[SABTeacher]

Hi,

My husband and I are considering adopting a child from Korea. I'm wondering if anyone would mind taking a minute to respond to the following questions:

1) If you have an agency you really liked, can you PM the info to me?

2) How long is it taking from the time you initiate until you have your baby? I heard it's a long time now.

3) What is the age range of the children available? Can you request a certain age?

4) What is the total cost for the adoption?

5) Generally, what is the health like of the children adopted from Korea?

Thanks so much!

[ahfdragonfly]

1) I have had a good experience with my agency, but they are only liscensed in NY, so no help there.

2) We were 9 mos from application to homecomming, this varies widely by agency, they should be upfront about wait times.

3) Healthy children are usually home between 5 - 10 mos, our request to Korea was worded as "under 1 year". Waiting children with minor special needs may be slightly younger, inorder to get them to medical treatment sooner, or slighlty older, as they are "waiting".

4) Total costs are right around $20,000, again, your agency should provide you with a breakdown of costs & time payments are due.

5) Heathly children are just that. Korean medical care is very similar to US care. And the children are so well loved by their foster families, that their emotional needs have been well met. Special needs can be anything from premature delivery with no obvious health problems, asthma, cleft palate, or any range of medical problems.

All in all, it was a great program, and I would recomend it to anyone considering international adoption.

Good luck!
Millie

[lisah32]

1) If you have an agency you really liked, can you PM the info to me?
Will pm you this.

2) How long is it taking from the time you initiate until you have your baby? I heard it's a long time now.
Agency #1 was almost exactly 1 year from initial application to arrival.
Agency #2 will be about 8-9 months from initial app to arrival.

3) What is the age range of the children available? Can you request a certain age?
You can request ages. For our first adoption we requested not to be over 12 months. This current adoption we said any age.

4) What is the total cost for the adoption?
Agency #1 was about $17,500
Agency #2 will be about $16,500

5) Generally, what is the health like of the children adopted from Korea?
Great. Korea is so over the top if they suspect anything with your child. They get awesome medical care.

Lisa

[cthy757]

I will PM you specifics for our agency...

We just brought home our second son from South Korea two weeks ago. We are EXTREMELY happy with our agency and would HIGHLY recommend them.

With our first son, our process from application to him coming home was exactly one year (2003). For our second son, the process was a little over 13 months.
Our first son came home a day before his five month birthday, and our second son came home at 5 and a half months old. Our total cost for the last adoption was close to $19K. As for the health of the children in Korea, their health care system is TOP NOTCH!!! In your application, you can specify what special needs (if any) you are open to. For both of our children, we received monthly "Well Baby Check Up" reports that noted vaccinations given, milestones reached, etc. Both of our sons came home with a COMPLETE medical file. Korea is the only country in the world of international adoption where it is NOT recommended that vaccinations be re-done. PM me with any other questions.

Cathy

[TropicA1A]

I will PM you

[JackHenryEmma]

My daugther just came home (2/21/06). She just turned 5 months. We turned in our initial application at the end of July 2005. We are working with The Barker Foundation in Besthda, MD and SWS in Korea. The cost is about $20,000. We were allowed to specify the age of child we wanted as less than 1 yr, full-term, and other health issues.

Julie