[sands]

I am sure these have been answered a million times before but I will give you our story & questions anyway!

We would like to begin our second adoption process in May/June of next year. We would like to go to Poland to adopt 2 children (any combination of genders is fine - we let God choose the children) ages 18 mos - 30 mos (basically 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 years old.) How feasible would it be in Poland to get children this age?

If you adopt two, do you have to get a sibling group? (Not opposed to it, just wondering what the rule on a double adoption was).

I am Polish. Hubby is not. I was born & raised (confirmed and all) Catholic, but am now a Christian in a non-denominational church. Though, my uncle is a Catholic Priest in Chicago.

How much should we budget for the process (from start to finish - travel & everything)? Our Russian adoption was 52K so no number will shock me.

How much medical information are you given about the children? In Russia, we got about 4 pages per child so I may be spoiled in that regard.

How much, if any, bio family info are you given? We were SHOCKED at how much info we got from Russia. I even have a home mailing address for one **. WOW!

How long is the Poland process? Less than 2 years? We did 19 months for our other and that wasn't too bad (considering some stories I've heard)

(BTW... I don't compare countries for any other reason than I know only one adoption process and have nothing else to compare to.)

What agencies are recommended (i know you have to PM me for this answer due to board rules and I am cool with that)?

How does the referral process work?

Do you deal with government close-downs or freezes like in Russia?

Are there agency accreditation issues like in Russia?

Lots of questions and I cannot find a lot of answers. I need to present hubby with all at once.

Any help anyone can give me would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

[Mom2_4]

I know that some of your questions were answered in this thread "Agency Advice-Huminska or St. Mary's?"

Many other are discussed and basically answered in these threads on this forum:

"public adoption center"

"Matching Children with Parents"

"Just Starting Out"

But in my limited experience, the ages/number of the children you are hoping to adopt are generally adopted by the Poles living in Poland if both children are relatively healthy.

[Mom2Jack]

We are researching Poland as well and have those same questions. We also completed a Russian adoption before. It took us just over 2 years-a long process with many ups and downs. We have been home 12 weeks and will start our next one Feb of next year. We feel a bit brainwashed in that the Russian process took so long, we would like to get a jump on this next one.....

Any and all adice is appreciated!
Katie

[jessipea]

Although many children are a little older, it is not impossible to get younger children. You have a lot of good qualities that the Polish government would say was in you favor. I think age and number of biological children can also play a role. We are asking for 2-3 children under the age of five, with preferably one in that 18-30month age range.

We are feeling very hopeful!

Jess

[LisArno]

We also asked for 2-3 children, five years old and under. We're leaving Thursday to meet our three children - 10 (while we're there on Monday!), 4 (just missed that b-day), and 3 in November. We've waited two years. We were told about five other sibling groups before accepting these children (only one of those was an 'official' referral, the others were 'would you consider...'). The day we sent in our dossier, we were asked to consider three young boys under the age of 5. We said no because I wanted at least one girl. Two of the groups were all older than our range, one of the groups were "four little ones" (don't know ages, but we couldn't take four), and the other group I have no info on other than three children.

So, three little ones are possible, but the wait could be long.

[sands]

We will see what happens. I am not opposed to a 2 year wait. It's what adoption is all about - a super duper long labor but without the stretch marks! Ha!

I talked to hubby last night about all of your wonderful PMs and posts (thank you, one & all). He said he couldn't even consider 3 children (we already have 2 boys - 26mos & 22mos.) - though I would have snatched that 4,2,1 three boy referral in a heartbeat (can you imagine FIVE boys in one house - HOW FUN & CHOATIC all in one!!!!)

We are debt free and paid cash for the last adoption (leaving us a little cash poor in savings) and we want to make sure we have college funds started for these two before beginning the next (expensive) process.

