Adoption in Perú?-- and intro

FamiliaGreen

Hello!

I have been lurking on here for a while and have finally decided to introduce myself. I was adopted as an infant through DIA, and have always thought about adopting myself. 

When I was in college I lived in Per? for a year (I am fluent in Spanish) and had the opportunity to spend my school vacations at different orphanages around the country. Through that I have really felt compelled to adopt a child from Per?.

I know that it will be a while before DH and I are eligible (I am only 23 and DH is 26) but I was wondering if anyone on this board had maybe adopted from Peru or know of agencies that work in Peru as it seems like there aren't many agencies that work with the country.

TIA and I look forward to getting to you know all! 

silliestbunny

Welcome

 We have a regular poster that has adopted from Peru....   she should respond

kellyrn9956

Welcome! I am new to the process, so don't have much advice. But wanted to say hi!

CaptainSerious

Hi! Silliest is talking about me!  I adopted my oldest son from Peru in July 2010, when he was 7, and my youngest just this past March, at age 5.

I have a lot to say about adopting from Peru, but the jist of it is that the process is run very ethically for the most part, but as a result it is very slow and arduous.  Also, as an American, you have very little chance of receiving a match of a child that is not on the waiting list (more about this below).  In addition, the fact that you've spent time in Peru and in their orphanages does not mean that you will have any advantage in the process, unfortunately.  Even after having adopted a Peruvian child who needed immediate heart surgery and illustrating that he was healthy and thriving, we did not get any special consideration the second time around and we had to jump through new, additional hoops in the process.

All that being said, I'm sure you are as compelled as we were to go through the process anyway.  Here's some information about why we chose the country and the general process (some of which I'm sure you already know):

We started our first process in 2008, and at that point, we hadn't yet been to Peru, but we had been to Argentina and Chile, and fell in love. Neither of those countries really have international adoption programs to speak of, so we started investigating other South American countries that do.

What we found was that Peru is a very poor nation in which many families simply cannot support their children. There are many older children for adoption there, many of whom have lived with their families for some time, because their parents cannot take care of them any longer. It's heartbreaking; often the children are relinquished after one parent dies and the surviving parent can no longer manage to support the entire family alone. There are also many "street children" in Peru who do their best to work and scavenge to get by on their own.

Further research showed us (and our experience proved) that Peru is very serious about ensuring the welfare of these children. They are a Hague country, and their process is long and rigorous, but it's because they want to make sure that:

1) the children are definitely free for adoption; and

2) the families that adopt them are capable of providing homes in which they will flourish.

The orphanages in Peru are very child-developmentally centered. We vacationed in Peru in November 2008, and got the chance to visit one ourselves. What we saw then and when we adopted M supported all the claims, and we are very comforted to know that the children live in a safe, clean, warm environments while in care there. They provide age-and ability-appropriate education for the children, and do the best to help them overcome delays and unacceptable behaviors.

The process is a long one. After the typical homestudy and CIS approval, our dossier was sent to Peru, translated, and submitted to the agency in charge of adoptions. When we applied the first time, it was taking 6-9 months for our application to be approved. In most cases applicants are asked to provide more information, which, of course, extends the process. Only AFTER the application is approved, do families begin waiting for a referral. My understanding is that Peru tries hard not to refer a child to a family outside of what the family has stated it believes it can handle, so we aren't really worried about being referred a child beyond our capabilities.

As an alternative to waiting for a referral, families may also select a child from the Waiting Angels list (this is what we did both times). You may request a child at the same time as applying to adopt, and that will speed up the time it takes to issue a determination on your application (approve/ask for more information (most common the first time)/deny) significantly. We did this the second time, and it still took them six months for us to be granted the match, but the first determination was given to us in 2.5 months.

The Waiting Angels list is broken down into several sections: children over 5 years of age; sibling groups in which at least one child is over 8 years of age; children awaiting medical diagnosis; children with medical issues; and children with mental illnesses or delays. Peru is trying to get as many children on the Waiting Angels list as possible, to expedite their adoptions. As a result, children on the list could range from having something fairly mild/correctable to severe disabilities and/or illnesses. (As I mentioned, our older son needed cardiac surgery, but now that he's had it, he's a healthy, normal kid.  My younder son has a genetic condition known as NF1, which requires annual monitoring and might possibly turn into something more serious down the line, but in most cases doesn't affect a person's life too significantly.)

