[saraluckys]

My husband and I are in Okinawa Japan. A friend of the families has decided to give her baby boy up for adoption, and since we cannot have children, she asked us if we would like to adopt him. I have never even thought of this before so I dont know what the first step would be? We are in Okinawa and the baby boy is back in the states. Is it harder to do from over here? Whats the first step I should take? I just need a few answers... Thank you all!!

[newmommyneedshelp]

It shouldn't be too hard since it's a private adoption and you won't need a home study. I'd try base legal as a first step...I know that they handle adoption stuff for babies that are surrendered at the Naval Hospital at Lester.

We looked into adopting while in Okinawa and couldn't find anyone willing to travel to do a homestudy for us (attempting to adopt fo Guatemala at the time)

Good Luck!

[Linny]

It's been many years ago (1980/1982) that we adopted two infants while living on Okinawa, Japan. One child was born in Korea, the other on island.
At that time, there was only one adoption agency on the entire island which had American and Okinawan caseworkers. We worked with both. As I recall, the agency was closer to the Navy Hospital Base then. Seems like the name was something like International Social Agency Okinawa (ISAO).
I'd check with your base legal; and, as far as I remember, you WILL need to have a homestudy conducted. At that time, even though both babies were born overseas, we still had to satisfy the criteria for our 'state of residency' as well as the local courts. Not entirely sure how that works when the baby will be born stateside.
Please feel free to pm me if I can be of any help to you. I realize it was a long time ago, but we were also involved with others who adopted while living on Okinawa as well.
My best to you...

Sincerely,

Linny