I just can't decide if I want 2 more boys or if I want to try my parenting skills on a girl (can I handle the drama and the ponytails????) LOL

Good luck to all in the process currently. I am jealous, believe me. It is a crazy but totally excited time!!! Our Russian experience was INSANE but now that I am on this side I would sooooooo do it all again!!!

If we do sign on for round two, I am certain we will go with Poland. And if God chooses older children, then so be it! They all need homes and we all have a responsibility to take care of those who were left behind.

God bless everyone on this board. Thank you again for all of the info, the PMs and posts and the encouragement!

[momraine]

I think if you are willing to wait and willing to take 2 and possibly a little older Poland is great for you, and being Polish helps you too! I am not Polish, or Catholic, but I am adopting a special needs child, so I am in a different situation. We too had a long drawn out process in Russia. Things seem to run better in Poland, I mean it might take a long time,but it's not as abitrary and there seems to not be the issue of bribes and the rules are more the same from region to region. The time in country is another issue though that you will have to consider when the time comes. You could possibly be in the country for as long as 8 weeks and that's a long time to leave other children behind. I am hoping that the time will be shorter and we are making a preliminary meet and greet trip, in hopes that it will shorten the real trip. I think a lot of people were able to do it in two shorter trips, but you can't count on being able to keep those trips short and some orphanages want you to stay between trips and care for the child, so one of you may need to stay longer. Anyway, good luck!

[danord9]

Good morning everyone!

My husband and I are just starting out in the adoption process. We have been doing lots of research and have contacted several agencies about adopting in Poland. All of them have made it sound so easy and I was wondering if I could get some feed back from anyone willing to tell us how it really works. We too, have talked to St. Mary’s as well as a few others and would just like to hear about other couple’s experiences.

My husband is from Poland and speaks the lang. I have been learning along the way. We are hoping to adopt siblings, under the age of 6-7, what are our chances?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, we are very excited about this and very over whelmed at the same time. You can email me at danord9@hotmail.com.

Thanks so much, Dawn

[Jasiu]

I am sending you an email, Dawn.

Originally Posted by danord9

Good morning everyone!

My husband and I are just starting out in the adoption process. We have been doing lots of research and have contacted several agencies about adopting in Poland. All of them have made it sound so easy and I was wondering if I could get some feed back from anyone willing to tell us how it really works. We too, have talked to St. Mary’s as well as a few others and would just like to hear about other couple’s experiences.

My husband is from Poland and speaks the lang. I have been learning along the way. We are hoping to adopt siblings, under the age of 6-7, what are our chances?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, we are very excited about this and very over whelmed at the same time. You can email me at danord9@hotmail.com.

Thanks so much, Dawn

[LisArno]

Dawn - I'll PM you the same info I've sent others who have recently asked about Polish adoptions.

[WaitingInNC]

If only we knew what it was it depended on.

I'm "celebrating" (sarcasm) my one year
"wait-aversary". The papers have been in Poland a year now.

There have been a couple of offfers of children with health issues that were more than I felt I could take on.


Karen

A clue to the answer to the question I know someone will ask: I'm using an agency in my home state...

[Mom2_4]

K,

I know it won't make you feel much better, but from the day we wrote the first check until the day we came home with our three Polonia, it was a solid two years. Our paperwork was in Poland for well over a year when we got our second and relatively healthy (what a relative term that is) referral.

We wanted school aged and had asked for a brother and sister and we were open to two sister and a brother. And when we went into the process, everyone said that three would be no wait at all.

We brought home 2 boys and a girl. Ages 3.5, 5.5, and 7. We took who we could handle, but they weren’t exactly what we has expected or asked for.

A clue to who we used is the entity that does roughly half of the adoptions from the U.S. to Poland .

The waiting absolutely stinks. And looking at my kid’s paperwork after I had them home and had a fluent friend translate stuff, if people (over there) had moved with any sort of speed besides glacial, we could have had them home at least 6 months earlier. That is the part that frustrates me the most.

But I feel your pain sister. I remember that dark place all too well.