[Justhavfaith]

Good Morning Everyone, My husband and I are currently adopting a little boy from Guatemala. We are in the last stages of that adoption and seeking information on our future number two. One of the countries that we are considering is Panama. However, I know very little about the process and I'm not having luck finding info on-line.

I've found that there are few agencies that work in Panama and I have so many questions.

What do you recommend as our first step in information gathering? Should I contact an agency first?

We are interested in things like timeframe, cost, travel, gender selection, care of the child etc....

Any direction that you can provide me would be greatly appreciated.

I should add that our current agency does not have a Panama program.

[gallagherclan]

I have a little bit of information as I also was not able to get much and then decided to adopt from China. But we are probably going to do a second adoption and that will be Panama I think. You can google search for Panama Adoption and see if any other agencies have gotten their program going. Good luck in your search. And do let me know how things go or if you have any other questions I might be able to answer for you.

Linda G.
Best husband in the world! Joshua
DD bio Hannah 3
DS bio Jonah 1
DS or DD somewhere in China....
DTC 10/31/06

[beejay]

I have the email from the above reply if you can pm me your personal email address I can forward it to you. It give you all the info about the adoptions and the price.

[lsworan]

We are in the process of finalizing our adoption from Panama. I can give you our experience; however, everyone seems to have a little different experience with Panama. Panama has a Director of National Adoptions that all paperwork must go through. You submit your dossier and there is no exact wait time for a child placement. Children are to have their parental rights terminated (TPR) prior to referral and the DNA takes care of that. Sometimes, you will be shown a child to see if you are interested prior to TPR being complete (however, I don't know if that is a standard process.) Once the TPR is complete and referral is accepted, a court date is scheduled. Again there is not a specific timeline, you do not always have to appear in court; however, some judges require you to appear. You will be given either temporary custody or permanent custody. With temporary custody, you can travel back to the US. Permanent custody will then happen around 1 year later and you might have to travel back for permanent custody court appearance. Embassy takes anywhere from 10 days to 3 weeks. During our trip last year, the Embassy was a 10 day process. We did not travel for court and we waited until all the documents were complete from the court prior to traveling. We were granted temporary custody and are still waiting for the final court information on whether we have to travel back to Panama or not. But we got to bring our son home, so the waiting is worth it. Everything in Panama is done with the best interest of the child in mind, but the processes can take along time to terminate parental rights and get court dates set up. Our process from referral to court date was 5 months with 2 weeks in Panama. The time for a referral varies greatly depending upon availability of children and how many dossier's are ahead of yours. Age of the children also vary and of course older children have sometimes shorter wait times. We were told expect 2 years and be surprised if it is shorter. We used Faith International for our adoption. Our son was 16 months are referral and 20 months when we brought him home.

The orphanges in Panama are more like houses and do not have hundreds of children. The children seem to be well loved and cared for. Our son's orphange held around 30 children with alot of caregivers. He is very well adjusted and received alot of love and affection from the caregivers. That is a very strong point for Panama.

I believe that everything above is the correct process, but things sometimes change. It is best to talk to an agency or attorney that has completed more than 1 adoption through Panama for current details. Be careful on what you are told. The process is not a short one and you probably won't receive a child under 1 year (TPRs and court dates take time). But the process was definitely worth it.
If you want more information, let me know.

[mhpro]

Laurie! Thanks for sharing. It was nice to hear from someone that went through the process. We are also adopting from Panama. Just waiting on I171h so we can send off our dossier. Hopefully it will be in the next few weeks! How long did you wait from submission of dossier for a referral? I'm trying to be patiently optimistic, but I"ve read so many different things about the wait. Also, I've read that you have to be "approved" by DNA. What does that mean and how long does it take?

Thanks again for sharing!!!
michelle