I know we haven't been waiting that long. It's only been two months. Some days, it feels like FOREVER. Especially when I know there are children waiting in foster homes.

How long did you wait to be matched with your child/ren?

We are hoping to adopt a healthy child, any race. either gender, aged 2-9. We have no children, but have parenting experience, I have three siblings under the age of 12.

You can send it to me if you want. I have had no trouble finding kids online that I am interested in, but we haven't been matched with any of them.

I have to remind myself that it hasn't been that long!

[Barksum]

For our first adoption the homestudy was done within 2 1/2 months. We started looking in Jan of 2000 and were matched in Sept. Our new son moved in Oct. 2000; total wait was about 9 months.
Our second adoption we only had to update our homestudy. We began looking in Oct 2001, then had to suspend pursuing adoption for about 6 months while we had our foster sons. When we began again we started in June of 2002 and were matched in Sept 2002, newest son moved in Oct 2002. Total wait was technically a year, but we had suspended searching for 1/2 that time, so about 5 months for the second adoption.

I have heard that our wait was "short" but it did seem pretty long to us. I know one family who was matched about 2 weeks after they completed their homestudy. Another family may wait years. Depends on 1) your family dynamics 2) ages/needs of children you are willing to work with and 3) how motivated your cw is to place children. There are a few other factors, but those are the biggies.

I did find that eating chocolate, remodelling, reading adoption and child development books, and fairly frequent "dates" with my DH did help to pass the time. Somewhat!

[Dianna]

We waited 3 months for our first match and 18 months for our second. The problem with our second search and referral period was that our son was 6 and we wanted kids younger than him. What was happening was that foster parents were adopting the younger kids and we were fost/adopt. We also had a placement fall through over a period of a year. The third time I found the child and the county waited while we completed our homestudy and foster license (this took 4 months). I had waited a couple of years while my husband got to the point that he was ready to adopt again.

We also had many problems with the second placement because by the time 18 months had passed we were going to take any placement that there was no reason to say no. There was no apparent problems but I did feel scared. My intuition turned out to be correct. Best of luck to you. It will happen.

[Kena]

We were matched with our daughter (14 y/o, biracial) in 4 months -- our homestudy was completed in July 2001, and we met her in November 2001. She is scheduled to move in at the end of this month (1 year and 7 months later!). Our agency has a very gradual transition program, but our visits took much longer for a couple of reasons. First our daughter decided after 7 months of visiting that she did not want to be adopted, then contacted us 6 months later to say she had changed her mind. We began visiting again, but things didn't move as quickly as we'd hoped due to paperwork snafu's, and it got so close to the end of the school year, that it didn't make sense to move her until the end of this month.

However, during the 6 months between visiting, two agencies wanted us for two other girls, and we were all but matched with a 13 y/o, when our daughter re-initiated contact. Our wait seems short compared to some others I have read about (although it sure felt long), but we were very open to an older child (early teens), looked only at black and biracial kids, and were flexible in terms of special needs -- so we didn't have too many other families inquiring on many of the girls we inquired on.

I know how hard the waiting is, but it will happen. Just hang in there.

I know I'm just being impatient. It will happen. I like reading other people's match stories.

I did find that eating chocolate, remodelling, reading adoption and child development books, and fairly frequent "dates" with my DH did help to pass the time.

that made me laugh!

[kmalay]

We were matched 3 months after our approvals were in place, but it fell apart because the foster family decided to adopt them at the last minute. From there it was another 5 months before we were matched again and then we were match with a couple of situations all at the same time. I have been told that if you are looking at straight adoption vs foster to adopt you could be looking at approx. a year. I am proud to say though that we are just waiting for a TPR to occure in the next few months and then we will be the proud parents of two boys. Best wishes

[Sylvester]

HI, we are the parents of two right now. We had been looking to adopt a child younger than 5. Well, the first child we are taking is a 17 year old girl. She will have her first overnight this weekend. We apparently impressed the caseworker so much she presented us with a 4 month old baby boy. This will be our first boy!!! We have read his case file and spoke with his foster mom. We will meet him on Sat. I would have never thought we would be in this situation, but it feels so right to us.

Mommy to Rose-5
Elsye-2
soon to be mommy to Marie-17
and Ethan-4 months

[Darci]

We began our homestudy on Feb 14, 2003 all steps were completed and we were officially approved on April 9. On April 10 we were "offered" a 3 year old boy but had to turn him down due to issues we weren't prepared to deal with.
On May 20 we got a call about a 3 year old girl that needed to be removed from her current pre-adoptive placement that day and they wanted her in a new potential adoptive placement by that night. 6 1/2 hours after that call, our beautiful, healthy (physically and emotionally) daughter moved in with us.

[Rainbow mom]

Our four requests were filled within 6 months of the completion of our homestudy. Have faith and hope. Do all of the things around your house that you would have to do anyway, clean the garage, attic etc. Once the kid(s) are there you will want to spend maximum time with them.