[watermelon0719]

Hello! My husband and I are not new to the world of adoption (in fact, we were in the process of adopting last year when our agency made us stop because we got very unexpectedly pregnant), but I do have a question about minority infant adoption. Currently we are looking into requesting a baby girl, since our (small) agency does allow gender requests and we have a biological son. Our agency coordinator says that in spite of this, our wait would only be 4-6 months after we submit our birthparent profile and complete our classes. I am having some trouble believing this statistic, because I have read in lots of places that requesting gender during a domestic adoption would delay our adoption significantly.
Has anyone here requested gender, and if so, what was your wait like? Does the 4-6 month wait sound suspect to you?
Thank you!

[alicia hunter]

from my understanding, the process is a little faster with minority children due to............for lack of a better phrase, supply and demand. The amount of white infants requested is more than the amount of minority children requested. Basically, from what I understand, the "list" is shorter so things move faster.

[jennmomtothree]

I would agree.

We never specified gender, but our longest process (including homestudy/update) was 3 months. SO, that 4-6 month range might be quite accurate. There's never a guarantee, but I'd prepare myself for a fast ride if I were you...

[DebCsMom]

Typically a PBMom does not know the gender of her child. Requesting a girl generally takes longer than a boy. Being open to race DOES help though! The more open you are to things, the quicker your match will be.

We asked to be shown only to PBMom who were having boys. At the time we had 4 girls & one son. (at the time we had guardianship of a girl who is now moved out & in the Army. ) We understood that by specifying a gender our wait would take longer. HOWEVER...we wanted an AA boy so it did go pretty fast. We were matched in a matter of weeks & our son born a few weeks after that.

It also depends on how small your agency is, the race your are open to, your budget, etc.

GOOD LUCK!!

Deb

[watermelon0719]

Thanks ladies! We are open on just about everything else except the gender. Race does not matter to us, we are open to an older infant who was parented for a while, etc. I guess it will be faster than I had thought!

[joskids]

We specified a girl but we were matched very quickly (3 months, maybe). We're an interracial couple so I think that did help a bit.

[jaenelle]

We were open to either gender, AA or biracial, and our wait was just over 2 months. I don't think that's an unreasonable wait time at all.

[traceyk]

We were open to either and had a choice of three babies and that was after only having been waiting 2 weeks!

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by watermelon0719

Has anyone here requested gender, and if so, what was your wait like? Does the 4-6 month wait sound suspect to you?
Thank you!

I didn't specify gender but I adopted two daughters as infants. The first in 1998 was a 6 month wait. The second in 2005 was no wait at all. So I don't doubt that you could have a baby placed with you rather quickly. It depends on the area you live in. Large, urban areas usually have more babies availabe for adoption than smaller, rural areas.

[jaenelle]

Originally Posted by Kat-L

I didn't specify gender but I adopted two daughters as infants. The first in 1998 was a 6 month wait. The second in 2005 was no wait at all. So I don't doubt that you could have a baby placed with you rather quickly. It depends on the area you live in. Large, urban areas usually have more babies availabe for adoption than smaller, rural areas.

We live in a rural area and chose to go with an out-of-state agency with many offices in large cities for that reason.

[traceyk]

BTW, kati and i used the same agency

[RainStorm]

Mixed race and Minority children are classed as special needs. From what I have read the waiting list is far shorter and typically even cost less then that for a white infant/toddler. So you probably will get a child quickly even more that you willing to take a kid thats a bit older then newborn infant.