[miracleformom]

HI, I AM NEW HERE. CAN ANYONE GIVE ME INFORMATION ON THE LIFE ADOPTION AGENCY AND ST. MARY'S INTERNATIONAL. I WOULD LIKE THE GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD EXPERIENCES. WE ARE LOOKING TO ADOPT A LITTLE GIRL FORM RUSSIA OR BULGARIA. YOU CAN PM ME AND I WILL GIVE YOU MY E-MAIL. ALSO ANY ADVICE ON WHICH COUNTRY IS EASIER?

[armurph]

Good luck on starting your journey! My husband and I have finally chosen the country and agency after alot of research. Two great websites to start are the Inter Country Adoption Registry (icar.org) and Mary Mooney's website The Adoption Guide (adoptionguide.org). You can research complaints as well as information on actual adoptions by agency and/or by country.
The Adoption Guide also has helpful links to BBB and state/govt webistes to do further research.

[armurph]

I gave the wrong website, it is theadoptionguide.com -

[miracleformom]

ARMURPH
THANKS FOR THE GREAT SITES. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY!

[Annette2004]

Hi!
I'm new here.Does any one know any good Adoption agencies for international and domestic adoption.
I would appreciate that.
Thanks!

[PHYLLYDOLL]

Hi, I am also new to this forum, but have really enjoyed reading. We are working with St. Mary's International. We are currently working on our home study and dossier. They have been great. We are adopting from the Ukriane. We started the paper work in Oct. 2003. Our homestudy should have been completed and dossier sent off by now but my state has had problems reading my finger prints. This is ofcourse no fault of the agency. They have been good about answering any question and guiding us through. We also had questions about the different options and countries available to us. They gave us all of our options and we decided on the Ukraine. I spoke with a couple who adopted from Poland thru SMI and were very happy with everything. The adoptions was very smooth and they were happy. The agency has been good to give us names and numbers of couples we could call and speak to, first getting the couples permission of course. We have been disappointed to find out even today that the time frame we were looking at at the beginning of this process looks to have changed due to the ever changing climate in the country. Anyway, good luck to you. I think you will find this formum very helpful and most of all encouraging.
Phyllis

[hjdeth]

Phyllis,
Having adopted from Ukraine in 9/01, 11/02, and 11/03 and currently very active helping other families with their adoptions, I can tell you that the Ukrainian adoption timeframe hasn't changed significantly over the past 15+ months. It is currently running about 10-14 months from start of homestudy to travel to Ukraine, depending on how long a family takes from start to dossier submission and if there are problems with the initial dossier.

Possibly, your agency mis-informed you last October or is having delays within their own program...like suddenly more families than their Ukrainian translators can handle in a timely fashion. Both can happen.

What were you expecting to be your adoption timeframe?

[PHYLLYDOLL]

Hannah:
Thank you so much for you reply. We were told when we started this process that we would be able to travle by March. I think you are entirely right that the agency has more than they can process, although they have not said that. I have been happy with the agency and feel it will be completed ok. I guess we just had unreal expectations due to their communication to begin with.

Could you please give me some details about your adoption experience in the Ukraine. It sounds like you have certainly paid your dues!

We are so excited first of all about adopting a child, but the more we get into it the more attached we feel to the children of the Ukraine. If you could email me directly and share some pictures of your travel and the children it would be greatly appreciated. I have searched and searched for pictures of the Ukrainian children and understand that it is illegal for agencies to post children, which is fine, but seeing a face just makes it seem more real.(phyllydoll@aol.com) Thanks again.

[adoptionquest]

www.frua.org is another site that has a chat board where you can ask about agencies