IA question regarding choosing country

mrs.goget

At what point did you choose the country and why did you choose it?  I am still researching agencies and I don't understand if I should limit my search by a country I have already chosen, or meet with different agencies and then choose the country.

 Sorry if I come on here and my questions come across as "dumb", but soaking all of this information in is just not as easy as saying I've made the decision to adopt.

DAT1205

Hi .... first of all, no such thing as a dumb question on this board we will answer any and all questions to the best of our knowledge and experience.

That having been said.......we have been matched with a little boy in Korea and we choose Korea for a few reasons.

1.  DH is Asian and we knew that was the area in which we wanted.....then we narrowed it down between China and Korea....

2.  We ultimately chose Korea because the wait in China is soo long 3 1/2 years.

3.  Korean children are in individual foster homes where as chinese children are in orpanages.

We are sooo glad that we chose Korea. It just takes alot of research and thought to what will fit perfectly with your family.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

 

 

 

CaptainSerious

I, personally, am a huge proponent of picking your country first.  Some agencies have really good programs with one country, but don't have the same established relationships with others, so they might not be the best choice if you go with a country other than the one or two for which they are known.  Also, some countries only work with a few agencies, but still might be an awesome fit for your family.

The US Department of State's website lists the requirements to adopt from each country (https://snipurl.com/2patx), which can help you narrow it down.  Once you've made your country choice, you'll need to find an agency that has a program specializing in adoptions from that country.  The yahoo group "Adoption Agency Research" is a phenomenal resource for vetting agencies.  It is dedicated to giving honest feedback on agencies.  You can ask about the agencies you are interested in directly, and also search their archives and files.

Feel free to ask us anything, and GOOD LUCK!!!

noonecarewhoiam

 Ditto SC, with one addition:

 In light of the rapdily changing environment in IA, I wold also make sure I selected an agency with more than 1 coutry program in which I was interested. That way, if a country closes or changes requirements drastically, you can switch without losing a lot fo time or money.

Ranita

I too am a huge advocate of choosing your country or countries first and then finding the agency that best suits your needs as a family.  The reason that I feel this way is that the adoption journey is full of so many emotions, twists and turns and unknowns.  It's nice along the way to be forming a picture in your mind of what your future family will look like as well as using some of the down time to learn language or cultural things.

I also echo what DAT said in evaluating some standards once you know what countries you feel drawn to.  My DH is from Colombia and when we discovered that his heritage made it easier for us to adopt from there we compared it against any other country that we felt drawn to in terms of cost, care given to the children etc, and the original country choice stood.

Welcome to the board and keep asking questions

silliestbunny

Agreeing w/PPs.

Figure out your personal criteria....and then narrow countries. 

We ended up choosing to do a DA, we initially started down the IA path.   At first, I only knew of countries with large programs.  After some digging, we found that Armenia would have been the "right" country for us.  We would have never considered Armenia if we hadn't spent time looking at all the country options.

 

Good luck.

ksmeg78

I agree with the others that it is best to choose your country first. However, I would also choose an agency with at least a couple countries. I know some people who chose an agency who only does China and the wait times have increased drastically for them since they started, but they can't really switch countries without losing a lot of money and starting over. For us, we were actually initially interested in Ethiopia because I thought I want an infant and at that time it was a newer program that seemed really great. But as we were researching and praying and considering, we decided we wanted to do a sibling group. Colombia has a great sibling group program and also I ended up deciding I really wanted a hague country and a country that had a pretty established program. It can be a real pain at times, but I take some comfort in the regulations that are there. My husband also has a strong Spanish background and we are really glad it's a little bit closer for when we want to take the kids back to see their birth country, though those are just added bonuses, not the reason we chose the country.