Once a family accepts a referral, they travel to Peru. After a week or two of spending time with our child, they are granted custody. Within another week or more, the Peruvian authorities process the adoption. After that point, the adoption is internationally legal, and one parent (of two parent families) is free to return home. They other (or both) must stay with the child in Peru until they are granted a visa from the US Embassy and can return home together. The total time in country is about 6 weeks, give or take.  We were able to return home in only a month the second time.  As much as I love Peru, it's not the time to while away in-country when you want to return home and start the bonding process (not to mention all the doctor's visits and getting them to start learning English!).

More things you may want to know:

The Peruvian adoption system is designed to give priority to Peruvian families (including those living abroad), then mixto families (families in which at least one parent is Peruvian), and finally other international families. As a result, most very young children/infants are referred to Peruvian and sometimes mixto families, especially if those children are healthy. Also, the Peruvian authorities seem to have an unofficial preference for Italian and Spanish families, because of longstanding relationships and similar cultures.

To make matters even more difficult, the Peruvian authorities have also expressed their belief that American families ?only want healthy babies.? Since this isn?t possible given the reasons above, the Peruvian authorities have drastically reduced the number of direct referrals they make to American families. This is somewhat complicated.

The way the Peruvian system works is this: once a child is finally declared abandoned and available for adoption, the Peruvian authorities try to match him with a family that?s approved and awaiting a referral However, they don?t consider all approved families, as it?s largely a paper-based system. If they can?t place the child within the first month (or sometimes two months), the child is listed on the Waiting Angels list, and their file can be requested by any interested family. If the family feels the child is a match, they may request to parent that child. The Peruvian authorities then review the files and decide whether or not to make the referral. Most often, provided they believe the family has the resources to provide for the child?s needs, they do make the referral and the adoption can proceed.

Given this, the Peruvian authorities do not understand why American families?who frequently insist that they are open to older/special needs children?do not request to parent children on the Waiting Angels list more frequently. I have several theories on this, and am working with my agency and the orphanage director from my son?s orphanage to try to help more waiting and approved American families feel confident about adopting children on the list. Most significantly, the list only includes the very briefest description of the child?s diagnosis or needs. In order to know more, you have to get the file, translate it, and evaluate it. Often, if a child only had mild needs, a family would request to parent them before we ever got through the translation phase. Eventually, we found an amazing native-Spanish-speaking doctor who specialized in international adoptions and enabled us to skip the translation phase. Between my rudimentary Spanish and Google Translate, we were able to have enough of an idea of what the file contained to know if we wanted him to provide a deeper evaluation. That, and the fact that we knew he would give us an honest, no-bs answer as to the child?s risk regarding not only health issues but also attachment difficulties, helped immensely.

But to be honest, it?s scary as all get-out to request a specific kid, any kid, just based on a file. While Peru does it?s absolute best to give to all the information it possibly can (and you can ask for more, and even more tests, if you pay for them), it?s still just a file. You have no idea what the kid is really like or if you can handle his/her needs. It?s the hugest, most scary leap of faith I?ve ever taken in my life, and I?m sure that in the end, that?s what?s keeping most families from going this route.

Another thing you may run into is that the Peruvian authorities may have trouble understanding why someone who can have biological children would want to adopt, because they culturally place such a high value on family ties. The first time we adopted, they asked us what our ?phobias? were regarding biological children because we never tried to conceive. We found it highly insulting, but now we understand that they needed something, anything to ask us (because that?s just what they do, as I explained above), and that was all they could come up with because we didn?t leave anything unanswered in our dossier.

Some other things you may want to consider: to adopt from Peru, you have to adopt through an agency approved by Peru. There are only a handful; if one is in your state, you have to use them, if not, you can pick. Some of the agencies only place children on the Waiting Angels list; if one of these is in your state, I?m not sure if you?d have to use them or if you could work with another that also accepts direct referrals. Also, just to give you a ballpark figure, our adoptions cost about $40,000-50,000, when counting every expense (including compiling documents, express mailing fees, agency and government fees, and travel), although you could probably do it cheaper (we expeditied and overnighted everything).

Also please research whatever agency you plan on using very thoroughly.  I'm very wary of one very established agency that processes the most US-Peruvian adoptions in particular, as it doesn't seem to always stick to the most ethical practices.

As I'm sure you konw, culturally, Peruvians truly adore children. They want the best for them, and as a result the process is long and difficult. They see that as the best way to protect their most precious. It?s long, trying, and in the end, so worth it!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime. I still check in here from time to time, but you can usually find me for certain at https://pandce.****/index.cgi?board=adoption

CaptainSerious

Hello?  Is there anyone out there?  Is thiss thing on?