[SinkorSwim]

It feels like we have read the the entire adoption.com website from front to back. VERY EDUCATIONAL


However, it seems that there are alot of posts that are discouraging. This country is closed, that country is closed, restrictions here, restricitions there, longer wait times, few children; its kinda frieghtening.

We came to the sucess story section hoping to spark interest and to get those sucess stories pouring in.

We are excited... Our sucess story so far is that we have both realized that we would like to give our BIO son a little sister via adoption.

More to come!

[mayaprincess]

Our processes have not always been easy but in our case, our son has been worth every tear. He is our greatest blessing!

I wish you well in your journey.

[cborsa7]

International is not an easy process at this time. It can be a long road, one that you will likely have no control over. I don't think it is meant to be discouraging, just factual. The previous poster is correct, once home, there is nothing better.

Good luck on your journey!

[SinkorSwim]

We are very excited...

I can only imagine the uphill battle ahead of us


However, a couple of minor "successes" in our journey to get our daughter:

1. Meeting scheduled with our Pastor, to begin counseling and fellowship with other adoptive parents, Wed the 5th.
   
2. Meeting scheduled with local family services group to begin paper work, Friday the 8th.

I guess what we find so amazing that somewhere out there our daughter is waiting for us.

More to this success story we promise!



.

[kretzklan]

Our success is that we brought home two great kids in 2005 from Russia after losing our first referals and ahd a kind judge, fabulous in-country staff and a great trip. Our whole process was 7 months, start to finish even with all the mess! Our children were 6 and 7 and getting ready to turn 10 and 11 this month! They are funny and physically healthy and even though we are dealing with attachment disorder, it's still a success story for what they came through!

[SinkorSwim]

Our meeting with our Pastor was out standing! He really encouraged us and thought that we had done a great job raising our 9yo so far..

We had a nice meeting that ended with a prayer. So now its onto our meeting with social worker on Friday.

[mommytoEli]

adoption is not easy. lots of things along the way are discouraging. but at the end of my day, i just finished tucking 3 little guys in bed, and shuffling 2 teens to their rooms, all 5 here by the miracle of adoption, specifically 1 via international. at the end of the day, my kids are home, my kids are healthy, and i am happy. welcome to the journey.....buckle up and enjoy the ride.

[sak9645]

I adopted my daughter from Xiamen (Fujian province), China on May 5, 1997. She was 18.5 months old then, and I was "only" 51 -- a single (long divorced) Mom.

Yesterday was our Family Day, the anniversary of our adoption. Becca is 13 years old now, and I'm 63. She is an amazing child -- healthy, high achiever in school, loving and empathic, witty, and gorgeous. And I feel as if I found the fountain of youth.

Sharon

[Max'smom]

I adopted my son from South Korea. He came home at 5 months of age and is now 3 1/2. He is healthy and has a great personality, in particular, he has a great sense of humor, is easy going, and seems to be growing up into a gentle, funny kid. Adopting him enriched our lives immeasurably and brought my husband and me together in a new way. Definitely a huge success! My life is so much better now.

[jaenelle]

I don't think the posts are meant to be discouraging -- the adoption world does change and is full of pitfalls. Many, many people have disappointments before finding their forever child(ren).

As sad as it is, people need to be aware of these problems so that maybe they can avoid a similar situation.

[SinkorSwim]

Well another day full of sucesses in our adoption process. We spent the afternoon talking with Debbie at Lutheran Family Serivces. She was wonderful and taught us lots! We left feeling like we were starting to become educated on the process.

We are now onto meet with a counselor from the international agency that was recomended to us.

[Boulderbabe]

Adoption is a complex process. And if you think *getting* a child is complicated, raising an adopted child is even more complicated. It's a lifelong process which involves lots of joy and fun and love, and which also involves lots of loss, grief, and heartbreak.

Because adoption is so complicated, I'd really discourage you from thinking in terms of "success" and "failure." In the first place, a relentless focus on making sure the adoption is a "success" and the child is a "success" puts a lot of pressure on everyone to cover up things that are hurtful, sad, or troubling. And those things need to be acknowledged and dealt with. Every adoption involves grief and loss, and if a child doesn't have permission to deal with those, it's going to cause a raft of trouble down the road.

In the second place, the whole idea of "success" implies that everybody and everything associated with the adoption is being constantly evaluated. I can imagine both parents and child thinking, "Are we a success today? How about tomorrow? What if we're not success tomorrow? Then what happens? Does the adoption disrupt?" Adoption is about building relationships through good days and bad days, about loving one another for who we really are. It shouldn't be about pushing anybody into a pre-determined mold of "success."

So, yeah. I'm not in favor of the happy management-speak. Try to go with it understanding that it is a very complex form of human relationship, not a task that can be labeled "success" or "failure" at the end of every day.

[bunndel]

I am glad and thankful for this tread of messages about successful adoptions.
I have to say that in our case everything went so smooth that it was unbelievable. I always thought that I was going to find a brick wall and I never did. We started our process in Dec. 2007 (waiting list in our agency), so we actually started at the end of March, submitted our international dossier for Russia in early June, got our referral in September, met our 16 months old princess in October, broght her home November 25 2008. Great agency, great experience. I think the agency has a lot to do with the success and waiting time of the adoption process. Some agencies have only a few regions, some are more spread out so they get more referrals so the waiting time gets shorter.
Our Anastasia is a very resilient toddler, full of life and fits into our family perfectly. We have 3 bio sons ages 14, 11 and 8 and now our little beauty just turned 2. It's been a great experience, I feel so happy I can't even put in in words.
Everyone wanting to adopt... just go for it. If you inform yourselves, know what to expect, even the worst case scenarios, you will be able to handle the incredibly beautiful experience of adopting a child.
Good luck and keep in touch.
Daniela