today.

[mommytoEli]

yes, we had NOTHING at all..we weren't prepared to adopt, and they still let us have eli. but we had to agree to pay for his foster care if we did not have our entire dossier in Guatemala within 30 days. However, now, when I look at the same photolisting sites I looked at a year ago when we found eli, i notice alot of them now say you must be completely paper ready. I am sure it is different with each agency, so call around and see what people are willing to do.

[ncmom24]

We had a domestic homestudy done and that was it. We got everything done pretty quickly and he came home in 9 months and we were in PGN for 2 months. He has been home 1.5 years now.

It may be quite different now with all the uncertainty. You don't want to tie up a child while you paperchase and then have adoptions shut down and that child be stuck. I am not sure if you can file the POA prior to having a complete dossier or not.

Good Luck.

Tiersa

[Mommy2twins]

I just wanted to throw in my two cents on this... from experience. Be careful with the photolisting agencies. Find a good agency and then fall in love with a child... doing it the other way can be rife with trouble and pain.

Good luck!
Shelly