International Adoption 101-The Process

Here's a brief overview of the international adoption process and an update on our progress.

The process begins with a home study conducted by a local adoption agency. This includes a family biography, photographs, home visit, adoption education and a collection of birth certificates, marriage certificates, tax returns, background checks and health forms. Next stop is the immigration process for approval to bring a foreign born child into this country.

The adoptive family then chooses a county and an international agency. Each country has different criteria for adoptive parents. Typical restrictions involve family size and parental age. Some countries allow singles to adopt, others don't.

At this point the wait for a child placement begins. Once a match is made, potential parents receive background and medical information along with a photo. The parents must decide if they are prepared to address the needs of the child chosen for them. If the match is successful, the parents approve the referral and the process continues. Acceptance papers are sent to the child welfare agency in the child's home country. Steps vary at this point but usually include approval of the family by the child welfare agency and court proceedings. Time frames for the process vary widely but seem to average from one to two years with longer waits for younger children.

All three of our adoptions have roughly followed this chain of events with one notable exception. Each of our girls was on a waiting child list with her respective agency. International agencies represent a group of children who are considered hard to place for reasons such as age, health concerns or being part of a sibling group. These children are put on a waiting child list and representatives from the agencies search for their forever families. Instead of waiting for a referral, qualified families can apply to adopt a particular child or children from a waiting child registry.

Luba, Lana and Laxmi Priya were all waiting children. They share a another key element in their history. Each of our girls was blessed to have people who served as the loving hands of God while they waited. These special people nurtured them and became their advocates long before we came into the picture.

In our current adoption we have received news from India that we have passed the scrutiny committee. This means our paperwork has been reviewed and all our documents are in order. The next step is for our case to be heard by a judge. If all goes well, he or she will grant us guardianship. In some countries the parents must be present for this process but in India it happens without us. When we adopted Luba, because she was 10 years old, she had to join us in court and be grilled by the judge about her decision to join our family. We’re glad we don’t have to experience that again. Our agency will notify us once our case has been heard by the judge and guardianship has been granted. This time our challenge is to wait patiently for the news...