IA- Anyone considered or adopted from Columbia?

Jenn is Silly

With all the craziness in Africa, DH and I have shifted our IA pursuits to South America.  I am really drawn to Columbias program, as it seems they have a solid system in place that is reputable and reliable.  Their wait is currently 2-3 years which both DH & I are comfortable with because their program seems so steady.

Has anyone considered/applied/or adopted from Columbia?   

happy_un-bride

I wasnt a part of their process, but my aunt adopted from Columbia just a couple years ago.  They have a 10 YO and everything is going well.  Definitely a great kid and is part of the family.

CaptainSerious

We seriously considered it originally.  The only thing that led us away was that we heard that since they are so good at placing babies, there weren't many older children available for adoption.  Since that was our aim, we looked elsewhere.

Many times during our process, I wished we had chosen the much more predictable and faster Colombian process, especially after I learned that they had plenty of waiting older children.

P.S.:  I'm not pointing it out to be nitpicky, but I didn't realize until someone pointed it out to me.  The country is spelled with two "o"s and no "u"s:  Colombia.

summergirl79

Considered it as well, but switched focus to DA so don't have much info to share- also thought it seemed like the most stable program in South America when we began looking at adoption....interested in any info you get from others so will be following this post! GL!!!

jackieo1309

We looked into a lot when we first starting researching adoption because we were definitely planning on IA. We've since switched to DA so I don't have too much info on it though...it did seem like one of the most stable SA programs and we were surprised about how inexpensive the programs seemed compared to a lot of other IA programs. I remember reading a few different places that they try to match AP's with a child based on the age of the AP's: younger AP's are matched with babies less than a year and older AP's are more likely to be matched with a toddler or older. I don't know that that's a hard and fast rule, it was just something that I read a few places. I think in the end it was the wait that made us decide not to pursue adoption there. We are definitely at the younger end of the AP spectrum and we were thinking that if they planned to match us with a younger child (some as young as 3 months) that it would be an average of 2.5-3 years. Since this is our first child, we're kind of ready to get things moving. Obviously we could end up with a long wait with DA too but at least we're not going into it knowing there's a 3 year wait, KWIM? We also worried that something would change politically within 3 years (unrelated to the adoption program) that would make it difficult or dangerous to travel there. Not that there is anything big going on right now, but a lot could change in three years. Just something that we thought about! Good luck!

moosegal

Just out of curiosity, for those who looked into the Colombia program, which agency were you looking at using?

jackieo1309

moosegal:

Just out of curiosity, for those who looked into the Colombia program, which agency were you looking at using?

I think we had looked at Children's Hope International (although I saw a lot of not-great reviews about them later...) and Spence-Chapin (who we are now using for our domestic homestudy).

silliestbunny

Colombia seems like a great country.  Alas their parenting age requirements are strict an to keep birth order in our family we would be too old to be considered for a child under three.  Bummer.

Being 39, only married for 6 years, and a cancer survivor rules me out of soooo many country's programs.  And then to try and preserve birth order,even with a 2-3 year wait narrows any IA programs down quite a bit for us.

kmkaull2

Friends of ours adopted their daughter from Colombia 3 years ago.  They used Lutheran Social Services.  The baby was 4 months old at referral and they traveled to get her 6 weeks later.  At the time, they were thrilled because they heard that babies that young were just not being referred often.  They were very pleased with the baby's care (with a wonderful foster family) and her development.

The biggest drawback for them was the long stay in-country.  They both elected to stay the whole 9 weeks because the climate in Bogota can be volatile.  They stayed at one guest house exclusively for adoptive parents and had to leave because there was a violent gun-fire fight across the street.  At their second guest house, there was a kitchen fire and they had to evacuate in the middle of the night.  They hired drivers and were able to travel some with the baby--she was in their custody after just a couple of days.

One thing I know they loved was that they got to meet the birth family.  Colombia is pretty open to allowing families to meet and spend time together.  I know that meant so much to our friends. 

My son's birth mom was adopted from an orphanage in Colombia.  We may consider the program in the future, but as a pp mentioned, their age restrictions will probably keep us away.

 

 

raecheleblue1

moosegal:

Just out of curiosity, for those who looked into the Colombia program, which agency were you looking at using?

We also seriously considered Colombia during our IA research.  I echo a lot of what jackieo said earlier.  The wait was probably our biggest reason we switched to DA.  But, we were considering Gladney and EAC as our agencies.  Gladney seemed to have a pretty stable program in Colombia, while EAC was newer in their program, but had a good reputation with those who had used them for other countries.  

bhead81

I did not know you were interested in Colombia.  My FIL has done a lot of humanitarian work down there for HD so if you do decide to go with them let me know as he has lots of knowledge and connections there. 

MayDayGirl

We dd but were told our youngest had to be 30 months before starting the process due to spacing

zaramarie81

Lurker here...

My hubby and I are currently expecting our first child but discussed IA before we married (we married 18 months ago). Colombia was his country of choice because one side of his family is from Bogota. I've done a lot of "g.oo.gling" over the past couple of years to try to better understand how adoption works with Colombia, and honestly, it has gotten to the point where I feel we'd need to sit down with an "expert" to get a better grasp on it and IA in general. I see similar-but-varying requirements listed for Colombian adoptions on various agency websites. It does look like the wait can be long depending on the circumstances (must be married at least 3 years if married and wanting a younger child - so for us, we haven't even met that requirement yet! Plus, the possible 2-3 year wait if you want to adopt an infant). Older parents, older children, children with special needs, sibling groups however have different factors at play. I am also trying to get clarity on whether or not we even CAN adopt a younger child from Colombia if we have more than one biological child, and if the sibling spacing requirements would allow us to squeeze under the age requirements - I am already in my 30's- etc, etc. ) Also, I just stumbled across one agency that implied that if you have Colombian heritage (we do), that that could change a lot - I am not sure what that means exactly, but it has me cautiously hopeful that maybe Colombia could be an option for us after all.

Also, from what I've read, Colombian orphanages do take wonderful care of the children and they are often very "adoption ready" which is great. I've seen so many pros for adopting there, and the cons seem to lie more in timing, individual situations/preferences, the possible wait etc. 

Soooo yeah... I'd recommend - if you're serious about getting started right now - contacting some agencies and sitting down to have questions answered about your specific situation. Best of luck! 

Jenn is Silly

Thanks everyone.  I really love the solidarity of their program, and from all of them they seem to just have the most organized system in play.  It would space our children out a little more then we had hoped, but if we start when E is 30 months, she'd be about 4 and a half/ 5 when we brought home her sibling.  Even with 4 years, it puts DH at 31, and me at 32, so we'd still qualify for an infant. 

We're going to start calling some agencies to request additional information/attend a webinar.  

Thanks for all the support!